A Series Of Unfortunate Events

After much anticipation and waiting, I've finally gotten my own Corgi!!! The journey before, towards and after getting it however hasn't been smooth sailing at all.

I was out to meet my colleagues for coffee before work on Friday when i noticed a humongous zit seated nicely beside my left nostril. After enduring the teasing and 'advise' from my colleagues to pop it, i realized that i had another problem. An ulcer right on my upper lips. Sigh... no use popping it liao, get rid of one will still have another one, somemore the other one i cannot do anything about. =(

Then after work we went to an acquaintance's place for mahjong and that's when i started to feel the backaches. Initially i thought nothing of it but as the game progressed it got worse and distracted me from the game. I gave up after one round and took flight. Now, normally i take hot showers and that day was no exception, the difference however was that i was shivering throughout the entire time. That's when it hit me... kena fever liao.

After a 4 hours 'invigorating' nap i was woken up by the soreness at my back. Went to check my e-mail to see if there were any replies from the pet farms about the arrival of the Corgi puppies. Lo and behold, 2 male 1 female puppies for sale at Pet Movers and no reply from Ericsson. Gave Ericsson a call and the owner said that he was overseas, damn.. (wasted money to call him) and i was promptly diverted to his sales manager. Was informed that they also have 3 puppies, all male for sale. However, the price comparison of both places were like... comparing heaven and earth. =( Pet Movers offered at $1388 while Ericsson offered from $2600 - $3500. Bladdy hell right?

So anyway, i was told to go down asap as there are alot of buyers for Corgis. No more words needed to be said and i immediately flew down (yah, when in crisis i grow wings and those wings happen to cost me $19) to Pasir Ris Farmway. Took a look from both sides and i could immediately see the difference.

Puppies in P M were lethargic and unresponsive. When they brought them out for me to take a look, none actually turned my way lor, cos they were gazing desperately for their caretakers. I suspect that they are either hungry or underfed. I also noticed that all of them have beige patches on their noses. Only the female caught my eyes but i didn't want a girl girl and after reading all those doggie books has made me a little apprehensive about settling for one that is... 1. Lethargic and unresponsive 2. Has no affinity towards me. 3. Shy when in contact with humans. It might be little exaggerated because it's my own personal experience and i haven't had much experience with dogs.

ERS puppies on the other hand were all healthily active (not those ADD kind that jumps all over the wall) and extremely friendly. I only saw two puppies and i thought to myself, "wah, really selling like hotcakes." Then i met with the sale manager who led me to their private confinement area where he introduced me to the third puppy. (chei..) It was smaller then the other two outside and it was much more furrier, no wait, flurrier, if there is such a word. It appeared more 'kuai' than the others but it cost $3500. I had another look at the outside two, one of them had a clipped tail (was told that it is no longer allowed in Singapore to clip a dog's tail off) and i really liked it as well. Caught between the two dogs, that's when the sales manager made his pitch... "buy a good (expensive) dog with good attributes and health and you'll enjoy his companionship for the rest of your life."

On one side is a slightly louder, more active puppy with a clipped tail and on the other side, a slightly more docile, tiny puppy with extremely flurry fur. Although by national standard a Corgi should have a clipped tail and can definitely not have a soft fur. At that time i was reeling in from the drowsy effect my painkillers were giving me so my judgement could have been impaired and so.. i chose the tiny puppy! It's too cute to ignore and i have a soft spot for the furry ones.

My back was still killing me after returning from the pet farms and by then i still had a slight fever and a swollen thyroid gland on my right neck. It's a little bad of me but i must confess that i hadn't really been much enthusiastic about Jasper (my new Corgi) after his arrival because of all the symptoms. He's sleeping most of the time in the house... =( Was pretty vexed that my sickness wasn't recovering so i went to see a doctor this evening. Turns out my fever was caused by a throat infection (the reason for the swollen thyroid gland) and i was given a strong antibiotic with some painkillers on the side (yummy!).

I'm still trying to toilet train Jasper (he's been half trained) but it hasn't been successful. Once he leaves the cage it's pee everywhere. The trouble with training him is that he's so furry that when he pees, i usually don't see him peeing until after he's done and he doesn't do that sniff floor, circle around pee area thingy. Also trying to teach him the 'look' command so that he'll get used to me as his master quicker. It also serves the purpose of catching his attention... the first step towards training a dog (or so i read).

Well, i'm gonna take 1-2 weeks off work to company him and fully toilet train him. Hopefully by then i will have the 'look' command nailed and progress positively into the 'seat' command. He's already showing signs of being able to understand 'seat' so that's good. Will try to upload pictures of Jasper soon, right now i'm too hammered to care. That's the last of the series of unfortunate events... the only up side to that was getting Jasper and even that is at a major cost of heartache to my flailing bank accounts and wallet. Once more now.. with feelings.. Ouch!