I am Tamiya…

After months and months of deliberation, I finally came to a conclusion about 2 weeks ago.

I spoke with my (most amazing) boss (EVER!!) last week about resigning. It was a difficult thing to do as I really love the people I work with. The problem is that I am bored with my job. I like the freedom I have here at the company, but it feels like I am wasting hours every month, not doing much. I could be at home and focusing these wasted hours more productively on my boys and my own business Felt So Good. My boss is a family man and understood how I felt.

It has been decided that I will be kept on a sort of retainer for the company, whereby I will still be doing work for them, but in my own time, from home. This will give me the freedom to focus on FSG, raise A2 myself and spend more time with A1 after school. A1 will now only attend half-day at school. We will have the afternoons together to swim and paint and play and nap and actually do things.

From the 1st of February, I will be a WFHM – Work From Home Mom. I cannot tell you how happy I am about this. How privileged I feel to be allowed to do this. How lucky I am to have been given this opportunity. I will actually be able to see my boys grow and be instrumental in shaping them into the men I would like them to become.

xoxo

After our initial attempts at walking Titan and the resulting disasters, one would think I would have given up on the whole idea. But dramatic as it was, I still had fun and was/am determined that we will all get fit and eventually we’ll get it right!

I went to the petshop looking for a chain lead. There will be no way in hell that Titan will be able to chew through that, right? Of the 3 I tried, no one had what I was looking for. The first one had small ones, but hey, I’m not walking a teacup Yorkie. The last one I tried, we (the owner and I) came up with an alternative. Why not fashion one out of a choke chain? I don’t want to use a choke chain on Titan, I hate the thought and the harness is working pretty well for us. But a choke chain would be the perfect strength and length for my needs. Now all I need was to somehow secure it to the harness on one side and to a handle on the other side. Sounds simple, except that the harness has two rings on which to attach a lead, the choke chain had a ring with no opening and the handle thing we decided on also had no way of opening to hook it on to a ring of sorts.

The owner then suggested using a hook to keep it all together. I still had the hook from the original lead, so only needed one more. He brought out a rather small one and I was doubting the strength of it or what it could handle. “No ma’am, I assure you, I know a Staffie that won’t even be able to break this thing.” I had tried to explain to him exactly how strong I thought Titan was, but perhaps he thought I was exaggerating. Maybe because I’m a girl? I don’t know. He sounded very knowledgeable about dogs, so I took the small hook, the choke chain and the new handle, paid and left. Again, very excited that we’re taking Titan for walkies.

Sunday came, we woke up early, woke R up too so he could join us and off we went. Titan would not go out the gate with R, but he would with me. Yay, progress! We decided to do one block up, next block down and so forth. I live in 2nd Avenue, so we went up 2nd, down 3rd, up 4th and instead of doing one block in 4th, we did two. Titan is doing REALLY well when we walk past houses that don’t have dogs, but we still have to drag him past the ones that do. He gets rather excited by the other dogs. And chickens. Yes, 4th avenue has chickens roaming freely on the sidewalks and the road. (No chickens were harmed during our walk.)

And then we got to a house, with dogs, that seemed to really excite Titan. And he was straining against the lead. And I was pulling him away. And then the small hook snapped. In half. Oh fuck. Here we go again. SO I grab Titan by the harness, again. R had put it on, didn’t realise there was a slider thingy to lock it in place, so I accidentally unclipped it again. This time Titan managed to slip completely out of his harness. Oh bigger fuck! I managed to grab him by the collar and sit on him again, until R came to help. He picked Titan up, who was still hyped up and squirming and wriggling all the way. R carried Titan away from that house to one that had no dogs. Then we could put the harness back on and fashion a new makeshift lead…again. That marked the end of our Sunday morning walk

I took that hookie thing back to the petshop, to prove a point. I told you my dog was strong. They couldn’t believe it. Then I showed him a picture of Titan. “Oh well if you had shown me that yesterday I would’ve given you something else, stronger…” Dude, I TOLD you my dog is strong!!

Then we went to Outdoor Warehouse. I was looking for some of those mountain climbing clip things that they use. Surely those clips must be strong if people use them to Climb a MOUNTAIN!? We got ones like these:

I think these will work. As we got home, it started storming, so we haven’t tested out the new lead-contraption yet. We will this afternoon. Now I’m just slightly worried that the handle thing is too flimsy… But we’ll see how it goes.

Walking Titan is not such a walk in the park afterall!

xoxo

Seeing everyone on Twitter talking about how they’ve all started running, I had this brainwave that perhaps I need to do something too. But running is not my thing. Hell no! So I thought we need to start taking Titan for walkies.

It’s not that our yard isn’t big enough for him to run around in. I think he’s lonely though. When Meisiekind had her puppies, we moved her to the back, to keep them separated, hoping that more puppies will survive this time. (I think Titan had something to do with the previous lot disappearing one by one). So he’s been by his lonesome. Also, he’s almost 2 years old now, and have calmed down significantly from the hyper, no-ears puppy that he was. (We are currently in that phase with Spikeydog. I don’t like this phase at all!). And walking with a dog might help prevent unwanted attention from strangers.

Turns out, walking a dog, Titan particularly, isn’t all hook-him-on-a-lead-and-off-you-go easy peasy…

On Friday, I took all the Princesses for their first shots at the vet. While hanging around waiting for all their books to be completed, I looked at leads and harnesses and picked ones that I thought would be adequate for Titan. After all, he’s a medium sized dog, a bull terrier, with not much previous exercise. I chose a body harness, because his collar is a bit too big for him, and I don’t want to end up choking him either. I also got one of the widest Rogz leads – mesh with a reflective fabric strip – safety first and all.

The puppies are given a beautiful bill of health, I pay and we leave, A1 and I very excited about the prospect of walking Titan. When we got home, R and A2 weren’t home yet, so I thought now is as good a time as any to test out our new gear and go for a quick walk around the block. Titan, a bit confused at first, fought with me about putting the harness on but we got it right. Then I hooked up the lead, opened the gate and proceeded to beg Titan to actually come outside with me. Seems he is well trained. So well trained in fact, that I had to drag him outside the gate. And then he promptly lay down and refused to go anywhere. After much cajoling and pleading and some more dragging, we manage to get halfway up the block.

The other dogs in the street were going crazy :/ Titan was too excited to even care about wrapping the 2m long lead all around me and was gunning it for the dogs. Then I realised the harness around his body was a bit loose. O gaats. SO we make our way back home, I adjust the harness and we try again. A1 and I are doing all of this in flip-flops. Rookie mistake! Eventually we make it around just one block and I am DONE. Man, I am super unfit! But it was fun and I resolve to do it again the following morning, this time including A2 in his stroller and A1 on his bike.

I’m not entirely sure what made me think that would be a good idea… It ended up being such a struggle! Titan left the gate slightly easier. A1′s bicycles’ tyres were flat, so instead of a walk to the park, we attempted a walk to the garage. Oh my shaky soul! Here is what I learnt on that one trip:

• A stroller is not conducive to walks on rugged terrains (patchy grass, sandy sidewalks, rocks and pavement stones)
• A bicycle with training wheels with a flat back tyre prevents the bicycle from actually going anywhere
• A 2m long lead is just too long! Specially with a dog that doesn’t actually know how to go for walkies properly.
• A1 is the biggest moan face on this planet! About everything!
• A2′s love of cars have not yet diminished.
• Titan is an exceptionally strong dog.
• He’s not phased by strangers, but strangers are phased by him. To the point of them crossing the road to get away from us.
• Except the lady who walked past with her big, teddy bear look-alike dog. In front of the entrance way of the shopping center we had to go past. While I had to manage to get A1 across on his bicycle and A2 in his stroller all the while trying to contain Titan who wanted to get at that dog. She didn’t even attempt to make it a bit easier for me. Lady, my dog will kill your dog. Don’t you get that? And then she gave me such a dirty look! I was struggling too much at the time to be offended, but I did think afterwards she was a real snoot!
• The garage is not as far as I thought, but still far enough to have provided a good exercise effort.
• We must have looked the strangest, funniest sight to passers by: a mom screaming at a boy on a bike to stay on the side of the road, while haphazardly pushing a stroller, while trying to contain a maniac dog who is running circles around her or is being dragged away from the gates where smaller dogs think they are bigger than they are.