Socializing at Pets Picnic Party, Sentosa Cove

Last Saturday, the Furry Tales attended the Pets Picnic Party at Sentosa Cove, along with 500 people and 250 pooches gathered for an afternoon of fun, games, food, shopping and mingling!

One big happy family! (L-R: Vivien and Lulu, Muddy and Tanya, Olive and Vicky, Sisi and Lucy.)

Organized for the third year by Pets Magazine, the event allowed like-minded dog owners and families to get to know each other and foster bonds within the local canine-loving community.

Our dogs enjoyed the afternoon of socialization and meeting new friends. They were also hoping for some of the yummy Thai food and snacks provided.

The food’s for us too, right?

However, we did find it a tad loud (and at last year’s event as well), especially when the emcee got excited and raised his voice while conducting the games. Next year, we will try to come earlier to find a space closer to the back!

Retail therapy was available, including handcrafted jewellery, glamorous pet collars, and customised pet portraits. Other activities included an adoption drive by Save Our Street Dogs (SOSD), entertaining games that saw furry ones pitting their “skills” against one another, and a ‘Pup-tor’ booth for pups to make new friends. Sponsors were generous with their prizes, including a GoPro HERO Session and Fetch Mount (total $600), a half-day luxury yacht charter ($1,800) and a 3D2N stay at Capella Singapore ($2,400). Sadly, we didn’t win anything. We’ll try harder next time!

Our mamas are so cheap this was the best costume we got!

The event was a job well done by the Pets Magazine team and we enjoyed it even more than last year’s picnic. Thanks for a fun-filled outing!

Things Only Dog Owners Understand…

1) Spending time to shop and cook meat, pumpkin or sweet potatoes for our dogs, and end up eating a peanut butter sandwich or instant noodles because we are too tired to cook for ourselves!

2) Leaving early from a dinner party because we need to bring our dogs out to potty.

Mum’s out! Movie night!

3) 90% of our phone pictures are of our dog and their friends. It takes time to scroll through to find a picture of our (human) family when someone asks to see one!

Phone full of dog

4) Spending hundreds of dollars on them at the vet because their eyes are red doesn’t hurt as much as paying our GP $60 because we’ve been throwing up for three days.

Am I sick?

5) Picking up poop, several times a day, everyday. Sometimes sifting through it to see what they’ve been getting into. (Most of us have even had to help pull out poop from our dog’s butt, especially when there are hair balls involved!) And sometimes picking up other dogs’ business as well, to be a good citizen.

Little Beau poop

6) Dog hair – it’s a part of life, deal with it. And sweeping or vacuuming several times a week is perfectly normal.

clean enough for you mom?

7) They seem to know when we are going away for a trip, whether you pack slowly over two weeks or bring out the suitcase nonchalantly the night before. Our dogs get ‘manja’ and clingy before we leave on a trip.

If I pretend to sleep, maybe mama will just take me with her

8) They are always (equally) happy to see us – whether we’ve been gone 5 minutes or 5 hours!

9) Saying no to lunch or a movie invitation because, to be honest, we’d rather spend time at home cuddling with our dogs.

10) You talk to your dog and find it perfectly normal.

10 Ways to Celebrate Your Dog’s Birthday

Our four legged fur babies are family, so it is only natural we would want to celebrate their birthdays!

1. Pool Party

If you have a kiddie pool in your backyard, you can turn your dog’s party into a pool one. If you don’t, you can always head to the beach or a dog friendly pool. In our Singapore heat all year round, most of our dogs enjoy cooling off.

Not a birthday party but a beach party all the same!

It’s my birthday and I’ll drink if i want to

2. Dog Cafe Party 

When some of our dogs turned ONE, we had a joint birthday party at Paw Pet a few years ago (time flies! Sob). We ordered a big dog boned doggie cake for them to share, and made them party hats.

Happy Birthday doggies!

Meatballs and Cake

3. Cycling Party

Head to East Coast Park and rent some bikes. Dogs love to run and they can run beside you on your bicycle. Or if you’re like us and have your own bikes, you can make a day of it. We ride along the river and then stop for everyone to have drinks to cool off. Check out one of our cycling posts.

From L to R: Olive, Lucy, Kafka, Lulu and Muddy

From L to R: Vivien with Kafka and Lulu, Tanya with Muddy, Sisi with Lucy and Vicky with Olive

4. Pup-cation

If your dog doesn’t enjoy the company of other dogs, you can treat him to a staycation in one of the few pet friendly hotels in Singapore. Which dog won’t enjoy a bask in the tub and spending the day in a lush robe and bedroom slippers. =P

When’s my bath ready?

Finally away from the hustle and bustle of everyday dog life

5. Dog Park

Round up all your dog’s best pals and head to a park where we may or may not let ours off leash. End it off with doggie pupcakes for all! We love Mount Emily Park and Fort Canning Park. Lots of shade and big green spaces.

Having a ball at Mount Emily Park

Fort Canning Park

6. House Party

The Furry Tales do this a lot. We make use of any reason to celebrate with our dogs- dog birthdays, human birthdays, etc. We order cake, make hats and lets the dogs play (supervised). Here’s a peek into one of our house parties.

Pupcakes by Furrific

TFT and pals

7. Stand Up Paddling

SeaBreeze Water Sports at Siloso Beach in Sentosa is dog friendly and rent boards for $35 per hour. Stand Up Paddling is really fun. Even if you can’t stand up, you can sit or kneel and paddle.

L to R: Sisi with Lucy, Vivien with Kafka and Lulu, and Tanya

8. Pet Cruise

If you have a bigger budget and have a whole day to spare, you can organize a pet cruise for birthday pooch and his best pals. Boat owner, Joe, started this boat company in 2012 and is the only pet cruise company in Singapore. His motor catamaran carries a maximum of 10 pax (including dogs – 1 dog counts as 1 pax). A basic cruise lasts 2 hours and costs S$300. To book, please call 96375009 or email: petcruise88@gmail.com

Lucy and Muddy went on a pet cruise with The Wong Dogs

9. Picnic Party

Pack along a picnic for your pooch, bring some party hats and a mat and head to a secluded spot like Singapore’s Little Guilin in Bukit Batok. Hardly anybody is there during the weekday mornings and you can take pictures without having to crop anyone out. The dogs will enjoy the space and water.

Our dogs enjoying their romp

Pampered pooches get a tent

10. Doga Party

If you like Yoga and you have dogs, combine the two and have a Doga party! Head outdoors, bring your mats and stretch together. Here’s the link to some easy dogs poses with your pooch.

Muddy, Olive, Lucy and Kafka doing their best downward dog poses

 

Goodbye 2015, Hello 2016!

2015 has flown by in a wag of a dog’s tail. The Furry Tales have had another fulfilling year making new friends, maintaining old ones, discovering new hobbies, developing new skills and most of all, learning to be more like our dogs and living in the moment.

Our dogs explored Singapore’s Little Guilin with us earlier this year on a photoshoot for Tiny Krew, and were rewarded with a super fun romp along the water.

This is how we go camping!

Picnic time.

Lucy and Muddy also won a day trip on a Pet Cruise and were very happy to meet The Wong Dogs for the first time.

The Wong Dogs with Lucy and Muddy

Loving the cruise life!

One of our highlights was hosting a cozy Zen Your Pups doga session for about 15 humans and their dogs. Muddy was a great helper for instructor Tanya. Tanya was also invited to conduct doga at Purina’s ONEDOGA event.

ZenYourPups instructor and TFT member, Tanya with Muddy

Spot TFT’s logo!

Muddy, Lucy, Olive and Lulu at the ONEDOGA event.

We’ve also enjoyed countless walks along the river and parks where we do our obedience training. It’s not always work! They also get to run off leash and go crazy.

Lulu, Lucy, Kafka and Olive

Happy SG50!

We also organized Walk Your Pups, a pack walk to celebrate SG50.

This is how we go camping!

For Halloween, we threw a huge Hawaiian-themed party at Tanjong Beach which was featured in Pets Magazine.

This is how we go camping!

Maggie serenading Cotton at our party.

We’ve celebrated birthdays and it goes without saying that our dogs were included.

Happy Birthday Vivien!

Happy Birthday Vicky!

And finally, our favorite time of the year, Christmas. Our dogs missed out on our annual Orchard Road Christmas Pack Walk this year due to the heavy rain almost every day but we made up for it with lots of mini-Christmas celebrations indoors and outdoors.

TFT extended family Christmas party!

Partying at Happenstance Cafe.

Family portrait.

It’s been an eventful year for us. We’ve grown in our dog ownership as well as as a group. We are excited for the year to come and hope it will be even better. Happy New Year to you and may 2016 be a great one!

Merry Christmas!!

The Furry Tales doggies have had a very busy Christmas this year. They’ve put up decorations on Christmas trees…

Any space for this sock?

Still no space…zz

Left alone to do all the work again. The life of Santa’s helpers.

Gotten blamed for it falling…

The tree fainted! It wasn’t me!

Waited for Santa with milk and cookies…

I’m waiting to keep Santa company. And to see what he brought me!

I just want some cookies…

And pulled a sleigh to deliver presents!

Kafka is now off to do some of Santa’s work!

In the midst of all that, they still remembered to sit nicely in front of a Christmas tree to take a nice picture to wish all of you a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Happy National Black Dog Day!

In the U.S., October 1 is designated as National Black Dog Day, which aims to bring awareness to the plight of black dogs. Statistics show that black dogs are the least adoptable because of their color – they are often overlooked because of many stigmas (such as, the color black is unlucky or evil – the same stigma black cats have), black dogs look scary and intimidating, their facial expressions cannot be seen as easily, etc.

Well, we LOVE black dogs! In case you don’t know, four of our five The Furry Tales dogs are black! (Only Lulu the Great Pyrenees mix isn’t, but we love her all the same.) They are all smart, lovable and melt our hearts with their soulful eyes.

All dogs are special.

Recently, there has been a focus in Singapore on the plight of black dogs, due mainly to SOSD‘s #fiftyshadesofpawsome campaign, which encourages everyone to look beyond the color of the dog, and that black is just as lovable and delightful as other lighter shades.

At SOSD, it takes three times as long to rehome black or tan dogs compared to white or cream ones, even if they share similar temperaments. (Straits Times article here)

We hope to convince you why black dogs are just as lovable as other colors!

1) Black is goofy too.

Help mama, I got stuck!

2) Black is smart too.

Downward dogs on command! (L-R: Muddy, Olive, Lucy, Kafka)

3) Black is super cuddly too.

L.O.V.E.

4) Black enjoys a good time too.

Sun, pool and drinks – the good life!

5) Black is beautiful too.

Handsome Muddy.

6) Black simply melts our hearts too.

Can I have some of your bacon?

Happy National Black Dog Day! We hope that more people will consider adopting black dogs and look past their color. They have so much love to give!

Our Dogs Know Us

“Whoever said that diamonds are a girl’s best friend never owned a dog.”  This rings so true for us dog owners. Our dogs are more than just our dogs. They are family.

1. Dogs know when you’re sad.
Lucy always knows when Sisi is sad. She hops up onto her lap and stares into her eyes or gives her face extra kisses.

I will hug you till you feel better!

When Vivien talks to us about anything that upsets her and Kafka happens to be around, he senses it and starts whimpering and putting his face onto her lap.

You be ok mama?

2. Dogs love us for (or in spite of) who we are.
A dog doesn’t care if we’re rich or poor, illiterate or educated, good-looking or not so good-looking. They love us even when we’re crazy. They love us unconditionally.

We’re not crazy. We’re not.

Lucy is totally not judging us. She loves us!

3. Dogs heal.
Many studies have shown that dogs can sniff out illnesses like cancer, probably because they have such a keen sense of smell. Many dogs are also known to help people suffering from PTSD or other traumatic incidences. Just like how Lady-Mae is a therapy dog at IMH.

Lady Mae with her fellow therapy dog pals,    bringing smiles to patients at IMH.

4. Dogs reduce stress and increase our happiness levels.
“Because of the dog’s joyfulness, our own is increased. It is no small gift.” Some people get a dog not knowing how much they really need one. It has been said that dogs have a way of finding people who need them and filling an emptiness they didn’t even know they had. We agree.

I love you, mama. Even when I am naughty. Even when you are scary.

And according to WebMD, stroking your dog feels good – it can lower your blood pressure, helps your body release a relaxation hormone, and cuts down on levels of a stress hormone.

5. Dogs know when we are coming home.
It’s pretty amazing how some dogs sit by the door 30 minutes before you walk through it. Sometimes Lucy gets up suddenly and sits by the door as if there is someone there, only to have her papa walk though it only 20 minutes later. How do they know?

I knew it was you..

Our 10 Favorites of #TFTsleepingdog

Congrats to @Adventuresofdoodles, @Baxtercockerspaniel and @Hachimonster.onyxbaby for winning our hearts on the Instagram competition #TFTsleepingdog!

@adventuresofdoodles: New superhero – Upside Down Dog!

@hachimonster.onyxbaby: Coffee can’t fix this kind of tired…

@baxtercockerspaniel “At last I understand why mama got a second dog!”

Here are another 7 pictures which deserve special mention! We had plenty of chuckles and laughs every day as you shared your silly dogs, and we were amazed by how creative some dogs were in getting their zzz’s.

@notyournerd

@itscharliethecavoodle

@theroyaltail

@abventuresinwittyland

@oscar_coco

@somewhitecookie

@furkies

Thanks so much @littleyarnfriends for sponsoring the adorable amigurumis!

Corgi Amigurumis by @littleyarnfriends

 

Sleeping is our favorite thing to do!

Our dogs sure love to sleep and sleep and sleep! Did you know the following facts:
• Around 50% of a dog’s day is sleep.
• Approximately 30% of the day is rest (mostly awake but inactive).
• Dogs are active only about 20% of each day.
(Source: The Dog Bible: Everything Your Dog Wants You to Know)

Kafka: Sometimes it gets hot during my afternoon naps

Lucy: My bed’s in the wash, don’t judge me…

Olive: Watching you got so boring I fell asleep, mama.

We are continuing our #TFTsleepingdog “competition” on Instagram so keep those posts coming of your dog’s favorite sleeping positions! Lucky winners get an adorable hand-crafted amigurumi (the Japanese art of knitting and crocheting small stuffed animals) from Little Yarn Friends. #TFTsleepingdog will close on 6 May 2015.

Enjoy more of our snoozing pooches. As Little Yarn Friends reminds us, “Do small things with great love.”

Leto: Watch out for that car! Zzzz

Olive: I like my reverse pillow.

Lucy: Tugging is so much work.

Does Your Dog Sleep Around?

Our dogs do! They can sleep anywhere and in all sorts of strange positions, and we’ve managed to capture some of them just for laughs. And because they are sooo adorable!

Lucy: Wake me up when you’re ready to give me some of your dinner…

Kafka: I need some space. It’s been a ruff day.

Muddy: I’ll just get off the couch after 30 winks…zzz.

We’d love to feature some of your dogs too – tag us on Instagram @thefurrytales if you want us to feature your pooch’s funny sleeping positions (#TFTsleepingdog). We have adorable prizes for three winners (one a week) from Little Yarn Friends, which crochets amigurumi, or the Japanese art of knitting or crocheting small stuffed animals. We’re in love with their handmade cute little dogs! Here’s a sample of their work – can you identify which breed each amigurumi is?

In the meantime, here are more pictures of our dogs sleeping around.

Lucy: I tried to get Twinkle to wake up to play, but she wouldn’t. If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.

Olive: I really gotta stop going to those Ladies’ Nights!

 

 

Leto: I’m in the mood for…sleep!

Lucy: I was so tired I rolled down the pillow head first!