Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Deskt & Diapers for Dogs

This is Deskt. He's a 4lb cute little Yorkie. He's my adorable puppy, but he pees everywhere. To begin telling this story, I'll let you know he's not with me, since I moved to the US. My mom has him back at home. He's just like family, we call him baby, feed him the best and sometimes hire a dogsitter just so he won't be all stressed out when we're all out running errands.

Deskt & I during my latest trip to Brazil - March 2009

Deskt is now 9 years old (in human years) and has a heart problem that prevents him from flying here, mating and over-exercising. This is common in little Yorkies and if you have one, have yours checked and prepare your pockets - their size is indirectly proportional to how much their maintenance costs.

When my parents got divorced, 13 years ago, my brother and I teamed up to surprise my mom with a puppy. We were afraid she was feeling too lonely, since those were our teenage years and we were gone most the time. We went to a puppy breeder who had 3 Yorkies up for sale. Two were teeny (Chip & Dale) and another one was bigger with beautiful color and floppy ears (Deskt). We picked each up. "Deskt" would just sit there on our arms and do nothing. "Chip" or "Dale" (I couldn't tell them apart) had a little more energy when out of the kennel, but we could pick him up and cuddle. Just cute. The third and last was the other one (either Chip or Dale) and was a complete mayhem. He would not stop, hard to pick up, even harder to hold and, in the end, while running, fell inside his mom's water bowl. We chose him. Then we had to pick his breed certificate and decided Deskt was a better name, instead of Chip or Dale, and swaped names. We left the breeder with the smallest, most agitated and cutest little Yorkie puppy: Deskt - yet very hard to pronounce in Portuguese.

He was just over 3 months and reeked of all kinds of bad puppy smells.. yuck... he also still had his ears bandaged (to make them stay straight up). We took him home. It was one of the best days of my life.

On the flip side, my mom had always been against pets. We once had a little chick that went to a vacation on some unknown uncle's farm to never return, a betta fish who eventually died and some parakeets that were presented to my grandpa after some months of birdseeding the whole living room. My mom didn't want any living, pooping, noise-making, money-spending thing. She was in for a surprise!

We decided to do everything on her back and make it a gift. We got home, called her up in the kitchen and I let the squirmy/stinky puppy loose. He took off so fast, she only got a glimpse of him: "Surprise! Mom, it's a gift!" She says: "WTF is it???" The love at first sight... I'll never forget... She thought it was a mouse.

After we managed to scoop him up and bring him to her, she got a whiff and almost barfed. She wasn't convinced it was a dog yet. Then he barked. Her eyes got so big - followed by the denial: "I do NOT want any dog, or mouse, or anything that smells like that! You can take him back!" After the brief encounter, she locked herself in her room and stayed there for about 2.5h.

When she decided to come out, we were all "awww" over him. She looked at him: "it really IS a dog!" We headed to a petshop. He was washed and cleaned and dolled up: his first bath! I have pictures of that somewhere, but it wasn't even a "digital era" kind of camera yet. This other one follows, instead:


Deskt after his 1000th bath, still wet

We then chose a bed, bowls, a leash and all other things puppies deserve. We were all set. We (Hugo, Deskt & I) were wining her over.

And so it's been a wonderful joy to share and love this dog over the years. I miss him terribly and cry whenever I see him on the webcam - I don't cry for anyone else, sorry!

But, after introducing you to my pup, I wanted to say how much we all so disapprove his bad habits of making a pee-pee room in our stove, couch, bed, you name it (once he peed on a guy I was dating - SHOCKING! No wonder it didn't last!)

We have always been trying different methods, sprays, scolding, mats and nothing had ever worked. Once browsing through the petshop, my brother came across "Dog Diapers" and purchased a pack. They are very simple to put on and disposable (of course, who wants to wash that!?), but my mom didn't know exactly how to put them on quite from the beginning. Since I wasn't there, they made a video and sent it to me. It's kinda long, but I find it adorable (and it couldn't be different!)

Before the video, I just wanted to say he's always happy and willing to put it on. After the diaper is on, he gets a treat, so they're associated. Diaper on = treat. He's the most satisfied dog in diapers!



4 comments:

  1. hhahahahhahahahahaha, morri de rir!

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  2. Deskt é uma fofura! Lembro as inúmeras vezes que dividi meu colchão com ele na tua casa e acordava com ele dando lambidinhas no meu rosto. Muito fofo! :*

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  3. Ele e um amor de cachorro, Nanda, mas xixa tudo mesmo! E um horror! Tome fralda! Hahaha!

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  4. Finha, ele nao pode ver um colchao que ja quer deitar junto. Mostrou um travesseiro, ele se apaixona, ne? Morro de saudade dele! Beijos!

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