Dino

I recently realised that over the past few months of blogging, I have yet to introduce our pet dog, Dino. We like to call him Ah No from time to time.

Ah No is a yellow Labrador Retriever about to turn 5 next month. The Mrs and I were just discussing the other day about where to take him and perhaps buy him a birthday cake, meant for dogs of course, and let him eat till his heart contents.

Ah No is the sweetest and most gentle dog that I know. He is so mild that when he got bitten by smaller dogs (which happened pretty often) whenever we brought him to the dog run, he will not get upset and will continue to play. Once we brought him to West Coast Park and let him loose. The Mrs and I planted ourselves down in one corner and watched him go around and mingle. After a while he came running happily back to us and it was only when he passed us did we noticed that he was bleeding on the tongue, apparently he was bitten by a small dog. He was still trotting along without a care in the world and continued his journey of trying to fit in with the smaller ones.

Unlike my family, the Mrs's family did not have any dogs before hence my MIL is always a little afraid of Ah No. The Mrs will always tease her by referring to her as Ah No's grandma. Sad to say Grandma wanted us to get rid of him once she learned that we are pregnant. We don't actually blame her for having such thoughts since she has never been really "introduced" to any dogs plus she did have the Mrs's interest at heart. I always wonder how big her reaction will be should she see the Mrs kissing Ah No and allowing him to lick her face.

Actually for those who do not own dogs, their first reaction seemed to be that Ah No will either be given up or he will have to take second place with Baby's coming. I got asked a couple of times now on what are we going to do with Ah No.

"Do with him? What do you mean do with him?! Nothing! He is a member of this family and he will most definitely continue to be and at the same time play a significant part in Baby's growing up."

Some of those who are more into pets will discuss with me the preventive measures that we are taking to "protect" Baby. Right now I can only think of having those safety gates that we will place at the door to stop Ah No from entering the bedroom and licking Baby without our supervision and knowledge. This is serious because Ah No's tongue is so broad and wet that he might just drown Baby with continuous licking. (For those of you who are not familiar with Labradors, I am kidding of course. Continuous licking may result in choking and maybe even fainting due to Ah No's breath but surely not drowning.) Seriously, a study has been conducted and dogs' tongues are actually found to be cleaner than humans'. Go figure!

We are responsible parents and we will ensure that Ah No will not have direct access to Baby when he / she is still so young but eventually I am sure they will be having a ball of fun together.

Personally I am already looking forward to the day that Baby can be left in the walker. I believe it will be really interesting to see Baby chasing Ah No around the house. Knowing Ah No, "kay poh" he may be but he has very short attention span so he prefers to just lie down and observe the world goes by. I can already picture Baby running in his / her walker and crashing into Ah No who is lying down. For your information this is already happening to Ah No with our iRobotic vacuum cleaner.

I learned from somewhere that kids growing up with pets will naturally develop better immune system against the allergies that come with pets. I certain hope that this is the case since I am asthmatic although controlled.

The Mrs read from SMH that some dogs can sense that their mistresses being pregnant and she has been trying to educate Ah No of the same ever since. While he thoroughly enjoys the time spent on the bed with his head on the Mrs's thigh, I believe he is still very much clueless about the whole Baby thing.

My sis also taught me to bring the blanket that the hospital uses to wrap Baby home first for Ah No to sniff at before Baby actually comes home. This is to allow Ah No to get used to Baby's scent.

Honestly I am not worried about Ah No and Baby getting along. Labradors are known to be really good with children plus he has never given us any reason to believe that he will turn aggressive. Throughout his almost 5 years stay with us, we have tried so many ways of irritating him (my sis contirbuted too by "biting" him on his legs, neck and tail) but he wasn't really bothered by us. He probably finds us "Wu Liao" (people with nothing else better to do)!

In case you are fellow Labradors owners, I will highly recommend the book, Marley and me. I will give it 5 tissues (out of 5). If you own other dogs then it is still probably 4 tissues.

Oh, please do not make the mistake of reading the final few chapters in any public places unless you are totally comfortable crying with others watching on. Believe me, tears will flow!