Squeaker ball play

On 31 August 2014, we got Cara a new squeaker toy from kiti dogi pets (in bedok) while buying her new food:

Hartz Dura Play ball ($7.90) 

Photo courtesy of: http://www.walmart.com.mx/

Cara loves the squeaking sound...
** warning: loud squeaking sound in the following video:

Loves the way her butt bounce as she runs! haha.. like a bunny!
AND she NEVER gives back willingly whatever she got from chasing after!
p.s. sorry about the poor video quality as it was taken by phone.

Update October 2014: This ball lasted about a month before the ball gave way and the squeaker came out!

1st trip out of the house

Today, we intend to give her a bath! So Cara got her 1st trip out of the house! She's really excited, pulling her leash at the start, could not stop panting...

After a while, she start to learn what's the right way to be walked... here goes...

walking right beside mummy!

1st time climbing stairs.... can tell that she totally dislike it! Shagged in 3 steps!

We walked her to a dog friendly cafe near us @ chip bee garden to meet our friends for tea. The place is called baker & cook! They served very nice quiche and coffee. A great place to chill the afternoon with your dog, outdoor only. 

Photo courtesy of: http://sg.asia-city.com/

Back @ home, it was Cara's turn to take a bath. We intend to give her once a week bath as it's too hot and humid in Singapore. When Cara is drenched, she becomes SHAGGY!

Cara, the shaggy dog

Suddenly look much older. Haha!

And.... she's not that big afterall.

Glad she's very cooperative throughout the bath! Not afraid of water, no fidgeting when needed to stay still. 1st time bathing my own dog after attending a 1 day grooming lesson almost 5 years ago!

Cara is also very helpful to get herself dry, half the work done!

This pretty much sums up our 2nd weekend with Cara~

1 week @ home!

It's been a week since Cara stayed with us. She still cries in the night and we were very shagged every day! It's really like having a new born in the house at night, but the difference is: we cannot go out and entertain her! We read so many articles and having hope that she will stop crying at night after the 1st 3 nights. However, after one week, she's still crying and barking at night! We were so afraid that our neighbours might start to complain to HDB / AVA.

So 1 week after she was with us, we were so glad friends wanted to make their way over to our house to "exhaust" the puppy out so we can have some peaceful sleep at night. 

Cara enjoying her moment of fame

And when she noticed there was another fan of hers taking photo secretly, she gladly obliged her with a shot!

What a star!

YET, after all the playing and running around at night, she cried that entire night again! T.T

Durian cake (stick snack)

All the while when Cara was not very excited about her food, we thought she was not a food-motivated dog. We were soooooo wrong! Check out her excitement over..

Durian cake (snack stick)

She keeps following and bugging daddy for some tiny bit of durian cake! But as first time dog owner, we were worried of the high sugar content added to this snack. Thus, she did not get any. She must be SAD!

no more?

 really?

then i'm better off asleep!

Cara the bear~

The night after our friend went home after meeting Cara...

Sharing his drawing of Cara in his daily challenge (drawing 1 drawing a day)!

Credit: https://instagram.com/delunbear/

Cara really looks like a bear... haha!

Cara is home!

Finally it's time to bring Cara home. It was very nice of Colin to give her a final bath and grooming session before our collection. 

Our coton was smelling nice, waiting for us to bring her home. While clearing up the admin matters with Stephanie, Cara was sniffing around and she left her last pool of pee @ where she was popped out! Haha!

We head over to the vet immediately after collecting her. On first impression, Vet Practice staff was friendly and the environment was clean.

Soon, it was Cara's turn to see the vet. She was placed on a stainless steel top and the vet used her hands to gave a visual and physical check. The vet commented that she was very gentle and calm. We highlighted that Cara have a scab on her back but the vet say that it was quite common and should be harmless. The vet then gave Cara's ear a peek and found some redness. However, as she was just groomed (hairs in the ear plucked) today, the vet told us to monitor her instead. And our session ended. The checkup cost $34.24 for consultation and a disposable ear funnel.

In our opinion, the checkup was rather useless since they only did surface checkup. To have a better checkup, perhaps a blood test will provide more health information.

1st car ride may have made her super nervous. Panting all the way even after reaching home.

 She was very curious about her environment.

Finally found a comfort spot to rest.

Friends were very excited for us as well. 1st batch of visitors for Cara came that very night! Cara had a night full of attention and play. We have heard many stories about dogs crying on the 1st few nights during crate training and we thought that these plays would tired her out and let us have a good night of sleep, BUT we were so wrong!

We couldn't sleep the entire night. =X

Preparation before bringing Cara home.

Confirmation
After our confirmation of getting a coton with the breeder, we went down to observe and confirm our little girl.

Preparing for her arrival
Right after our confirmation, we dropped by pets mover and started to prep our house for her. We bought the basic necessities, not wanting to overspend on unnecessary stuff due to our excitement for being a first time dog owner. 

We bought a food bowl + water dish ($6.90), raw hide ($10.70), cage ($79.80), pee tray ($39.70), water bottle tip ($14.90)

All packed in her little corner, waiting for her arrival.

Not wanting to splurge on things we are not sure, we got her leash, collar, comb, spray bottles all from Daiso!

With these, we are ready for her!

Naming her

We wanted a name that was 2 syllabus, easy to pronounce italian name that's meaningful. But italian words are so difficult to pronounced!

Dream = sognare

Wish = desiderare

Cotton = cotone

Love = amare

And so.... we turn to googled for "italian female girls names" and tada~

Cara = dear, darling, beloved, charming

was born.

By the way, cara also means "expensive, costly", which she totally fits the bill! XD

Vet check-up appt
Wanting to ensure that the puppy we bought is healthy, we searched for a vet to do a basic checkup for her. 

Internet is always the best place to get all the reviews and recommendation from fellow owners. 

We found a whole list of vets in Singapore registered under the Singapore Veterinary Association:
http://www.sva.org.sg/sva_clinics_page.asp

Despite being registered under this association, many have gained alot of negative comments / reviews on the internet. After all our research, we decided on Vet Practice, They have gained many good reviews for their Jurong branch and since they have an outlet that is within walking distance from our house, we booked our 1st appointment for Cara with the Holland branch.