Napping

Here is a missing picture I just found. During Mika's vacation with me, Mika and Uncle Tennis Ball had a nice time napping...

Mika's Reaction to Dreaming Puppy Video

I found this video on You Tube today about a puppy dreaming and talking in his sleep.
It is a really cute video.

Anyways, I noticed that Mika was slowly heading in my direction, and then went under my table. I think he was looking for the puppy. Anyways, I replayed the video and recorded Mika's reaction. He doesn't tilt his head as much here, but he does head under the table to "find" the puppy. Sorry, it doesn't seem like my camera recorded the sounds the puppy was making to make Mika tilt his head.

Playing with Tennis ball and Water (to the next level)

Hello humans and gentlepaws. It's Mika's mommy posting.

I assume everyone has seen the pictures of W taking a bath and Mika being really interested (nearly jumping into the tub) in this previous post. Mika has taken his love of water to the next level. Remember how he was getting the balls out of the box? (I updated the post with a video of Mika getting some tennis balls and destroying the box. We are waiting for another box from Uncle Tennis Ball for Mika to try to get tennis balls out of.) Mika now will bring the tennis balls to W while W is in the bath tub soaking and drop them into the tub. Here is a picture of the tennis balls drying on the sliding door handle/towel rack. So far, W has taken 2 baths, and during each bath, Mika will bring over the tennis balls and try to plunk them into the water.

Lagging with Picture updates

Man, mommy has been lagging with the picture updates.

Sorry, there are no pictures of me with my head in the box trying to get tennis balls out.. good luck to mommy for getting a picture of me like that. =P There are no pictures of the little kids that were giving me lots of love either, but there are picture updates to me grounding myself and me spending time at god mommy's house.

Now I'll turn the computer over to mommy where she will post pictures of things that happened in the last few months...

-Mika

Alrighty.. this stuff is probably going to be out of order because I just did a massive dump from my phone to my computer via bluetooth. Boy did that take a while to get everything set up and synced..

Remember when I mention in earlier posts that Mika loves water? W was taking a bath and Mika heard some splashing, so he goes over to investigate:
Then Mika loses interest and leaves, W is smart and closes that side of the sliding door but opens the other to let some heat out. Mika again hears splashing and goes over to investigate further... much further: Then he just sits and waits for another splash... He didn't fall in that night, but we realized afterwards that the doors need to be mostly closed when someone is taking a bath. Mika will pop by every now and then when one of us is showering, but just to check in and say hi, then he leaves and does his own thing.

I'm glad Mika can be so calm when I take him out. Here he is at Panera bread. We were meeting up with Nami and her mommy for lunch.

When I was visiting my family, I took Mika to the high school I went to. Uncle Tennis Ball was meeting up with his friends to play soccer, so I decided to meander around the school and park (it was a great day). My high school had a looooot of squirrels and I think Mika found his prey drive there. He would not leave this hole alone.

One night, I decided to go to my friend's house to play on her Nintendo Wii Fit. I didn't know they had a place where you can keep track of your dog's weight too. I thought I needed to get Mika on the board so it could weigh him, so this is him sitting patiently for the Wii to say "step off the board." lol It turns out, you need to get on the board holding your dog. Obviously, the Wii assumes you own a small dog. It was fun though and I got a ton of odd looks from Mika watching me hula hoop with the invisible hula hoop.

And lastly, this is the most recent. I was chasing Mika and Nami around the back yard to burn off their energy. I had two shiba running the shiba 500 around me, it was getting hard to keep track of. This is the result of the shiba 500: Mika didn't even bother heading over to his bed, he just plopped down on the pile of dirty laundry and fell right to sleep.

Kids in September

This is Mika's mommy posting. I wanted to let everyone know that Mika is back to his old self with kids again.

One day in September, I took Mika out for a walk in the afternoon and I hear across the street some kids saying "awwwww... how cuuuuuttteee!!" They were more mushy sounding than hyper. I heard them "aww"ing at Mika for about a minute as I'm making my way down the hill, and so I turn towards them and ask them if they want to see Mika. Their father was doing some yard work and asked "can they?" I said it was fine and brought Mika over to them. I had Mika sit and let the kids approach. Mika at first jumped back a little, then walked up towards them and let all 3 kids hug him. There was a little boy that hugged Mika and wouldn't let him go for about 5 minutes. Mika was a trooper. He was calm and snuggled up to the little boy and let the two little girls pet him. When the little boy finally let go of him, Mika gave all 3 kids kisses on their cheeks and let them pet him some more. He got hugs from all 3 kids, and petted by all 3 kids everywhere (paws, ears, tail, belly, back, side). I was so proud of him for being so calm by laying there (or sitting when he was being hugged) and letting the kids coo over him.

At one point, the neighbor's chow mix ran over towards the kids barking and Mika got up, and stood between the chow mix and the kids. The chow mix couldn't get to the kids since it was in a fenced yard, but Mika felt the need to protect his kids. After the chow mix calmed down, Mika came back to the kids and let them coddle him some more. I'm sure he loved the attention he got from the kids and the kids were very calm and gentle with Mika. I wish I got the picture of the little boy hugging Mika and Mika kissing all the little kids. It was very sweet and it would have made everyone go "awww." Well, Mika is back to his kid loving self again.

Remembering the little boy hugging Mika, that is what love is. I could tell the little boy really cared about Mika. It was easiest to tell with the little boy because he hugged Mika for so long, but every time each of the little kids hugged Mika, it's like you get a glimpse of their heart. Not tainted in any way, just pure love for what was in front of them. It was very heartwarming. I hope to see the kids out again and bring Mika by some more. We all enjoyed it.

Tennis balls and a Medium Flat Rate Shipping Box from the USPS

Mommy was sooooooooooooo mean this weekend! She received two packages from Uncle Tennis Ball (You will know the reason why I call Mommy's brother, Uncle Tennis Ball later..) within the last month. The small box (first package) had some cards and other stuff in it... and a zip top bag with 3 tennis balls in it. I was very, very, very, very interested in that box. I was head deep in that box sniffing until mommy said the magic "ah-ah" word that means I need to stop. I stopped and looked at her with my protesting eyes, but she put the box on top of the dresser. Booooooooo!! Anyways, about a week later, another package came from Uncle Tennis Ball. This one, mommy had barely opened. (This was the medium flat rate box from USPS.) She had just barely opened it enough to get her shoes out. Why she had Uncle Tennis Ball send her shoes for some event this weekend, I don't know. She could have just bought a new pair that little sis, Nami would have spread her love on. =) Anyways, I was pawing, and pawing at the box and finally daddy asked mommy why I was pawing at the box. She responded, "Because there are, look, t-e-n-n-i-s b-a-l-l-s in here." Then mommy had the (what she thought was brilliant) idea to put the three tennis balls from the package before plus leave the two tennis ball in the box to see if I can take them out... What a meanie!! She was laughing so hard when I stuck my whole head into the box to grab the tennis ball and *almost* got stuck. It took me a few seconds to figure out how to get my head out. What was even worse? When I took 4 balls out, daddy put the 4 back into the box and I had to do it all over again for Auntie J (Nami's mommy) to watch. After the second time, I took all of them out and went under the bed with one of my beloved presents from Uncle Tennis Ball. I refused to come out when mommy was leaving for the Mira Mar Air Show. It took them 5 minutes to get me out from under the bed with my tennis ball.



I would have loved to have gone to the air show with mommy and Auntie J, but the Marines would not have let me in (even though I'm used to the sounds that the jets make because we used to live right next to that base.) It's ok, I got to play with my beloved tennis ball while she was gone. Anyways, if you can't tell, tennis balls are my weakness. I will do anything and everything for the chance to play with a tennis ball. Of course, real chicken, and filet mignon, and fish are at the top of the list too, but if none of those are readily available, a tennis ball will do the same.