Hello and goodbye to Baxter, some work stuff and the new Batman movie.

I think it's about time I tell you about Baxter. It's was a mere few weeks before it was "hello" and "goodbye" to him. Don't worry, nothing bad has happened to him, it's just that he has gone off to another family who can love him for who he is. That was the main reason why we didn't want to tell people when we got him; cause we weren't sure if he was gonna remain ours.

Baxter's an 8 month old maltese / shih tzu. His owner listed him on trading post that she was selling him as she was going overseas. When we got to the house to see him, it didn't matter that the feeling didn't feel quite as "right" as when we picked Jasper up, but Tubbs and I were just excited that we were gonna to get a play pal for Jasper that we just decided to take him anyway. Now of course we did mention that our dogs are kept in-house and asked if he was house-trained and she said "yes", which we found to be totally otherwise in the next couple of weeks.

In the first few days, peeing and pooping everywhere was fine, we could understand; it was a new house and environment. But then when days turned into weeks and he got from bad to worse, we realised we just got ourselves a troubled mutt. He could pee and walk at the same time (totally oblivious that he's peeing), he shit at any corner/place in the house, even on our floor mats and carpets(once on our new doona and mattress!), totally refusing to do his business on the pee/poo soaked training mats. Those were the last straw, and we knew we didn't have the time to train him properly cause he was usually an outside dog and at that age, trying to re-train him to be an in-house dog was like trying to tame a bull. So he was up on trading post again and in a few days, another couple who had a maltese/shihtzu of their own adopted Baxter. And it was good cause they kept their dog outside as well. Anyway here some shots of Baxter, together with Jasper (below) as well.

We felt a little sad (especially tubbs) who is really sentimental about dogs, but it was better that Baxter had gone off to people who would love him more. This is especially true due to the fact that any other dog that comes is always compared to our smarty Jasper (which isn't fair we know), but like tubbs said, Jasper's sort of set a benchmark and we can't seem to accept any dog that falls below that benchmark. So we are always biased towards Jasper. So we have resigned to the fact that we either get Jasper a GF to mate and get his puppies or buy a puppy and train it from small. I guess adopting older dogs that are sort of used to their way of life and trying to re-train them again is not something we are actually prepared to do.

Apart from that, work is usual for me and Tubbs though he was previously stressed by the company audit last week. Then the health dept in CFA held a pilates / health check session last week. People can go for a 1-2 hour pilates class during office hours, how cool is that! I missed out on the last session cause I didn't bring my sports outfit, but I will certainly try it out the next session. I'm also going for an IT certification course (also organised by the org.) in a few weeks which includes a mini exam after that, boy it's like going back to uni again.

We also went to watch Batman - The Dark Knight in IMAX Theatre last night. It was awesome, what with the huge screen and the acting of the "truly evil" Joker played by Heath Ledger. A pity though it didn't seemed right that Katie Holmes wasn't acting as the main "girl" this time. They got someone who looked like her. I shan't spoil the story for those who haven't watch it, but don't expect too much action. It's more about the plot and menacing conversations between Batman and the Joker. Go watch it !