HAPPY BIRTHDAY MUSHU!

Mushu (aka The Moosh) is officially a year old today. In his honor, I put together the following Mushu montage. Enjoy!

Mushu at 5 days old with mom looking on--and 365 days old with mom looking on (and making a face?)

At only a few days old, he was smaller than Mia's head--now, at 1 year old he takes up the whole dog bed!

Mushu at 3, 4, and 5 weeks old.

Mushu at 6 months on his first big hiking trip.

Mushu in January of 2009. Graduation of Puppy Class at PetSmart.

Mushu at 8 weeks and 1 year.

HAPPY 1ST BIRTHDAY MOOSH. YOU'RE BIGGER THAN MOM NOW.

A Long Needed Update

It has been a year, to the day, since Mia had her first litter. A lot has happened during this time, with no posts to show for it, so here is a quick summary:

• In June of 2008, two of the pups (Mishka and Manny) were picked up by the stud dog owner, Betty. Matt and I were on our trip in the Galapagos then, so Matt's dad Ron had to deal with the hard part of breaking up the litter for the first time. He sent us an e-mail about it while we were in Ecuador, and rest assured it was a very sad time at the O'Neill house. We have not heard how the pups are doing or what their new names are. The plan had been that Betty would keep Mishka for herself and eventually breed her and Manny was going to a home that had intentions of showing him. If we ever get updates on either of them I'll be sure to put them on here.

• In August of 2008, Matt and I finally made the hard decision of which pup to keep, and which to sell. We had at one point decided that we could keep both pups (Mushu and Ichiban) but learned really quickly that it wasn't the best idea for all involved. As we were learning this hard fact, we happened to cross paths with a man named Chris Elliot who had been wanting a shiba puppy for a while and definitely knew what he was getting himself into. After much wavering on both sides, (did we REALLY want to give up a pup? Did they REALLY want to subject themselves to a shiba?)--the choice was made and in late August, Matt and Ichiban made a trip to Phoenix to meet Chris and his wife. Once again I was spared saying goodbye to a pup as I was in Minnesota visiting my family, forcing Matt to do all of the dirty work. Matt recalls that Ichiban wasn't worried and didn't even look back as the Elliots lead him away on his leash. They send us updates now and then about him, and they didn't change his name. He now leads a good life in Tucson where he gets to go on runs with Chris and gets many trips to the local bark park.

Photos from the Elliots taken a day or two after Ichiban moved in. He really likes his new home!

• Now we have one pup from the litter left, Mushu, our little runt. He is a fabulous, loving dog with lots of fun little quirks; we are so happy with our decision. He is definitely the joker of the family and his antics keep us on our toes (like the time he snuck a whole avocado out to the dog pen and ate nearly the whole damn thing, pit and all) but it is all worth it (no matter how many socks we loose). I have plans to enroll him in agility classes this spring and Matt bought us an agility tunnel for Christmas, so hopefully we will be able to post about agility antics soon. Until then, peaceout.