Mochi hearts chocolate

Mochi, Mochi, Mochi...

When mommy was about 4 months pregnant, we all went to hang out with Joey and Grandma. Mommy and daddy stepped out for a little while. Apparently while we were out, Grandma caught Mochi sniffing around the coffee table but he just scurried away when she found him. Later that night mommy, daddy, and grandma went out for a quick dinner.

We returned 45 minutes later to find 11 wrappers from a 1 lb See's chocolate truffles box strewn about. The dogs seemed fine, but mommy was worried about chocolate's toxic effect on dogs. We tried to calculate how much chocolate any single dog could have ingested. Animal poison control (888-426-4435) instructed us to induce vomiting in both Mochi and Obiee, since we didn't know who ate what. (Grandma was pretty sure Joey didn't have any chocolate.)

While daddy was out buying peroxide and peanut butter, Mochi quickly started showing signs of illness. Fast heart rate, tight stomach, general look of discomfort...and he seemed to get sicker by the minute. He did vomit a small amount initially and there was clearly chocolate present, but not much. After a check in call with the poison control vet, we headed to a local emergency vet. Obiee remained normal (well, normal for him... :-) so we didn't induce vomiting or seek treatment. Mochi got sick in the car, further confirming our suspicion that he had eaten the lion's share of the chocolate.

After a quick examination, the emergency vet recommended an overnight stay for treatment and observation. Although mommy (and remember, emotional pregnant mommy!) didn't want to leave him, we knew it was best for him.

We ended up staying with Grandma and Joey that night to be a little closer to Mochi. A near-miss on the freeway exit rattled mommy even more, but then she felt the baby move for the first time. It was a strange, emotional day (and long night), but it was like the baby was telling mommy, "everything's going to be okay."

And it was.

What we learned...
1. Chocolate can be highly addictive to some dogs, especially because if they usually don't get sick it's for couple of hours, so they don't connect chocolate with being sick.
2. Always know how to reach animal poison control! 888-426-4435
3. Mochi is even smarter than we thought - he scoped out that chocolate, then played it off when grandma noticed him sniffing around. Then he waited until we were all gone to get into it! He didn't go anywhere near it when mommy and daddy were around.
4. Be really vigilant about leaving the boys unattended with chocolate potentially within reach. Mochi is very sneaky, fast, and determined.
5. Mochi didn't sleep for the 13 hours he was at the emergency vet! He was apparently too anxious. :-(

...And then another three went by...

Well, we clearly haven't been great about keeping up with the adventures of Mochi and Obiee over the last several years. I guess we've just been too busy having fun to stop and write about our adventures. mommy will try to recap in installments.

Last time mommy wrote, we were headed into the home stretch of earning mommy's MPH. Mochi and Obiee remained great study buddies throughout that time, especially during late-night (and all-night) paper writing sessions. Mochi was particularly faithful. Obiee sometimes gave up and went to bed around 2 am looking very, very tired. Maybe as a throwback to those old days, Mochi still (3 years later!) won't get up to go to bed right away when mommy says it's time. He waits until mommy stays in the bedroom for a few minutes before he comes to bed, and even then sometimes we have to call him. Obiee, on the other hand, still jumps up to go to bed at the sound of the TV & audio receiver clicking off.

Daddy was pretty good about taking the boys out for evening and weekend walks while mommy studied. In the spring of 2012 (a few weeks before graduation), daddy started taking the boys out on long (1.5-2 hour) walks. Mommy felt a little left out, but a few times she snuck out with the family to clear her head.

After graduation, we spent a lot of weekend time on long walks/hikes in local parks and trails. We even tromped through the creek (pre-drought) during the hot summer. Obiee was ever eager to try something new. Mochi was a little hesitant but did it for mommy...and then loved it!

We also resumed family walks after dinner. Obiee was so conditioned for our nightly walks that he started coming to the dinner table to remind us when our conversation indicated we were finished eating. He's quite perceptive, and it's pretty hard to say no to his determined stare.

Besides Mochi's overnight ER stay for eating about 1 lb of See's chocolate truffles (more to come on that), our life felt like it was back to normal. And then 10 months ago we introduced a tiny human into our pack.

So another year went by...

...and Wendy reminded me that people do check this blog from time to time for updates! :) So rather than recap an entire year I'll post some recent photos of the boys. They've been Mommy's little study buddies lately.

Yochi (Yoda-Mochi) encouraged Mommy to use the force while working out last Friday. 

Obiee just snuggled on mommy's sweatshirt.

10/22: Buster spent Mom & Dad's anniversary weekend with us and all three boys kept me company while I worked on a paper.

10/14: Mochi interrupted a study session to let me know: It's play time.

Obiee's not so sure about what Mochi's up to. 

"Come get the rope!"

10/3: The boys helped Mommy study for her Community Org midterm.

Hardheaded...part 2

A few weeks ago Mommy was making breakfast and forgot to let the boys in. So Mochi did his famous "they're torturing me/let me in" cry. I let them in, and I bent down to apologize to Mochi. Obiee decided he wanted some of Mochi's attention and jumped up...knocking Mommy almost square in the forehead with his head. It hurt so bad a tear almost welled up. And I still had a tiny bump until about two days ago.

From Buzz

Hardheaded.

(Read the original Hardheaded post.)

Not defunct, we promise...

So the last year has been pretty busy and as a result, we haven't been great about keeping up the blog. But never you fear, Mochi and Obiee are just as cute and buttheaded as ever. We'll try to post more often, and so I won't do a year's recap in one post. But I thought I'd start by bringing up the most significant change in the last six months.

Diet. As you might recall, Obiee has a sensitive stomach already, and in March he seemed to get sick every weekend - light vomiting with chills. So after two consecutive weekends of this, we took him to the vet. He did have a slight kidney infection, but the vet also recommended that we look for a food with probiotics to help him digest and absorb nutrients better. (You might also recall that he'll a poo eater, which is fairly common but also a sign that he's not getting the nutrients he needs).

So of course this all happened right before we were leaving for Japan. So we had a 10-day diet transition instead of two weeks, and Obiee had to take medicine while we were gone. :( But he was doing better by the time we left, and both boys seemed pretty happy and healthy when we returned. (They weren't as chubby as when we returned from Italy.)

We win!

You've probably heard about the health benefits of probiotics (live cultures in yogurt, for example) for humans. But apparently they're good for dogs too. And we're believers. After about six weeks of the new diet, their coats (especially Mochi's) were looking and feeling better, and they both seem to have more energy (which Obiee didn't really need more of). They also slimmed down a bit, and we started walking them more regularly. So they're pretty happy, healthy boys. And Obiee's carsickness doesn't seem quite so bad now. Yay probiotics!

Like two peas in a pod...

Definitely brothers.

Obiee...is an...experience

So it's been a while since we got back from Italy, and we've been remiss to report on what the boys were doing while we were galavanting through Roma, Firenze, Cinque Terre and Venezia.

1. Torturing Gramma Nakamura. It seems the boys were a bit of a handful for Gramma Naks, particularly when she inadvertently got locked out of the house on her last day with the boys. In about an hour's time they chewed her slippers, a pillow sham and perhaps countless other things.
2. Getting into stuff. Thankfully we got the pocket door fixed before we left, so their getting into stuff was contained to the front room. This did not stop them from eating a bag of senbei (rice crackers) or tearing open a packet of silica gel dessicant in a package of nori (seaweed) on the kitchen table.
3. Meeting the neighbors. Apparently Mochi decided he wanted to play with Doogan across the street, so he just shot out of the garage before his gramma could catch him.
4. Playing shadow. Obiee loves to follow people around in general, and his grammas found this to be the case even moreso while mommy and daddy were gone.
5. Growing (at least Obiee). We upped Obiee's food right before leaving because he always seemed hungry. We came home to a bigger dog - both taller and otherwise... (Obiee went on a bit of a diet upon our return. We attribute his weight gain partially due to the lack of regular exercise, since it's quite a challenge for one person to take both boys out.)
6. Going to doggy daycare. After a restless start with watching the boys, Gramma Higgins decided to try taking them to her house during the day, where they hung out with Buddy, and Buster. This worked out so well that Gramma still occasionally takes them over to her house during the day. Spoiled dogs. :)

So upon our return, we hesitantly asked my mom how the boys were while we were gone. Her response? "Obiee....is an...experience."

Amen.

Obiee looked a lot bigger when we got home...From The Adventures of Mochi and Obiee