Guest Post by Request - Curtis (Husband)

Ying has requested that I write a small post about how we got Yuuki so that we will never forget.

As Ying has already mentioned, I had a Keeshond named Scottie when I was young. Although I always loved him, I never really fully appreciated him until he was old. I remember when his hips were going and he was have difficulty getting around the house, he would struggle with all his might just to sit next to me while I was doing my homework. Even days before he died, he did his best to act as if nothing was wrong, and continue to love and give as much attention to each member of the family. Scottie was an amazing dog, and when he passed away I knew that it would be awhile before we got another one.

From the first day I met Ying, I knew she was an animal lover. She had spent many days telling me stories about the pets she used to own when she lived in China. The day that Ying moved to Vancouver, I had a feeling that one day we would own a dog together. This feeling came because she would ask if we could buy a dog every week for two years straight.

Sometime last summer Ying started asking to buy a dog every day, but we were still living with my parents at that point and I didn't want to burden them with that responsibility. I really wanted to buy a dog for my dad, but he still wasn't over the loss of Scottie. Then Ying and I came up with the perfect plan. I promised Ying that the day we move out to our own apartment in December, we would buy a dog. As part of the agreement, Ying agreed that my dad could babysit the dog at least a few days a week. That way dad gets all the fun of having a dog again, but I take all the responsibility.

In October, Ying found an ad that said "Keeshonds for sale!" and ran over to show me how cute the pictures of the dogs were. THEY WERE SUPER CUTE! When we called the lady, she said she had ONE LEFT, PRICED TO SELL! Ying told me that we HAVE to at least see the dog. Even though it was two months before we were going to move out, my mom and I agreed to at least see the dog.

While we were driving to the farm, the anticipation made all of us so excited, and brought back memories of Scottie when my family first bought him. Because I was going to see this dog with Ying and my mom (and not my dad), I pretty much figured there was a 98% chance this dog was coming home with us. For those that don't know, my mom and Ying don't fool around when it comes to buying stuff. This made me even more excited.

When we got to the farm, we heard this "yap yap yap." Oh god it was cute. We started looking around to see where this cute little "yap yap yap" came from. There was little Yuuki, hiding behind his bed, barking at us. As we walked closer, he would take two steps towards us, then run back, take four steps towards us, then run back again. At that moment Ying, my mom and I all had our two hands over our mouth, giggling like little girls cause this dog was just wayyyyy too cute. 

When the lady let us carry Yuuki towards the play pen, Ying whispered to me "we are buying this dog." When we got in the pen, my mom said to me "we are buying this dog." One minute later, I gave the woman the money, and Yuuki was ours. This is when the story gets interesting.

We took Yuuki to the Vet to get his recommended check-up. While there, we saw another Keeshond from the same litter. It didn't look so good. That dog went into the room, five minutes later, the owners came out crying like crazy........we were scared now cause it was our turn. We asked the vet what was wrong with the other dog, and he said "I think he has parvo"......what is parvo? Well parvo is basically a deadly disease that will kill an entire litter of dogs within a week. If one dog in a litter has parvo, it is almost guaranteed that the rest have it.

The vet told us to return the dog...RETURN THE DOG WE JUST FELL IN LOVE WITH....he said that if we kept the dog, there was a 50% chance he would die in a week. We went outside to talk about it. I am not going to discuss exactly what we said that day, but if it weren't for Ying, Yuuki would not be with us today.

We decided to take a chance, and it paid off. We were somewhat worried that having the same breed would make us compare him to Scottie or make us forget about Scottie. Fortunately, Yuuki is so unique and only brings out our best memories of Scottie. It makes us love Yuuki and Scottie so much more (if that's possible). 

Waking up every morning next to my wife and Yuuki makes each day worth getting up for. Its a feeling that I don't think can be matched (until I have a child). 

BTW, we named him Yuuki cause it meant "brave" in Japanese. BTW, Yuuki is not brave (YET), he is pretty much afraid of everything (besides girls and small dogs). This doesn't matter cause he will always be perfect in our eyes.

Cheap finds

One good thing about living in Steveston is cheap finds. There are three thrift shop in Steveston Village. I like to shop there for used books, especially most books are 50 to 75 cents each.  I personally don't like to collect books or anything. In our tiny apartment, we don't own a bookshelf. All my Montessori books and Albums are well stored. I keep a copy of all my studies and albums in a hard drive as well. When I buy a book from thrift store, I read it and decide if keeping it or not. To make the cut, I have to see the value in keeping the book and it has to add value to my daily life. All the books that I don't think deserve to stay with me, I donate them back to the thrift store. The 50 to 75 cents are my way to give back to the community.

Today, I found this book at the thrift store. I like her in the shows and tried a few of her DVDs. By looking at the cover, I already felt that my 75 cents is worth it. This is gonna be my sunny beach day read for the rest of the week. :)

Hope it makes the cut and become my book.

Yoga

I never had a thought on diet or fitness. Growing up, I was always lean, and ate whatever my mom cooked. My parents had sweet tooth, they loved fresh baked breads and cakes. But we never eat snacks nor soda drinks. 

In china, even the sweetest cake is about 50%less sugar than a normal donut here. We didn't eat sugary cereal for breakfast with a glass of chocolate milk, nor did we have desert every night after dinner. Desert in my family was a treat. It's a treat for good job on getting an A, or special occasions like birthday, or the bakery with a 50%off sale sign that day. I never had to concern about how much sugar I eat everyday.

When I first came to Canada, I was amazed how sweet the donuts were, and learned that the white stuff on the bakery is called powder sugar. I ate a lot of donuts for the first year in Canada. I was trying to fit in the new Canadian life by copying what my friends were eating at school. A donut and coffee for breakfast, a muffin and tea for lunch, some timbits for late afternoon snack and so on. It was bad. In fact, I gained 10lbs in the first year because of my eating habits.

The second year during my school time, I worked at a school cafe to earn my pocket money, they provided me free lunch if my shift was more than 4 hours a day. The cafe sells a lot food with empty nutritions, such as donuts, chips, cookies (Man, the cookies were as big as a size of pie.),hot dogs, etc. As a freshman in working, I thought it was a great idea to cut down my grocery spending by eating what the cafe provides. I gained another 5 lbs in less than three month. 

One day, I overheard my classmates talking about me behind my back. "Look at her, she gained so much weight. I told you that she can't stay slim in a year." I was hurt. I called my mom and told her that I wanna go home. Of course, I wasn't allowed to go home. I had to suck it up and face the issue myself. 

I started to join the school gym. It was funny that there were so few Asian girls joined in the gym. When I went to the gym first time, I was so surprised to see the girls dress in bras and shorts and simply just sweating on a machine. They look so good, I mean, their abs, arms, legs, etc everything is what I want to have. I started to chat with some girls in my broken English, one girl told me about being vegetarian. I looked at her, and thought I am gonna be a vegetarian, so I can have a body like that. I started to eat a plant based diet. I was in gym 3 to 5 times a week to lose the weight, so I can feel good about myself.  The extra 15 lbs made me self conscious and I tortured myself for having big thighs and butt.

After three month of hard working and eating on a plant based diet, I lost some weight, but my lack of self-love made me mentally unhappy about myself. I didn't know what to do. I thought that I have to accept that I would never ever love my body. I was trapped in my own silly unhappiness.

Time goes by, I had school and work to worry about, and put my body image on the side. I still didn't like how I looked, even though I was back in my normal weight and worked out often. I saw a yoga class post in school, it said "Come to join us to be present, to stretch, and share the energy." I thought it doesn't hurt to try. I signed up. 

After the first class, I was in love. I loved that the teacher tells us to accept our body and who we are. I loved that I can stretch my body in a way that I never could. I loved that I feel completely relaxed after a class and still have energy for the rest of the day. The most important is I loved that I start to like my body again.  Since that first class, yoga is part of my life. I practice it in classes, in studios, and at home. I can't say that yoga brings my confidence back. Confidence relates to many other aspects of my life. But it sure made me learn to self-love. To not judge myself when I see the numbers on the weight scale is higher than last week. To not compare myself to any other people who has a killer body. I now can watch a complete Miss USA show and listen to all the "wow" around me. It makes me appreciate and proud to be a female. I accept the beauty of them and aware the hard work they do to maintain the body. And I accept who I am as now and to inspire me to treat my body the best I can.

I am grateful that I have Yuuki who keeps me to exercise often. When having a dog, you have to go out for walks at least twice a day. He makes me get out of my comfort zone and be active. When I see him doing his morning downward dog pose, it sure brings me in smile and reminds me to practice my daily yoga. 

Me who gained 15lbs

The girl who doesn't like to be photoed because of lack of self-love

Me now

Yuuki and I

Yuuki

When I first met my husband, we talked a lot at night. I knew he had a dog when he was young. I told him that I had three dogs when I was growing up in China.

The first one I named him Little black, since it was a black dog. We got him for free from my dad's friend. The second one, I named her Mike. My dad surprised me on my way home from school. I was so excited when I saw the dog. Her name was from a cartoon "Tom and Jerry". There was a wolf in the Cartoon named Mike. I liked him the most from the cartoon. Even though Mike is a female dog, I named her Mike anyways. I don't remember the name of the third dog. Someone gave to us the dog as a replacement dog after Mike died. I was heartbroken when Mike died, and never liked the replacement dog.

Back in China in the old days, my parents fed our dogs whatever we had in leftovers and let them play in the yard by themselves.  We never took our dogs to vet, nor did we walk them everyday. Maybe that's why our dogs never lived a long life. My dad gave Little black away when he was old, so I wouldn't be present when he died. Mike was sick a a few month before she passed away. I still remember when I came home from school, my grandma told me that Mike had passed away. I cried for days.

Growing up, I enjoyed animals a lot. I was lucky enough to raise every kind of animal I want. Well, my parents sure spoiled me. I had baby chicken, pageants, different kinds of birds, turtle, fish, etc. It sure made my childhood life very colourful aside from heavy school work. (Chinese school system runs from 7am to 6pm.)

I told my husband that I wanted a dog when we first start dating. I told him that it is my dream to have a dog as companion. It took us sometime to figure out when it's the best time to have a dog, and what breed we should get. My husband had a Keeshond named Scottie for 12 years. He and his family swear that Kees are best dogs for companionship and family. I took their advice and looked into it.

I found a male Kees on kijiji in October, 2012. We won't ready for a puppy yet at that time. Our previous plan was moving out first, then getting a puppy. However, after a few talks with his parents, they were nice enough to let us have the puppy and still stay home for a few more months. On Sunday morning, we drove all the way to pick up the puppy.On the way there, I thought about the dogs I had when I was young, I got very nervous and didn't know if I was ready for the puppy. Finally, we arrived there. When I saw him for the first time, I knew there is no doubt that I want to take him home and make him the happiest dog. So~~~ we took him home.

It has been six months now.He is the best dog and I love him so much. I enjoy him every single day. For that, I have to thank my husband who made my dream come true and accepted the responsibility that comes along with Yuuki.

Yuuki at three month old.