Hot Pink Coconut

Chiquito’s Growing Up Fast

Earlier today, my boyfriend and I took Chiquito to his vet in Carveldon Clinic at Cartimar, the biggest place to shop for pets and pet accessories in Manila. It was his fifth visit, and he had his second 6-in-1 shot. It was also his last visit to the vet, although by April, we’ll need to bring him back for his heart worm prevention shot.

This afternoon, like in any vet visit, Chiquito was weighed by the vet’s assistant. For the past few visits, he consistently weighed between 1.2 to 1.4 kilograms. This afternoon, however, we were surprised by the obvious increase in his weight: he now weighs 2 kilograms! When we visited a friend last Friday night, with Chiquito in tow, my friend pointed out that Chiquito has grown longer and taller. I just shrugged it off and told her that they just haven’t seen each other for a long time, which was why the changes were that obvious. Apparently, my boyfriend and I really haven’t noticed that Chiquito had grown up over the course of the weeks he’s been with us.

And boy, had he grown up. From being a cute, little lap puppy, Chiquito has now become a cute, super playful little doggie in a span of less than a month. He has changed taste preferences too, and now favors flavored foods. We started feeding him High-Energy Super Premium Natural Balance, as he has learned to totally ignore his old, über-commercialized dog food, Alpo Puppy (I know, bad choice). We bought him new treats too, as he now dislikes his old Pedigree Milky Bone biscuit treats (yeah, another bad choice). He absolutely loves the Sleeky Beef and Cheese flavored treats we bought him this afternoon.

I’m proud to say that Chiquito has learned new tricks: sit, shake paw, and lie down. He has yet to learn how to properly obey stay, because he always always pauses only for a mere few seconds before jumping up and down again. Most importantly, Chiquito needs to learn where to properly pee and poo. He’s been driving me nuts by pooping in various places around our house! For peeing though, he has successfully learned to look for newspaper sheets placed in a corner of my boyfriend’s room, or on the rugs in front of bathroom doors.

I’m hoping too, that Chiquito will already outgrow his gnawing and floor-licking habit. He’s been gnawing and chewing on anything interesting that comes his way. He has already gnawed out the straps of my favorite pastel pink Havaianas and rendered it useless. He has also chewed on my boyfriend’s new leather shoes when it has just been worn once. Thankfully, his teeth marks were not too obvious on the black leather (hehe). My sister’s house too, has had it share of Chiquito’s teeth marks: the corner of their sofa, her kid’s books and papers in a rack, and countless toys and plushies (ok, I maybe exaggerating on the ‘countless’ part, but still).

Chiquito’s floor-licking habit has also been a constant source of (slight) annoyance. He’ll lick up anything he smells interesting on tile, linoleum, wooden, concrete (you name it!) floors. This licking habit also extends to various surfaces, including (but not limited to), chairs, cabinets, tables, beds, and faces (haha)! It really baffles me as to why he keeps on doing it. Anyway, he would need to outgrow this habit the soonest, so we’d be able to take him out for walks.

Speaking of, I was so happy to find out that we can already let Chiquito walk outside (yay) by next week! I told my sister Abi and my friend Kimi about this, and we have already started making plans to go to Serendra, Boni High Street, Eastwood, Tiendesitas, Market Market, or any other place/mall that allows pets. I can’t wait. Heee.

* More photos of Chiquito here.