Mika-Mocha, the wild goose on the loose became our next dog. After the first four dogs, I was thinking “enough already.” Besides my work, house responsibilities and caring for 4 dogs, I am thinking this will keep me busy for…. Maybe…. Forever and 2 days. I say to Miyagi “You think this is a good time to stop. “ Miyagi turns to me, “ No, cannot stop. We gotta look for a puppy.” We now have 4 dogs, all are adults. They are small dogs, but all adult dogs. Miyagi wants a puppy. I look at Miyagi and said the one kind thing that every wife would say to her husband.
The hunt continues
“Miyagi, have you gone nuts? What the heck are you doing?” He says “ I am going to look on Craigslist. Can you check Humane Society?” In our household, Miyagi wears the pants. He is the man. And he calls the shots. I am just the lovely assistant. But not so lovely anymore since I am in major need of my beauty rest which I haven’t had since 2021. But being the aspired submissive wife, I looked. The hunt continues. I am not understanding why. But it doesn’t matter. Miyagi does. He is up to something. So I just do. Understand later. Just do it now. I have yet to find out. So we look.
We found her!
And lo and behold, we found a 5-month old puppy girl all the way from the block over. She was only 10 minutes away from us. She wasn’t homeless, but her owner was selling. Miyagi went to look. He saw. He liked. He paid. He took home the puppy which we named Mika-Mocha. Miyagi wanted to name her Mika. I wanted Mocha. We decided to name her Mika-Mocha. Eccentric name, eh? You ain’t seen nothing yet. Hold on to your socks.
When Miyagi phoned me and told me he was bringing her home, I sat the 4 kids/dogs down and had a talk with them. I said “kids, papa is bringing home another sister. She is only 6 months old. Still a baby. Can you guys be gentle and not scare her? Don’t get too excited. Just kiss her softly if you want. Okay.” They all looked at me. Had no idea what I said. But I appreciated the eye contact and utmost attention.
Miyagi brings her home, puts the puppy on the couch and the paparazzi goes wild. They started to bombard her with hugs and kisses. They took pictures, exchange leis. They are getting autographs. Wow. a total red-carpet experience. It was so overwhelming to watch that I had to take a picture of that. At first, it looked like she was enjoying it. But after awhile, the puppy was looking at me like “Help….please save me from this mob. The welcoming committee is too much.”
Mama comes to the rescue
So I went over there, picked up the little girl and took her to my office alone. Just me and her. I told the other dogs to stay put in the living room. They heeded. She was so cute. And small. I told Miyagi she looked like a baby deer because she has long legs. But soon enough, her personality came shining through. She would run and wrestle with the Tita and Big Mama. And I am thinking “Wow. She is small but she is strong and brave and tough and crazy.” And often times, when she runs and chases the others, she will run over things or knock things down. Mika-Mocha, the wild goose on the loose.
At night, she doesn’t want to sleep in a pet bed. She wants to sleep next to mama. Preferably on my legs. I don’t understand dog logic. But okay. We live and learn. So every night, she jumps on the bed and sleeps on my legs. This is good because she feels like a pair of leg warmers. So I am ok with that. Big Mama, not so much, because she is so heavy. Mika-Mocha is fine. Only about 7-8 pounds.
Dang! She eats like a man.
Another thing we discovered about her is that she eats like Big Mama. Umm Houston, we have a problem. We now have 2 big eaters in the house: a big one and a small one. I am going to need to get a second job pretty soon or do a fundraiser because our kids eat too much. It was difficult teaching her to stay on her own plate when she eats, Trying to get her to not help herself with the other plates was next to impossible. I had to tell her yesterday “Mika, you are not the boss. You cannot take your sisters’ food. Eat from your own plate.”
She does this during snack time too. Miyagi or I will be handing out treats. Mika gets one. Then when I try to give one to Big Mama, Mika scoops in real fast, intercepts my hands and takes the snack before it reaches Big Mama. Thank goodness Big Mama is cool when that happens. I, then simply, hold on to Mika’s head, as I reach out to give Big Mama a snack. We try our best to be fair to all. No partiality. Every kid gets lots of love. Everybody gets a treat.
No fighting allowed
We also don’t condone fights. Sometimes, the girls fight over food. Subsequently, they get a holler immediately to stop. They are good about that. When mama or papa say “stop it,” they always stop. The one at fault gets a 2-minute lecture while the rest just sit and watch. The one at fault usually has a guilty look on her face. If mama ain’t happy, ain’t nobody is gonna be happy. So when they mess up, we correct immediately. When they do good, we give praise immediately. It is called re-enforcement. It works for human kids. It also works for furry kids. Eventually, Mika-Mocha proved to be a very helpful member of the family as she was able to be a part-time babysitter for the smaller puppies that came later.
The scripture that comes to mind when I think about Mika-Mocha is:
“He Will Quiet You with His Love “ (Zephaniah 3:17)
As wild as she may seem, whenever I sit on the sofa, she will quickly make her way to me, jumps on my lap and parks it. In essence, she is claiming me before the others get to me. As a 5-month old puppy, she needs her mama around the clock. But I can’t just sit on the couch all day. So she watches me like a hawk. When she knows I am about to sit down, she makes a beeline for me asap. When that happens, she remains quiet and at rest on mama’s lap.
I am learning alot about my fur babies.
Mika-Mocha’s personality: wild goose on the loose
Favorite food: her plate and what big mama overlooks
Favorite song: Wild Thing
Voted most likely to be an Olympic champion for the high-jump category
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