Kobi, Kobe, Koby

Yesterday, I met my old, programmer friends, and above are the dogs I played with.  They were so cute.

First, three of us are not native speakers of English, and because Lisa is Taiwanese and does not speak Japanese, we are speaking in English.  We all came to the U.S. in our adulthood, so I let you imagine our conversation and pronunciation.

"What are their names?" Nobuko asked Lisa.

"This is Kobi,” Lisa points to her golden retriever, “and that is Tobi."

"Kobe?" Nobuko said and tried to confirm.

"No, not Kobe.  His name is Koby with y."

They went back and forth to confirm the spelling of the dogs' names.  I didn’t say anything because for some reason, this conversation amused me a bit.  I thought even if native speakers were talking, we would not know the difference among Kobe, Koby, and Kobi. 

“Well," I said, "Koby, Toby, Noby!”   

A Zoo in San Dimas

This past Tuesday evening, ten members of Coffee House Writers Group gathered at Rick’s place.  It was only 15 minutes by bicycle to his house, and I knew some families in San Dimas live in a large lot with horses, but still I was pleasantly surprised.  It was a great meeting and unusual treat.  

When I get there, first I see two dogs and one of them looks a little like wolf.  Sure enough, Rick says they are part wolf!  I stopped petting, but they are very friendly and excited.  Soon, the wolf looking dog starts to howl as above photo. 

As I’m writing this, I just noticed something.  “Howl” in Japanese is ほえるhoeru, and “howl” is transcribed into Japanese as ハウルhauru.  Wow, hauru and hoeru sound similar.  What do you think?  I know you are not as excited as I am.  Too bad.

In Japanese, "a beautiful woman" can be translated to bijin 美人.  Bi means beautiful, and jin means person.  But we don’t have a word such as biba 美馬　(ba means horse).  I wonder what word Chinese use for a beautiful horse.  Wait, I forget to ask Rick.  I don't know the gender of any of these animals.  Excuse me if I'm wrong.

the white of eyes

zooms into mine more and more 

yoga of love

Her name is Tess, and yoga means connection.  So far I’ve seen five dogs, three horses, chickens, turtles, fish, and a giant python, and thinking for a person like me who own not even a dog must have a hard time maintaining this kind of household.  One thing, I’m not a morning person.

This is Penny.  She is a 400 lbs. black pig.    Rick throws a banana into Penny’s large pan without peeling it.  Right away, Penny eats it all up.  You might say she is a pig, but when we are not used to, we don’t know how to handle.  It’s the same as among humans.  Some people don’t know what to do with me!? 

Below, we can see her tail. 

Also, this is only natural, but Penny does not have her waist.  This photo shows her shining black body, but we can’t tell which side is which. 

This dog looks curious and keeps coming back.  He or she must be saying to me to take a photo and upload it to my blog, so I’m trying my best to suit her needs. 






This is the other mustang.  Excuse me for the rear view. 

This hand belongs to Jessica, the daughter of Christine Marie Bryant who is the leader of Coffee House Writers Group.  Jessica tells me that horses do not like flash, so I try to stop, but I can’t control my camera well.  According to Rick’s wife, the mustang below has allergy.  My eyes have also been itchy, but I can’t wear an eye mask.  

I wish she waits for my shot, but she turns around.

There are two similar looking dogs, so she could be the same dog as above.  I'm unsure. 

The battery of my camera has been very low, and I realized that flash is probably not good also for reptiles.  So, I haven’t taken many photos of amazing pythons.  By the way, this is a baby python.  Rick’s daughter shows us many different kinds and explains to us in detail.  She has a pregnant python ready to give birth to seven or eight eggs.  If you are a reptile mania, you’ll be ecstatic.  It’s a conflict, but I’m sorry I’m not, or I’m glad I’m not. 

By the way, the cross is not chopsticks.

Ipsus

Ipsus belongs to my daughter’s fiancé.  He is three years old.  I asked Jeff how he chose him among 12 puppies a farmer was giving away.  

“Because he responded to the sound I was making.”  Jeff made the sound of kissing loud three times. 

I sat down and massaged Ipsus all over.  When, I stood up, he passed through between my legs and went round and round in circle. 

“Look, look, what he is doing?!”   I’m so excited.

“He does that when he likes someone,” my daughter said.

I made three kissing noises to Ipsus.

“You know Ipsus gets seizure,” Jeff said.

“I didn’t know dogs get seizure like humans.  I wonder what causes it.”

“Someone said it’s because of depression.”

“But dogs?”

“Doctors cannot find a cure.”

Then later on when I was alone with Ipsus, he started to make a banging noise as though he was scratching his own body.  I looked down.  He seemed unaware of what he was doing.  He kept making the noise.  I called Jeff, but he was out.  I called my daughter.  She came, knelt down, and wrapped her arms around his neck in a loose way.  The shaking stopped, but his body became like a rock with his knees all extended.  10 or 20 seconds or so later, he began hitting his body against a leg of the desk.  I rushed to their bedroom and picked up a crochet blanket and inserted between Ipsus and the leg of the desk.

Soon he became quiet.  We kept talking, and before we knew it, he was okay.

I wasn’t planning this trip for a personal reason.  It was the last moment thing because a dear friend of mine offered me to drive down there for one day trip.   She is the mother of my daughter’s good friend since high school.  One day is okay I thought.  Probably it would do me good.  I still have Sunday to think it over and make another call.  Perhaps, I can muster my courage and resolve this problem for once and for all on Sunday.  

One thing led other, and the friend and I ended up staying at a motel.  Probably I should have made it clear to her that I wanted one day trip or else I didn’t want to go.  I couldn’t say no, but sometimes I could neither make a yes motion.  I don’t know if one extra unscheduled day made a difference.  But now it is dead clear to me that I am a coward.  I can’t do the things I don’t want to do even though I should.

One thing I’m sure is I can’t escape from my cowardice.  It remains. 

Thank you, Ipsus.