My Six Dogs As Of April 2016

Wan-wan, the surviving brother of Shao Bai, after his haircut last week. Wan-wan has survived one near fatal disease and two near fatal poisoning attempts. I am proud of him for not giving in, the little champion.

"Pups". Originally named "Gunny", she began as the runt of my pack when I adopted her, but is now big enough to look after herself. She even looks out for the other dogs and will defend Wanwan from other dogs who get too close to him.

Tinkerbell; my first dog in Taiwan who is now just over eight years old. She used to come with me everywhere when it was just the two of us. The shaved patch is because she just had remedial surgery last week to ease the arthritis caused by her hip dysplasia. When she was young she was just as fast and energetic as Pups and Erhjen, but age is catching up with her now and she just can't do that anymore. Yet in spite of her physical deterioration, she is still the same fearless attitude she did when she was young which leads her to confront other dogs and establish her dominance. Fortunately for her, I keep her on the lead most of the time now to prevent that and look after her. In her condition she wouldn't last two minutes in a fight with a younger dog.

Coco. Although he is the largest and strongest of the pack, he is psychologically the omega dog and follows the others unless I make my influence override theirs. He's probably also the least intelligent due to his poor anticipation of my movements (i.e. he's always getting under my feet and tripping me over around the house). After Wan-wan, it is now his turn to get a hair cut.

"Black & White", so named due to her colour. She was already mature when I adopted her and is now at least as old as Tinkerbell. However, she is still in good physical condition despite her age. She is slightly overweight, but can still run around at speed and whilst she cannot take the "alpha" position in the pack (because that's obviously me), she has the uncanny ability to intimidate other dogs. Even now she will simply walk into a circle with five or six other dogs equal to her in size and, not only will none of them dare to approach her, but they will more often than not retreat and surrender the territory to her. She also seems to have an odd mental condition because she occasionally barks at things that aren't there, which is somewhat embarrassing for me. 

Black & White and Erhjen playing in the field.

Erhjen enjoys playing with Black & White, but she still needs to learn when to leave her alone; being the youngest dog she wants to play all the time, but there are times in the house when Black & White demands her own space to sleep.

Erhjen, the youngest dog. I adopted her last year, almost one year after the death of Shao Bai. She is so named because I found her up in the hills overlooking Kaohsiung's Tianliao district and was thinking about what to call her as I carried her across the border of Kaohsiung and Tainan which is formed by the Erhjen river which was the subject of some of my reading for the reservoir project. She's now been with us for just over a year and is fully house trained and socialized. She is also the smallest dog physically and needs to be protected from the pack of large strays in the park; if they catch her on her own, they will attack her - but they won't give her a second look when she's with Black & White.