A (Dog’s) Beautiful Life – Part 4; Sai Kung, Shek O and Lamma Island

Fortunately, the two don’t have any disputes over who sits right at the head of the boat – because Rockstar is concerned he might fall in. The dog secretly hopes she will. (Kings will scream at her if she sneaks overboard for a swim u c…)

Bet everyone was just dying to know that. All the people who come here to see pictures of JD on Lamma Island. And that virus attacking my site that is about to be quashed.

You can make out the firm grip Kings has on JD because he really doesn’t want her in the water… (We weren’t taking the little blue rowing boat, our ride is the brown one in the corner of the pic – we do see local bringing their kids and all, you can just go for a ride around the islands, or actually get off at one of the beaches… Something we’d really do if we wanted a beach fix for dog and child… There’s a little floating fishing place you can take a boat to as well, where for a fee you can catch something to bring home and cook… It depends on the ride, but as a general rule you have to watch out for getting scalped though – last time we had a family of 4 plus us, one of the boats quoted HKD 1,500 – which dropped to HKD 700 when Kings said he couldn’t remember paying more than HKD 1,000 for the ride – and the aunties in particular sound rude and pushy (they’re in competition) though I don’t think they realize it most of the time…)

Well the problem takes care of itself if you’re boarding to get to Lamma… Can’t remember the ticket price but it’s standard, and dogs have to be muzzled to board (JD is right at the 17kg muzzle requirement cut-off)… No one ever paid JD any mind, except to play with her – and she was often not the only much-loved dog on board…

Btw you may notice JD often has her eyes closed or is yawning or looking elsewhere… Like Rockstar, she has always liked to ruin shots – you can tell the two are closely related. Except Rockstar would want to tell you she has “Het-er-o-chro-mee-a,” the condition of two different colored eyes. Just so he can use the big word. It’s his new favorite game, learning long words Kings doesn’t know…

Who knew a 4yr old could increase your vocabulary so?

Who knew obscure words no one really cares about could inspire you to hold your college degree papers in one hand and make a flushing sound and action with the other?

The bottom pic is someone’s house… Sometimes with the crazy property prices in HK I think expats in particular like to look for more land for their buck… Can totally relate to this though I love apartments far more than houses, because with Kings gone a lot I like to have building security and lotsa close circuit cameras around… I still do, but now I’m carrying a second one, I’m really hungry for a bit more space. Rockstar wants a bunk bed so he can “have a break when the baby makes (him) tired,” and I’m still figuring how to accommodate him.

But in the meantime…..

On A Rock Is Not A Hard Place - "Wheeee!"

JD looks like she’s tilted crazily to one side, but it’s actually the rock face that’s tilted. Of course, she has to see if she can jump up because steep hills and rock faces call out to her, “Let’s See How Many You Can Clamber On Before Daddy Yells At You.”

(This is an excuse to dump a couple Shek O pics which I don’t know where else to fit)

When Rockstar saw these pics he said I’m to catch JD if she falls. And then he’ll catch me if I fall…

"Tilt To See Real Angle Of Rockface"

 Ok sorry ah… back to Lamma…

Where we made friends…

Darn, can't believe I've forgotten the name of that puppy in the top pic - I could recall her name for the longest time, it's a nice human-girl name and I might have appreciated the name suggestion for my baby

Both Sai Kung and Lamma Island (and probably Discovery Bay too) have fairly aggressive Dog Rescues (by “aggressive” I mean in relation to Singapore or Malaysia or probably most parts of Asia as a very general statement), often with a lot of expat (but with locals as well) women actively involved, prompting another blogger once to refer to them as the “Disturbed Expatriate Women’s Canine-Worship Cult”… 

(In case you wondered what passes for “cult worship,” Sorlo has a taste here 😀 Honestly we laughed and others might call them that, but it’s nice to see people aggressively championing animal welfare – and ironically right next to countries where people eat them… Can’t believe they don’t make “DEWC-WC” t-shirts, I would buy some in a heartbeat, kinda like Clothing Of The American Mind‘s irony during the Bush regime, where they sold tees with saying things like “Family Devaluers” and “This Child Left Behind.” This has nothing to do with me, I’m as American as Delifrance is French, I just like funny witty t-shirts. And so ended up possibly contributing to anti-Bush campaigns. Well show me some funny witty Republican t-shirts, I’d buy those online too. My current tee fix however is Out Of Print Clothing, which sells tees and things with a literary theme – Moby Dick iPhone case, anyone?)

"The Hills Are A-Liiiiiive...... With The Sound Of Muuuuuuuu-sic..."

Oh look, there’s our dog, ruining yet another shot. You almost want to just photoshop her into these pics, but then where would be the challenge?

Another one... I can imagine her throwing her head back and singing...

And somewhere between the hill singing and not looking at the camera, my dog has lost an ear. So let us set about the rest of the good island of Lamma finding it…

Find one, lose the other, get barked at...

Her face is like that because this was taken while a bunch of locked up dogs were barking their lungs out at her…

All the village houses... which look un-like Hong Kong as we are used to seeing, with all the hi-rise and busy roads...

Why should what you're looking for be found in the last place you're looking? Carry on looking even after you've found it, then...

Deserted office department of some kind...

And then a meeting of tails, on a trail…

See, she likes mutts...

And a meeting of minds and whiskers…..

Will the real JD please stand up?

And so our day ends with a frolic on the beach…

(Or, A Study Of Border Collies And Physics: How The Long-ish Bodied Breed Stays Upright On Two Or Fewer Legs.)

The Art Of Lying On A Salty Dog Who Hates Being Cuddled

Think this the end?

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–

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N-ot quite.

Now There Are Two.

It gets more challenging – now we have two of them for pictures.

And so the story goes on………..!

Ps: No Rockstars or Border Collies were harmed in the making of this post. In the last shot, Kings was standing just outside the frame… This one was Rockstar’s idea – He wanted to launch himself off that ledge while yelling at the top of his voice and have Kings catch him. It was drizzling, but we were watched throughout by the (very) amused father of a little blonde boy toddler. No prizes for guessing who went up next……