It's The Little Moments

I love these two doggies. 

With all my heart.

Yoshi's Battle So Far

This is Yoshi's needle jar.

As part of his maintenance treatment for his kidney disease, we have to administer saline solution subcutaneously via IV every other day. Initially we'd have to bring him to the vet to get this done. In time they taught us how to handle it ourselves.

This jar represents all the needles we've used in the course of keeping Yoshi as healthy as can be manged despite his condition. After three months of treatment at home plus another just at the clinic, it looks like the jar is almost full. And we don't even get to handle every single treatment in the week. There are the one or so times that we have to go to the clinic since our schedule is too tight and we get worried we'll get home too late to keep Yoshi on schedule.

It doesn't get any easier to bring the needle to Yoshi's skin but we persevere because it is what's best for him. More than the money we've spent and all the medicines we've administered, this jar is, for me, the greatest reminder that Yoshi's life changed after his diagnosis last December.

But it's already April and we continue on and we couldn't be prouder of our little dog - even though he doesn't seem to think he's a dog. We do our best to manage things as best as we can despite his moods and his fickle appetite and all the other struggles.

We do all this because we love Yoshi dearly and for as long as he continues to fight, we'll fight right alongside him as well. It's all worth it in the end, even if we're only buying a few more weeks, months or years with him. Every moment is precious and we're fortunate that we can even afford to keep up with his treatments and his medications and all that stuff. But it's not like we're going to have kids anytime soon. We might as well invest in this little white dog who is much bigger than he seems.

Distance and Challenges

2016 has been a year filled with challenges.  We learned Yoshi has some kidney issues and our lives have now somewhat been altered to keep him closer to our daily schedules.  The importance of our baby getting proper food, exercise, and medication, has made certain activities less viable and certain duties more vital.  Despite this, however, we see no reason to give up on him because even with the kidney disease, Yoshi is still a loving and wonderful dog who always helps bring a smile to our faces.

Life is like that.  Certain challenges are inevitable.  Life will always have its moments of throwing you under the bus or spinning you in a cyclone of unexpected events.  But in the end, whether its the uncertainty of finding a house to call our home, or the distance of being in another country, if one works on it together as a couple, one can find even unbeatable things... surmountable.

(Not certain that's an actual word, but yeah.)

Rocky is all the way at Singapore today for a business trip.  I'm here with our dog, Yoshi, at the BGC unit where his office is to watch the fort.  But despite the many miles of distance between us, I know we are connected and still anchored to each other - certain that no matter how challenging the trials the world will throw at us, we will be facing it together and there to support each other.

And that's what love it.

One Night At The Disco

So last November 20, O Bar went back in time and celebrated the music of the 70's and the 80's with their Loco Over Retro theme night. And given our support for O Bar events in general, Tobie and I made sure to allocate some time for this night in particular and we had a great time. And I did promise I'd write a bit more about this night over on my personal blog.

All of Three or Six Years

Boracay 2010

When you're in a relationship with someone, friends will inevitably ask, "How long have you been together"and the first answer that comes to mind is, "It's kinda complicated." And that's because Tobie and had a bit of a break-up in 2012, which a lot of people like to make fun of whenever it comes up. Real friends get to tease you about moments in your life that people find kinda silly. We love you all dear friends.

The official answer is that as of today, Tobie and I have been back together for three years now. Another way to look at this is that Tobie and I have been living together since 2009, so that's six years of "being together". And while we did have a gap of a few months in 2012 when we were all single and such, a lot of people tend to ignore this fact and just take it that we've been together this long.

Our original anniversary was in April and now it's in November and the gap is almost the same as the gap when we were single. So maybe we should stop counting from 2012 and just count back to 2009, but still retain the November date and abandon the older April date? For all intents and purposes, we have been together six years after all.

But hey, counting only matters when you think about how long things will last. And I don't see an end to this "count" anytime soon. So maybe none of these dates even matter.

Happy Anniversary, Tobie. I love you.