My Dad Discusses Mia, Our Family Dog
Week 30 of 52 | Father, Daughter, and The House of Holy Pomeranian
Some of the IRL friends reading this right now may already know Mia, or at least know of her. She’s our awesome family dog, age 11, and she’s a Pomeranian.
Pomeranians are from Pomerania, which is in modern day Germany. But Mia was born in Riverside, CA in the year 2010. That’s around the time I was transferring out of one college [redacted] and working in retail in Costa Mesa, CA at [redacted].
One day at this [redacted] store, two teenage girls on a soccer team — they were in uniforms — tried to steal some striped calf socks. You know, school spirit. And the dang security alarm went off and they got busted. They were crying, but Britney and Taylor (made up names) had tried to shove at least 7 pairs into their combined oversize totes. The cops came. But what happened next will shock you.
Nothing happened, actually. I was leaving my shift when these little high school punks tried to do their life of petty crime. Nuh-uh, the manager on duty was not gonna let that happen. So who knows, you know? Did they go to juvie? Did their parents pick them up and take them to the Irvine Spectrum to ride on the Ferris wheel? We’ll never know. But if you’re reading this, Netflix, let’s talk. #script
Alright. Enough of my personal ~*refL3ct10nz*~. This issue is about my dad, talking about our awesome family dog! And I’m not including the footage, but I will include a still that shows you how Mia does indeed seem to “know” [?!] the interview is about her.
Father, Daughter, and The House of Holy Pomeranian
Yan Sui, as interviewed by Annie Sui
Fig 1. “It’s me, Mia!” Crazed eyes because she has just given the puzzle treat dispenser a few pushes and is not having it anymore.
Annie Sui (daughter): So can you describe Mia in 3 words?
Yan Sui (father): Charming, big of heart, and active!
Annie: When you were growing up in China, what opinions did you have of pets? Did you know anyone with dogs?
Yan: Oh, no idea because we were not raising any pets back in China. Few... Very little people raising pets, dogs.
Annie: What about farm animals?
Yan: Yes, yes. The livestocks, like pigs and chickens, they raise for practical purpose. They can eat meat and lay eggs. Yes. Our grandmother raise the small chicks from the egg; raise them until they're producing hens.
Annie: How many hens? Do you remember?
Yan: Oh, about... My father raised eight; at least eight chickens. Those chicks with us for eight years.
Annie: Oh.
Yan: And then they were old and some of them cannot produce eggs anymore, so we do not... We did not bare to slaughter them, so we send them off to grandma's house.
Annie: Wha. [“Wow” in Chinese.]
Yan: So that grandma want to, whatever she wants to with the chicken.
Annie: How long did they live? I think I heard chickens can live for 20-30 years.
Yan: Oh, okay. Yeah, I do not know. Yeah, maybe. But we did not raise that a long time, 20 years.
Annie: What do you remember about the first day we adopted Mia?
Fig 2. Mia is sitting on the bed near my dad’s chair this whole time, seemingly listening and aware of her being the conversation topic. She usually sits differently when we hold our phones in a “photo”-taking way, and you can see she’s quite alert. Honestly, it’s like she’s an actor in publicity mode!
Yan: Oh, at first... Yeah, Mia is timid and she was scared on the way home, and she peed on the van. And at first got home, she was shaking a little bit. And then by evening time, she was bold enough, and then she could climb up the stairs, and in the evening, I sleep, she dash on the second floor and lick me and lick mommy. She is very warm-hearted.
Fig 3. Wow, I can’t believe this puppy grew up to become Mia! I didn’t know what to make of the whole dog adoption situation myself, but when I look into the puppy eyes in this photo I see it’s the same tenacious, curious spirit behind them.
Annie: Ah? Are you sure Mia knew how to go up the stairs the first day? I thought she was scared! (somewhat yelling out the room) Mama? Do you know? Is that true?
Yan: Yeah, same day. Same day, Mia knows how to climb up stairs. We buy Mia food, and we read some materials to pick out some good food, avoid some bad dog foods, especially if some elements, they can cause cancer. We avoid those. And then we keep Mia as a health partner because Mia urges to exercise with her everyday. She's the leader, leading the way. We follow Mia.
Annie: What’s easier to raise, a human or a dog?
Yan: Oh, much easier raise a dog... Much easier, raising a dog. Raising people is different; totally different story.
Annie: Why?
Yan: Why? Because the dogs have a different demand than people. Dogs' demand is so simple. People's demand is much, much higher; different. No comparison. No comparison. Yeah, raising Mia, it's easy. You just feed her, walk her, and that's good enough. Raising a child is totally different. Child needs more attention, more educations, more thoughts, and more planning. Yeah, but raising dog, no planning is necessary.
Fig 4. Like Mia, my favorite place is “outside.”
Annie: Do you think Mia has changed over the years?
Yan: Not much change we see. Same. Mia is simple. Request eat, walking, catch rabbit, and rolling on grass, and smelling everything. Same, Mia has not changed.
Annie: I thought Mia walks a lot slower now.
Yan: No, no, no. Right now Mia also walks fast. When she see rabbits, she chases rabbits. I run after her. “No— reduce speed.”
Fig 4. Mia’s a very loyal dog who cares about our family unit. If three people are walking and one is lagging (usually my mom, sorry to say it), she will stop and turn around to wait for everyone to aggregate. Wonderful!
Annie: Remember one time mama said she almost caught a rabbit?
Yan: Yes, almost, yeah. Once or twice she caught a rabbit. Touched... Merely touched it. Merely touched it.
We pulled Mia back to prevent Mia getting some insects from the rabbit. Or just to roll over on grassland; on grass. Sometimes we afraid she brought up some of the ticks and bugs from the grass, and the grass will beat us when in sleep... So that's the most difficult, yeah. Mia attracts ticks because of her long hair and fur, fluffy.
Fig 5. When we went to our usual beach-adjacent lawn.
Annie: How has Mia changed our family?
Yan: Yeah. Mia helps our whole family, especially maintaining the health, happy, the walking. And it helped me and mom regularly. Yeah, that's a big difference.
Mia did not sleep overnight, she... Yeah, she... She is a guardian angel. Yeah, during evening hours. When we, yes, sleep. She does not sleep. Only after we wake up and then she would jump onto bed and take her turn to sleep.
Annie: What? Are you sure? She didn’t sleep at all?!
Yan: Yeah, as far as I know. Yeah, but when I was sleeping I don't know whether Mia sleeps. But when I woke up at midnight, I notice Mia was lying down here, and then she noticed I was getting off the bed, want to go to the bathroom, she will... walk away from where she lies down.
Annie: Do you have any advice for those looking to adopt a dog?
Yan: Yeah, we should... Be forbearing a barking dog. Especially Mia. Mia barks more. The... All the barks be forgiven. Don't spend too much money on training. Mia cannot be trained, Mia is a barking dog. Pomeranian.
Author’s note: It is my belief that yes, all dogs can be trained. But some dogs become spoiled. They may enjoy being hand-fed organic chicken from Costco, for example. Guess which parent not interviewed directly today fits that description.
Oh Mia, what would we do without you? You’re beautiful! You’re a wonderful dog. Absolutely wonderful.