September 26, 2006
He's the perfect dog!

We stopped in Sterling, CO and we "all" went to the bathroom.  It was
really cool because even though he had just met us, he knew he was
"with us" and we received a lot of compliments on our "beautiful, well
behaved dog!"  He slept most of the way, not a peep out of him at
all...

We made it all the way to Council Bluffs, IA that night...it was a long
haul, that's for sure..we got a pet friendly room and offered him some
food and water when we checked in...he ate and drank the first night. 

We got back to Ames, IA around 2:30 p.m. and had to get in the car and
go back down to Des Moines, IA for dinner plans.  We let him come with,
so we could show him off\ have him meet my family and he rode without
his crate without any problems. 

Back in the house he likes to sniff everything, but otherwise is very
respectful of not getting into things that he shouldn't be getting
into.  He jumps up and down from the couch and bed without propting,
but he didn't initially jump up until we told him it was ok.  I caught
him trying to mark twice, and I also caught him trying to "#2" inside,
but was able to catch him in mid-squat and we were able to go outside.
After that he gets our attention and lets us know when he has to go
out.  So far he doesn't seem too interested in outside, just in what
we're doing.  Bunnies and squirrels take off, but he doesn't even give
them a second look. 

I honestly think that he likes both Crystal and I the same, just in
different ways.  Crystal can't be trusted by herself; he follows her
right at her heels.(zig-zaging) We think he's herding her.  He follows
me, when I leave the room, but he jumps up and follows Crystal whenever
she gets up at all...  He likes to sit between us, usually touching me,
or at the very least looking at me from the loveseat across the room.

The first night at home we left his crate in our bedroom with the door
open, but he wanted to sleep on top of the covers (wool blanket!) at
the foot of the bed, touching\against my legs.  He slept until we got
up, and then he got up.  (I think he was all ready to go back in the
car!)

This is the first night he'll be home alone.  I left him "loose"
(everything that needs to be is put away...it's a "test" if you will)
but also left his pad on him.  He just hopped up on the couch and
looked like he was going to go back to bed.  We'll see how things go in
the morning... ;)

We're going to go down and get him some food tomorrow or the next day.
So far he's not going hungry, he REALLY likes smoked Iowa pork chops,
and we're having steak before the week is up...

He's truly an awesome dog.  Thank you so much for introducing us to
each other...

Josh and Crystal

P.S.  Crystal got me a really cool antique "singing bowl" from Nepal.
Any tips on making it sing?  I'm not sure I'm doing things right...It
does have beautiful harmonics...
 

October 2, 2006
Ian has settled just fine.  He slept on the bed the first few nights,
but it warmed up and he's now content sleeping on a pile of Crystal
clothes next to her dresser. (No Josh pile anywhere to sleep on ;)
Only one or two accidents, and not in the house per se, just on the
porch and in the basement.  He's been eating his food and we picked up
a small bag of a different kind at the Petsmart.  Of course I can't
remember now, but I've been mixing it in with the old food and he eats
both of them, so I don't think he's going to starve! 

He still follows Crystal everywhere doing the whole zig-zag at her
heels. (herding?)  He likes to go for rides, but instead of looking out
the side window he prefers to sit up on the middle armrest and look out
the windshield.  He's wary of new people, just like I've read, which is
interesting because he didn't seem to go through that phase with
Crystal and myself.  Probably because he saw us at the open house...
That's fine though, I'd rather have him be more interested in me!  He's
super quiet.  The only time he barks is if he hears a mouse in the
kitchen.  And even then it's an inside bark, not the loud bark that
he\they were using at the open house.  He's minds his manners if your'e
eating at the table, but your'e fair game if you try and eat on the
couch.  He also rode in the car with fast-food and although he was
interested, he didn't try and get in the bag; just siffed it. 

He won't leave Crystal's side long enough to go to the bathroom.  But
he'll go for me.  #1 and #2.  Crystal can't even get him to #1...

He gets free reign of the house when we're gone at work and doesn't get
into anything he's not supposed to.  He'll drag his toys and the bag
his food came in all over the living room, but he won't drag clothes
all over...He's always superexcited to see us when we come home,
standing up on his hind legs and pawing your knees, knee to knee, leg
to leg.  But it's over very quickly and then he's right back to being
mellow and following everybody. 

I tell my friends that don't know any better that I got a Tibetean
Barking Cat. 

He's awesome.

Josh

Been busy..meant to chat earlier...

Still going fine... We're still adjusting to each other...there's been
a few "accidents" in the house that were not very accidental...He's
trying to usurp my dominance as the alpha male!  We'll be taking care
of that at the vet though..

We found that he likes Eukanuba food, (small breed) the kibbles are
smaller but he doesn't seem to mind. He's also crazy about these round
beef jerky like treats called Moo Moo Bites.  He'll eat them right away
without trying to stash it. 

He picks up a lot of burrs and prickly things when we go for walks but
he's really helpful in removing them; he'll use his mouth and tug if
you hold on to the burr. Nothing a good bath and brushing can't fix!

I'll send another update next week when I'm not so busy...

Josh

Tao, Tzo, Dzo, all the same.  Just translation errors over the years.
(that's what you get when your written language is different than your
spoken language!)

I'm still waiting to hear back from work regarding days off in
Jan...We'll work something out...

I've been dragging my feet about taking Ian to the vet, but his
birthday is over and Tomu (is it To-Moo or To-Mew?) will be here soon
so I'll give the vet a call tomorrow and schedule an appointment. 

In the meantime, I got a digital camera for X-mas so here's a few pics
of Ian... (I'm still figuring out how to work the camera...the manual
had over 100 pages, so the pics aren't perfect...)

Josh

Ian survived...he was sore and "sad" Friday, but perked up again and
was back to his tail wagging, paw-pawing self by Sunday.  He also got a
1 year rabies vaccine.  The vet said he was a "mellow little dog."

It's too bad about the snow...Crystal and I were able to get Thursday
and Friday off, but I don't think we'll be able to take off the other
dates...I guess Julie will have to take Tomu with her to MN.  (If Julie
takes I-80 from Lincoln, NE to Des Moines, IA and then I-35 from Des
Moines, IA to Minneapolis, MN, she could drop Tomu off and see where we
live; our house is less than 5 miles away from I-35 in Ames.)

Just let me know when your'e heading my way...  (FYI: the only snow
we've gotten ALL SEASON LONG was for a few hours on New Year's Eve!  It
was a brown and muddy X-mas that almost reached 50 degrees!)

Stay warm and safe!

Josh(& Crystal & Ian)
 

The Backyard

Well, no excuse for waiting so long to write.  Sorry about that, life
moves fast when we least expect it to!

Ian and Tomu are doing great!  The people that "know them" say that
they are better behaved then most people's children, the people that
don't think they never bark! 

Ian suffered from what we(the vet)suspects are allergies.  When spring
hit and everything opened up, (we live in a nursery so there's LOTS of
pollen) he started scratching and rubbing on everything. Not even a
week had gone by and he had a small bald spot on his butt\tail and
another one on top of his nose. (I still feel a little guilty for not
noticing sooner) Vet gave us a steroid (prednisone?) to give him every
other day for a few weeks.  He stopped itching right away and his hair
is (slowly) filling in.  (You can only see it when his tail is up...)
Tomu also scratches, but no more than a dog should. ;) 

Tomu is doing well, she enjoys being a house dog very much.  She's
figured out her place in the pack really quickly a few weeks ago when I
was combing mats out of her belly.  She does NOT like to be combed and
she gets all wormy and wriggly and she snaps at the comb whenever it
gets near her head.  Well, she snapped and bit me on the face.
(bottome of the chin)  I don't think she meant to actually get me, she
bit and latched on and didn't want to let go.  Drew a little blood.
She immediately straightened up and since then she's been a whole new
dog.  Super friendly (compared to Ian) to friends and familly, and
she's actually somewhat obedient.  (As much as an Apso can be!)  Ian
still doesn't care for most of my friends and family.  He's not mean,
he just won't let anybody pet him and he follows them around like
they're going to steal something.  (just doing his job, I suppose...)

Tomu also hates to wear a collar or a leash.  She won't walk with one
on; she tries to chew it off the whole time.  I'd like to take the dogs
to the park but Tomu doesn't want to go anywhere.  When she goes
outside she pees and then wastes no time as she bounds to the door.
She likes to lay in the sun on the front porch, but would rather lay in
her dog bed on the floor in the living room.  Ian doesn't mind the
collar but he also doesn't want to go anywhere.  In fact, he'd rather
YOU didn't go anywhere either! (Especially if it's storming.  He's
terrified of thunder, Tomu could care less!)

The dogs treat each other like brother and sister.  Ian's the older
brother and Tomu's the younger sister.  There's still accidents in the
house from time to time and the dogs like to tattle on the one who was
bad.  If Ian was bad Tomu will chew and gnaw on his ear and squeal\bark
at him.  If it was Tomu Ian will jump up and give me the paw paws until
I get up and follow him to the "evidence".  Ian likes to steal Tomu's
toys but she likes to chew them up until they have to be thrown away.
(His toys are all in good shape, except he kills squeakers...)

We're still buying them Eukanuba. (Small breed\Adult)  They're still
eating it.  Ian LOVES cheese, beef, and that cheese that has the beef
in it.  Tomu LOVES anything that's food or food related.  (I think
they're still around the same weight as when they lived with you.)

We self groom, but I do it only when I have to.  Ian has REALLY long
hair.  I keep it trimmed by his feet (no mats b\w his toes) and he gets
brushed at least 2 or 3 times a week.  (He likes it, I like it,
everybody's happy.)  His hair on his head he likes hanging in front of
his eyes.  He flops his head forward so his bags cover his face, but
his bangs go to at least his nose, so you can't really see his eyes
unless he stands on his back feet doing the "paw paw."  I swear he
loves it.  (Crystal doesn't like it very much)  Otherwise his coat is
getting very "full" or "thick" and I'm thinking he'll need it thinned
out before summer's over.  I'll try to get some pics your way so you
can see how he went from "champion" to "raggamuffin" in less than a
year!  (I think he likes his hair long and he likes to tromp around in
the underbrush in the yard because before he couldn't let himself "go"
when he was still competing.. Just my opinion.)

Other then that everything's going peachy.  Dogs are fine, we're fine,
and we hope your'e ok too!

I like the new webpages.

Sorry to hear about the gompa puppies. :(  I'm confident that there
will be some gompa pups in the next few years.  (Gut feeling~ several
puppies by 2011...so then I can have one!)

Take care and enjoy the day!

Josh (and Crsytal. and Ian. and Tomu.)
 

Another batch of pictures. 

Tomu is sitting in front of the grill.  She likes the grill because
that's where the cooked meat comes from.  She always checks out the
grill on the way in and out of the house, just in case there might be
some food that we somehow forgot.

You can see how shaggy Ian's getting. 

Do any of the other Lhasa's like to play fetch?  Ian LOVES it but Tomu
doesn't like to play.  We'll throw a sheepskin ball that's about twice
the size of his head and he'll go crazy and shake it all over and bring
it back, wanting us to throw it again.  This repeats until YOUR'E done,
then he throws it around himself!  He also does this with a little
cloth frisbee and a toy squirrel.  (No, he doesn't catch things in the
air, he just likes to go and "find" and "punish" them...)  Funny story
about the sheepskin ball:  He killed the squeeker in it eventually but
the ball is in excellent shape, so he's had it for months.  We got him
another one, an excact replica, and brought it home.  I brought it out
and squeeked it and the look on Ian's face was priceless!  He was SO
MAD!  He ran up, grabbed the ball and went to town shaking the ball
around the living room.  I got home from work (not even 24 hours later)
and went to play and wouldn't you know it, the squeeker was dead!  He
killed it in 24 hours!  Once again the ball was otherwise in perfect
shape; no lumps or tears or rips or anything, just a dead squeeker!

Anyway, I'm sure your'e busy.  Enjoy the pics!

Josh

Ian up close!

Oh, and by the way, I think we've seen the wiggle dance from Tomu.
Only she squeals like a PIG when she does it!  She also "shakes with
delight" when we're eating steak because she knows she's going to get
some.  One time she barked at me because apparently she thought I was
"taking too long" and Ian jumped up and knocked her down and put her
back in her spot. (The dogs eat AFTER we eat.  No scraps or food
before...)  That was the last time she barked, but she still sits and
stares. (and shakes\vibrates)

She also conitnues to bark like crazy when I leave the house.  (She
knows I'm leaving because I've put on my watch and shoes) She looks
forward to it and now she starts barking when I stand up to turn the TV
off.  Ian just sits there with not a care in the world.  (He doesn't
even come to the door to see me off)  She does the same "bitch bark" at
the vacuum, if that means anything.  Also, the whole time she's barking
her tail is wagging like she's having a good time...

Anyway...

Josh

Here's some really good photos of Tomu and Ian on vacation.  We went up
the north shore of Minnesota for a week.  Tomu LOVED it, Ian liked
it...

Expect more in a later message..

Josh