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Getting AJ groomed has always been a nightmare. Partially, because he becomes defensive and mean and thinks that we’ve abandoned him, and partially because it’s hard to find a groomer that doesn’t make him look like a little girl, show dog. I think groomers lose their minds a little bit when you bring a poodle in. A poodle?!?! Fun!?! When in actuality, I just want my little bundle of fur to look like a puppy. I eventually learned that this is called a puppy cut, and you have to specify that you don’t want him to look like a poodle. I LOVE poodles, but I really don’t want AJ to have a huge fluffy head, a ball on his tail, a shaved face, and shaved paws with puff balls above them. It’s embarrassing for him. And me.
I still vividly remember the first time we had AJ groomed. We had just adopted him, and he still had bad separation anxiety. I could hear him screeching the minute we walked in the door. They tried to tell us he wasn’t too bad, but his screams and his haircut said it all. He looked horrible. (I clearly didn’t specify I didn’t want him cut like poodle….) He fought with them so much that he was unevenly shaved, he had a huge uneven puff on his head, and he was shaved to the skin in all the wrong places. I kept telling James it was fine, but the whole drive home he just continued talking about how horrible AJ looked. It was so bad that our next door neighbors who were strung out on drugs all the time took one look at him and told us we should never take him back to that groomer. They then showed up at our door ten minutes later with their shaving kit and told us we should probably fix our dog’s haircut. Awesome. Even the druggies thought he looked horrible. So with that sad news, we took scissors and the razor to him and fixed him as best we could.
In the past five years, we have had some special experiences at the groomers, including a groomer dumping our dog out of the kennel and telling us she couldn’t groom him because he tried to bite her and an uncountable number of haircuts we have had to fix. One of my biggest fears about moving to Japan was that we wouldn’t be able to find a groomer for AJ. 1) AJ is horrible at the groomers. 2) AJ usually doesn’t like women, especially Asian and Hispanic women (sorry….) and 3) We don’t speak enough Japanese to profusely apologize for his behavior. But thankfully we have found a place that seems to be able to work with him.
Dog Freaks! (Ummm…best name ever?) The first day I dropped him off at Dog Freaks, he cried like I was abandoning him forever, which was something he hadn’t done since he was a puppy. I motioned to them that he bites, and they seemed to smile knowingly. For the entire three hours, I was so worried AJ was going to bite someone and I was going to have to go to the hospital to gomenasai to the poor groomer. Thankfully, no phone calls and I picked him up three hours later. When I showed up, he was behind the front desk with all of the other dogs, just sitting there smiling. He looked amazing and happy. Two things that had never happened before! I paid the woman (a small fortune) and she handed me an adorable picture of AJ surrounded by toys and balls. So cute! I was thrilled. Finding a great groomer was a huge burden lifted off of my shoulders. It seemed perfect…
The honeymoon didn’t last long. Every time AJ goes to Dog Freaks, his behavior seems to be getting worse and worse. He still looks fabulous though. I really don’t know how they do it. I had AJ groomed in the states this spring, so he just now went back to the groomers in Japan. The last time he had been groomed there, he was crying when I showed up, and everyone came from the back and thanked me and bowed when I picked him up. He wasn’t playing with the other dogs this time, and he didn’t get a picture. I felt bad that they had to deal with my crazy poodle all day, and though they didn’t say anything, I could tell they were happy to have him leave. When we returned from the states, I tried to make an appointment, but the lady hesitated and went to the back to talk to someone. I thought, maybe they are very busy, even though I could see the calendar which looked like it had openings. She came back up front after talking to someone in the back, verified my name again, and pulled AJ’s file. She asked me if I was free for an apt the next week and I said yes. Then she glanced at AJ’s file, apologized, and went to the backroom again. I was getting confused, as this had never happened before. I glanced at his file when she was in the back, and all of it was in Japanese, except for one word in all caps. ANGER. Huh. Anger. My adorable little poodle? Sigh… Probably…. Eventually they did make AJ an appointment, but I was getting very worried we would need to find a new groomer. I feel bad that AJ hates the groomers so much, but they do a fabulous job with him, and I would recommend them to anyone!
Angry Poodle a video by WanderingHokies on Flickr.
In preparation for the rainy season (which is almost over now), I bought AJ a new rain jacket! He is adorable as Stitch! And while he may look miserable in this picture, his little tail wags when I put the coat on him. This little poodle hates walking in the rain, so the raincoat really helps. The little kids in our neighborhood love seeing him walking around as Stitch, and I love looking down at those big blue ears flopping around. Adorable Jacket….Dry Poodle….Happy Angela….Rainy Season WIN!
AJ experiencing a little bit of Jet Lag….
Everyone told us to leave our dog in America when we moved to Japan, but I have found that the Japanese people love dogs, especially little poodles. In fact, there are doggie boutiques everywhere, filled with everything from frilly dresses to pearl necklaces for puppies. We don’t generally dress AJ up, with the exception of Halloween and his winter jackets for cold, but when I saw this panda outfit, I had to buy it! I found it at a doggie boutique in Harajuku and couldn’t pass it up. (James was clearly not with me that day!) AJ was not impressed, and the panda looks like it’s eating him. I was thrilled to get a few pictures of him as a little panda. Perhaps we will see this outfit again next year at Halloween.
Four years ago today, James and I braved a Texas storm to drive an hour and a half to Austin to meet our little furry bundle of joy. We had been married for only a few months when we decided to adopt a little poodle. Actually, I decided to adopt a little poodle, and spent an entire month convincing James that I absolutely needed a puppy. While reluctant at first, James gave in when he saw the personality of a cute little gray poodle shining through a photo online. I would spend hours browsing the adoptable dogs in our area on petfinder.com. When this little gray poodle became available, we called immediately! Unfortunately, the lady told me that we didn’t actually want him, because he needed a lot of work, and couldn’t be around children. She encouraged us to submit our adoption application, and then to meet two other small poodles, who didn’t need nearly as much attention and training. I was disappointed, but still wanted to meet these other dogs, so we bought a kennel and drove to Austin, just to “meet” them, of course. After about 20 minutes of driving, we realized we had a made a terrible decision braving this storm. We couldn’t see anything and we were literally being blown all over the road. We pulled over (with everyone else) and prayed that a tornado didn’t interfere with our hopes of getting a puppy. At least that’s what I was praying for! I think James was praying for safety! 
After about 45 minutes, conditions were finally good enough to drive again, and we inched our way to Austin. The adoption agency was also late due to the storm, and we arrived before them. We wandered around Petsmart for a few minutes before a tiny gray puffball came barreling through the door. I fell in love the moment I saw him! There was no way I was going home without that little dog! The lady apologized for being late, and then explained to us that the dogs we were supposed to be meeting were stuck in the storm, so she brought Rudy instead (the dog we had originally called about!). I was very pleased! We played with him for a few minutes, and she explained to us the adoption agencies policy about a two week trial period. During a short ten minute period, this little dog had run away three times, bit the lady who brought him, and growled at a little white poodle. It made me love him that much more. He was spunky and had such an awesome personality. I was sure he was the one.
We had been approved for an adoption (well….for a two week trial), but there were a few things they needed to talk to us about. Divorce and Death. Who got the dog if we got divorced? ME!! (No discussion was needed there…. ) And then we discussed the importance of having our dog in our will so that our dog didn’t end up in a kill shelter one day. After those two important discussions, we were allowed to take Rudy home. Rudy (formerly named Rusty) became little Ambler Johnston Gouger, also known as AJ!
Our life hasn’t been the same since AJ came into it. He has been the perfect little dog for us, and he has learned to love to travel. The traveling began after his two week trial when we took him to see my grandparents in Corpus Christi, TX. Then a few months later we took him on a road trip to Nebraska. A few weeks after that, we moved him to Virginia. A year later, he was moving to California, and two years after that, he boarded a plane to Japan. He is quite the little traveler, and we love him! For those of you living in Texas, check out Austin’s Little Paws Maltese Rescue. http://www.lilpaws-malteserescue.org/
And this is why I buy AJ’s treats online. Although I’m interested to know if he would eat them….
Our little family of three is whole again!!! Three weeks ago now (wow…time is flying by over here!) AJ boarded a plane by himself in Virginia Beach to travel half way around the world to be reunited with his parents. Bringing a dog overseas is a very trying process, especially when you do not speak the language of the new country. Our journey began in February when AJ began the importation process by getting the FAVN rabies test, thus beginning his 180 day quarantine period. He had to get a few more booster shots, another rabies shot, and there was a stack of paperwork to fill out. Most of the stuff we were able to get done before we left California, but there were some requirements that had to be done within ten days of AJ leaving the United States. The only breakdowns I had about moving to Japan involved getting AJ ready to fly. I felt like every time we thought we had completed everything, another form or requirement made itself known. Seriously….it 
was dramatic. Initially we had planned on bringing AJ with us on the flight, but we didn’t know how long we would have to wait until we received housing in Japan. Without housing, AJ would have to be in a kennel on a different military base until we were able to secure a place to live. James finally convinced me it would be better if we left AJ with our parents, and shipped AJ later as cargo. It was tough convincing me, but I finally gave in, conceding that as a rescue dog, AJ probably shouldn’t spend weeks in a kennel without us.
When we arrived in Japan, we were told we could move into our house in two weeks, and I began to doubt our decision to leave AJ. I called and made AJ a flight reservation, and was reminded that he could not fly if the temperature was warmer than 85 in any of his connection cities. That would be difficult to pull off in June in Virginia, but I was praying for cool weather. When I got off the phone with Delta, I was ecstatic! AJ had a plane ticket and was one step closer to Japan! About twenty minutes later, I received a phone call from my mom saying Delta called and canceled his flight because we didn’t have a quarantine number. I didn’t have that number on any of my paperwork, so I called the lady back and asked where I would find that number. She recommended that I call the US consulate, but I wasn’t sure about that since military members have different requirements, so I decided to call the vet here. I understand that the vet here is very busy, but they seem to never answer their phone, nor do they return phone messages. I was phone stalking them, and I would have gone there, but we didn’t have a car, and it was over an hour walk from the train station. I called and called and just began to get depressed about leaving AJ in the US. Thankfully, I finally got through to the vet, and they told me to fax all of his paperwork to the Narita airport without his flight information. Then, AJ would be given a quarantine number, and we could book his flight. We faxed the forms to the airport and were told that they couldn’t give us a quarantine number until we booked a flight. It was at this point that I really had a breakdown.
I decided to send the forms in with the flight we wanted him to be on, and crossed my fingers that it would work. Thankfully, the Japanese customs workers are extremely efficient, and responded with a quarantine number within 48 hours. So with that, we rebooked AJ’s flight and watched the weather like crazy. He was flying through Detroit, so the only city we really had to worry about was the temperature in Virginia Beach. I didn’t sleep for two nights before he was supposed to fly. I was praying the temperature would be low enough for him to fly, because if we didn’t get him now, we would have to wait until September. To a
dd to the stress of the situation, we had to figure out how to get AJ home. We didn’t have a car, and neither of us had ever driven on the other side of road. We had recently received our drivers licenses, but the class didn’t involve any driving, so really all we could do was read street signs. We looked into taking the train into Tokyo, but that was going to cost us about $200 dollars, and we’d have to lug AJ’s large carrier through the trains with us. We weren’t sure that we were confident enough to drive the 2 hours to Narita, but changed our minds at the last minute and decided we could do it! The tolls round trip from the airport are around $80, so it was going to cost us half the price to rent a car and drive. I rented a car, and practiced driving around base. Thankfully, AJ departed as scheduled from Virginia Beach (Norfolk) and we just had to wait the very long 22 hours until he arrived. I think the most stressful thing was not knowing how he was doing. When friends and family are flying, they can call you from their connecting city, but AJ couldn’t call, and we just had to hope and pray that he made his flight and would show up alive and well in Tokyo.
James and I left for the airport four hours before his flight would land, to give us plenty of time to deal with traffic and to find the cargo section of the airport. The airport is only 120 kilometers away (74 miles), but it takes over two hours to get there (on a good day with no traffic). We also wanted to give ourselves time to find the Cargo terminal, since that is where AJ would be flying into and we had no idea where that was. James navigated the whole way for me on the iphone, and I basically just stared straight ahead and let James be my eyes on everything. It was a little stressful, as I had never driven before, and here I was merging onto freeways following signs I couldn’t read, but the anticipation of picking AJ up was greater than the stress of the situation. We made it without getting lost, which was pretty amazing considering we can’t read any of the signs (despite our driving class!), and we found the cargo area pretty easily. That’s when the fun began! We had no idea where to go after we found the cargo area, and after giving us digital guest passes, the guards waved us on into a chaotic airport cargo facility that consisted of warehouses and office buildings and semis and hundreds of little cargo lifts driving every which way. We stood at the corner for a few min
utes contemplating how we were possible going to cross the road without being killed and looking in every direction for a Delta Cargo sign. We spotted one, darted across the road, and tried to find someone in the office who spoke English. It turns out that this wasn’t the Delta office, and that there aren’t very many people who speak English in airport cargo facilities. After ten minutes of pointing to things and showing our paperwork, they realized where we needed to be, made a phone call, handed us a map, and pointed us in the right direction. It was in a different warehouse with a bigger Delta sign. I still haven’t figured out why this office had a Delta sign, but I realized it’s easier to not ask questions and just accept how things are around here.
They were expecting us at Delta, and handed us a map and a list of 7 steps we had to complete, not including the starting point in the Delta office. We had to wait another 45 minutes for AJ to land so they could get the paperwork off of his kennel. After we had the paperwork, then we could begin the process of going to all of these offices and getting forms filled out. James tried to take a nap in the office, since he was working nights all week in order to pick AJ up, and I was too anxious to do anything, so the time slowly ticked by. Finally, a man arrived with all of AJ’s files, meaning AJ was alive and well! They went over the check list with us again and sent us on our way. The first stop was the office we went to originally, and this time we had the forms they wanted. So, they took some forms, and gave us more forms and sent us off to Quarantine Services, which was extremely difficult to find. I was able to practice a little bit of my Japanese when we got lost. Sumimasen….Excuse me….and then I pointed at the form. The guy was so helpful! He jumped up and we followed him through a warehouse until suddenly we ended up in a nice little office that was Quarantine Services. There, they made copies of our forms and gave us another sheet of steps (which this time was only 6 steps) that was in both English and Japanese. That was extremely helpful, as we could now point to what we were trying to tell people, and they could read it! They sent us back to the IACT office, which is that first building we had stopped at
, where we were supposed to give them more forms and ask them to get our dog. When I saw AJ rolled out, I was so happy! He was all smiles when he saw us and he was giving us kisses through his kennel. He looked exhausted, but happy.
A warehouse member wheeled him into a quarantine room, and then left us there. It was a small, cement room, with an inspection table and that’s about it. We noticed that AJ kept licking his water bottle, and it was completely empty. He was so thirsty, yet there was no water around. Finally, a vet came in to check on him, and I tried to explain that he bites by using hand gestures. They understood, and when they cut his kennel open, they let me pick him up out of it. AJ was so light….he only weighed 11 pounds, and had clearly lost a lot of water weight. He clung to me, and I started freaking out about getting him water. The vet scanned him to make sure he was the right dog, and then did a look over to make sure he was healthy. I tried to explain that he needed water, but no one understood us. Then suddenly the warehouse guy came back, and he and the vet began to have a discussion that escalated into an argument. James and I were standing there trying to figure out what to do, and they kept going and going for almost 20 minutes. They had made me put AJ back in his kennel, and I just wanted to get him water, and go on to the next step. Then as suddenly as the argument began, it stopped. The vet left and the warehouse guy took AJ and wheeled him out of the room. We followed him until we got to another warehouse, where he gestured that they were putting AJ back into the warehouse. I tried to explain to him that AJ needed water while James went looking for a vending machine. He found one, but by the time he had gotten back, they had already taken AJ and kept pointing for us to go on to the next step, which was customs. So we went to the front desk with the water, and tried to explain, but everyone kept pointing to the next step. After 10 minutes of trying to get AJ water, we gave up and went to customs.
Customs went through all of our paperwork, and then asked us if we had completed the health inspection at quarantine. We told them that is where we came from, but they told us we didn’t have the right forms. They made some phone calls and told us we needed to go back to Quarantine Services and get the forms. I think this step was lost amidst the arguments of the two employees, but we went back and got the right forms. He was extremely apologetic, and rushed to get everything done. I was just flustered that they had taken AJ away again, and he was in a warehouse stacked like a regular piece of mail. With the correct form in hand, we went back to customs and filled out more paperwork. They sent us to the diplomatic customs section, as we didn’t have to pay any customs fees since we were PCSing here. After customs, we were sent back to the IACT counter with more new forms. They looked over everything and then ha
nded us a bill for 1900 yen. We weren’t really sure what it was for, but we paid it. As we were paying, the little man from Quarantine Services came running into the office, which made me panic, since we were sooooo close to taking our dog home. He had given us the original of a form, and he needed the original, so we just swapped forms. He thanked us over and over again, and then ran back across the road. Finally, after three hours of running around, AJ was wheeled out to us to be taken home!
They explained to us how much more time he had in home quarantine (56 days) and gave us more forms that the vet needed to fill out within 72 hours. It was already after 8 at night, so we would get to drive home in the dark. AJ drank almost the whole bottle of water, and passed out for the entire drive home. Two hours later, we made it home, and AJ ran all around the house. He checked out his new toys, put one in each room, drank his water from his new dishes, and made the backyard his own. Then he crashed, and spent the next two or three days sleeping. AJ was home, and our little family was whole again! That didn’t mean the paperwork was done, and on Friday, we rented another car and drove to the vet at Camp Zama to have his initial quarantine paperwork filled out and for AJ to have a health inspection. The visit went great, and we were told he has to see the vet once a month until his quarantine period is over. Everything was great until we tried to start the rental car, and all we heard was *click* *click* *click*. Great. We weren’t supposed to have animals in the rental car, and here we were broken down at the vet with AJ. Thankfully, the rental car agency picked us up and didn’t say anything about us having our little poodle with us! We are thrilled AJ is home and couldn’t be happier to have our little family whole again!
