Bayby Teddy Bear

This year I received a new student in my class from Singapore. Since she was new to Beijing, she was sick often and missed class. It was only during November when I felt that she was settling in, making friends, and opening up to me. I could finally see she was happy. We had parent-teacher conferences at the Family Learning House in November and when her parents came, they brought her Godmother along. Later that week, the school went on a field trip and her Godmother was a chaperone.

So the other day Chase and I went out to dinner and in the elevator came in a lady with an adorable brown puff ball in her hands. I was oohing and aaahing and petting the puppy and when I looked up it was the Godmother! So we live in the same building and through a series of emails we have arranged to be pet-sitters for her dog.

This is a great situation because I have been mourning Lola since we left Austin. For the first few weeks, I couldn’t look at other dogs without feeling miserable. It wasn’t until recently that I could pet a dog happily. So having a dog for the weekend is great therapy for me.

The dog’s name is Bayby. This is what she looks like.



She’s a toy poodle which the nickname of this particular poodle is called “teddy bear poodle.” I was confused as to why they have this particular nickname until her Mom went back upstairs to get her leash and she stood by the door on her hind legs how a bear would stand upright. She has amazing balance and great jumping skills.

Here she is sprawled across my hip.



And then when her Mom finally left she kept watch on our sofa facing the door with her legs flared out. Chase and I call this her “commando crawl” as she often has to get in this position because she’s so small and has to flop over things like pillows.



At night, she slept in the bed and in morning she was really into jumping over the comforter and clambering over the pillows.

Here’s another picture with Chase on the computer as she watches on. Notice that he hasn’t shaved in about one month. He claims he’s going to dye it white for Christmas to go with his infamous Santa Hat.



I know she looks ferocious (like a growling bear) in this picture, but she’s really in mid-yawn.