We have not formally introduced to you our panel of taste testers. So we shall rectify that here. We started Barkery Oven because our we wanted the best for our furkids. 10 years ago, we got ourselves our first pet, Mochi right after we got married.
Mochi, a Shitzu and Maltese mix, is now 10 years old. He is the sweetest, cutest furkid we have ever had. He is also extremely human-like. When we say human-like, we meant it exactly that. We always felt that he could understand us like a normal human being. He is one dog that we didn't have to train very hard. And our proudest moment with Mochi was when we realised he listens to commands very well. Once, we brought Mochi and Miki (our second kid) to a park at Shah Alam to play. Miki ran off so we tested our luck and told Mochi to go bring Miki back and off Mochi went! He sprinted after Miki, and like a shepherd, shepherded Miki back to us! *beaming like a proud parent!!* Mochi is now living with our parents (my in-laws).
Miki, a Poodle and Shitzu mix, is our second boy that we bought from a groomer. I know I know. At that time, we didn't know anything about adoption. We came across Miki at the place where we sent Mochi for grooming. He was 5 months old at that time. Light and fluffy like a ball of cotton, I was immediately smitten. So we negotiated his price and brought him home with us! Miki is 8 years old now and still as active and hyper as a puppy. Many times I've wondered if he could be an ADHD dog?! Imagine that! He loves to play and can be extremely single minded when it comes to playing. He is also a toy 'hogger', which means, the rest of his siblings has no chance when it comes to playing anything near him. We often have to distract him and lure him somewhere else to play so that the rest can get a chance to play too. :p
Our third kid, Loki. He was our first adopted kid. We got him when he was three and he passed away in April this year at 6 years old. Loki was a HUGE Golden. Bigger than most Goldens we have seen in any dog gatherings. He was not very healthy when we adopted him. He was very overweight, had weak back legs, lacked exercise and had bad skin problems. We slowly changed his diet, made him exercise and added lots of natural supplements to his diet. After 1 year with us, his skin problems were gone and he could run and jump like a champ! Loki was a furkid that any pet parent would be very proud of. He was extremely affectionate. He loved to cuddle. He was very protective of us. We could always count on him to protect us should there be any danger which I witnessed from a personal experience. Once, I fell down and twisted my ankle whilst leading him on a run. A car stopped by to lend a hand. When the kind driver leaned over me to pick me up, Loki immediately came between us in a protective manner and I had to tell Loki it was ok. The man was just helping. Only then he backed off. Ever since then, I've always felt very safe to have Loki with me even when I walked him at night. We certainly miss Loki terribly. Its been 2 months since his passing and there's not a day gone by that we don't think about him.
Olly is our 4th kid, a teacup sized Maltese, and our second adopted kid. We adopted him from a groomer 3 years ago. The poor baby was left behind by his previous owner and no one else would take him despite many efforts by the groomer. So after many deliberations, we decided to bring him home and renamed him Olly. We have no idea how old he is, but from his teeth, he looks to be around 7 - 8 years old. He has a really challenging personality. He loves the attention from people but hates all dogs, especially big ones like Loki. In fact, he used to get quite aggressive with Loki and would charge at poor Loki and bite him for no reason! He also has really bad skin problems and we have tried everything we can think of. From changing his diet multiple times to seeing vets, his skin breakouts will subside and flare up over and over again. Right now, the neem oil shampoo bar from Made by Jade seems to be working in calming his skin along with our raw food (fingers crossed).
Suki, a stray cat that we rescued from the streets, adopted us when she was 3 months old. She was on her own, then came to me when I was about to walk into my mom's house, and just followed me into the house when I extended the invitation! This is why I tell everyone I got adopted by my cat. Suki is 1.5 years old now and is the most manja cat I have ever seen. Prior to Suki, I've always thought I was not a cat person and Suki changed all that. In fact, I think she has become my favorite!! (shhhhhhh....) She is a very demanding but affectionate cat, always asking for rubs and meowing at us when we ignore her. I'd like to think our meowing at each other is us having a conversation :p Suki's favorite treats are our Naturally Omega, Naturally Mussel and Naturally Chicky, and she expects them for her breakfast every morning. If we forget to feed her her daily treats, she will retaliate by meowing at us REALLY LOUDLY. My favourite past time is to watch her play with her siblings. Its like watching a live MMA match and she normally wins! Of course, Olly never bothers playing with her no matter how many times she tries to disturb Olly.
So there you have it. All our taste testers and our precious furkids that we love to bits!!