Veterinarian, Blogger & Mother. Cecylia shares her musings on life and style in the same breath. She passionately believes that "every day is worth dressing up for."
As a vet, I often tell clients that pets “add years to their lives and lives to their years“. Of course, I speak from personal experience.
We got Theodore 8 and a half years ago for our wedding anniversary. I can still recall the day I picked him up from the breeder. He had transformed from a shy, unsteady ball of fluff who I’d first met at 4 weeks old, to a bouncy, confident and sublime specimen of a pup. He was only 7 weeks old when I brought him home. I remember taking the trash out and expecting him to follow me out into the front yard. But when I returned, he was still sitting at the front door, whimpering. The step was too big for him to hop down!
Theodore has a knack of making people fall in love with him at first sight. If I got a dollar from every Tom, Dick and Harry who say that they want to take him home, I’d have a Swiss bank account by now. 
He used to come to the boutique with me every day. He’d sit by the door, greet customers with his gentle licks and fluffy tail, which shimmied like an ostrich fan. When I work as a vet, I also have the privilege of taking him to work. Without ever having to tell him where to go, Theodore always made a dash into an empty hospital cage. Somehow, he knows that it’s safe and secure in there.
Being a vet and a dog owner, it’s an understatement to call me a dog lover. After all, Theodore is our first (fur)child, and I cannot imagine life without him! So you probably won’t be surprised if I told you that I’m delighted to attend the Dog Lovers Show in Melbourne. But Guess what?! I also have 5 double passes to give away!!!
The annual Dog Lovers Show will take place at the iconic Royal Exhibition Building from Friday 5th to Sunday 7th of May. Dr Katrina Warren & the Wonderdogs, Dr Harry Cooper, as well as renowned Hollywood animal trainer Peta Clarke will be there. You can watch talented DockDogs do long jump across a swimming pool, snap selfies with Australia’s famous Instagram pooches, adopt a dog from the Rescue Dog Zone, learn from the KONG Celebrity Vet Stage with topics such as ‘5 top tricks anyone can teach their dog’, ‘top tips for a healthier, happier dog’ and much much more. Head over [HERE] for more details about The Dog Lovers Show.
Simply tell me an endearing tale of your pooch in the Comments Section below to go into the draw to win! Winners will be announced on Friday 7th April!
DION LEE Dress // HABBOT Heels // MICHAEL KORS Bag // FENDI Hairband // VINTAGE Brooch
My darling Kane has given us almost 13 years of stories, from naughty puppy teething where he consumed everything possible including parts of our car, to being our loyal companion and fur child long before our human child, and taking on the protection role of our little boy from the moment he came home from the hospital. Kane smiles every day we come home, still enjoys a walk or play with his Justin beaver toy, and is even happy to just snuggle and lick my face late at night when everyone else is in bed. Although his bones and joints ache, he’s eye sight is failing, his farts can clear a room and his hearing is all but lost, he still ensures he holds his position in the family as protector, companion and snuggle buddy.
My fur sisters (don’t have fur babies at the moment) are adorable. Poppy is a pug x, not quite sure what it’s crossed with but it’s given her long coarse unruly fur, and people are sometimes not sure what type of animal she is, could even be an alien. When asked my parents reply that she is a Siberian Pug, very unique :) People believe it. Pretty sure she is the only Siberian pub in this world. Poppy is a good girl, always does the right thing, never runs off, and is always by your side. Unlike her older sister, Sasha, who is a cross too but is definitely more of a shitzhu than anything else. Sasha is “mental complexes” personified. She has no problem with stairs one day, and the next will sit there at the bottom of one split lever stair and whimper and cry for someone to come and lift her over. But not when food is involved, this gives her magic powers to fly over any stairs, or leap to great heights into your arms. Sasha will also eat her dinner of a round plate, but god forbid it’s a square plate, no choice but to starve in this case. Amazing how much joy these two furry animals bring into our lives. Pretty sure mum has more photos of the dogs than of me and my brother combined.
Oops just noticed a few typos. Can’t seem to edit.
Aww Theo is adorable! :) Cooper is our first baby and fur baby too, and he’s spoiled accordingly haha!
I really like your hair in these photos too Cecylia :) Good luck to everyone entering the competition! :)
Almost 2 years ago we fostered our big goof of a dog Mac from a the greyhound adoption Program with the option to adopt (which we took as soon as we could).
Mac was formerly known as Licky because he would lick EVERYTHING out of nervous habit, but as soon as we laid eyes on him we knew he wasn’t a ‘Licky’ so we settled on the name Mac.
He was two years old when we adopted him and bringing him into our home everything was foreign and very scary to a dog who had been locked up in a kennel his whole life, it may seem a given to us but Mac didn’t know what carpet, floor boards, stairs, the television or even what the microwave was so we had to work very hard to introduce him to all these new items, sounds and sensations in a safe, slow manner so that he would t become too spooked by them.
I remember one day I was taking him on a walk to our local park and a soft drink can rolled across the footpath and Mac was terrified! He jumped into the air and just about pulled me off my feet trying to get away from that can because he didn’t know what it was and he didn’t know if it could hurt him.
2 years down the track he has now become a very confident dog who LOVES his daily walks, pats and time laying on the carpet. He still does have some strange moments where he is unsure of something but we are still working with him every single day and watching him thrive.
When we got home each night we noticed Rusty had usually dragged a pillow off our bed. We thought this was so cute that he wanted to have something of ours to snuggle with while we were away. Then one day we came home early and saw what he was really doing was getting ‘jiggy’ with our pillows… after that we gave him the pillows, got new ones for ourselves and made sure to shut our bedroom door before we left.
We have Dash the Border Collie who is the most gentle loving soul and such an intelligent dog. Like Theodore, she was our first fur child and is truly a member of our family. One day we accidentally left our gate open before we left the house. It was a few hours before we realised and we rushed home expecting to put out a search party, only to find that she was happily waiting on our front door step for our return. She is a member of our pack and will not go anywhere without us.
I have two dogs, Ernie and Lola. Ernie is a wolfhound/German shepherd cross. They are both rescues and they are my best friends, my fur-babies and my darlings. My little one, Lola is a Maltese terrier. When I have to go out they have the run of the house and as they are both elderly they do little damage and don’t make a mess anywhere. This day I was about to go out and I could not find my little Lola anywhere. She wasn’t on my bed where she usually sleeps, or out the back, or in any of the other rooms. I was in a panic – where could she be? I feared she had gotten out the front when I was putting the rubbish out and had run off – the grass is always greener on the other side, and has more doggie smells than my little yard! I panicked and got in my car and drove around the streets looking for her. I couldn’t find her anywhere. I came home and searched the rooms again, calling her name. Where could she be? As a last resort I went into my walk-in robe and the little minx was in there chilling out amongst my shoes. I was so relieved to find her but boy, did she get a good talking too.
When my Jack Russell Lexi was a puppy she was VERY excitable and clumsy, so much so that one day we were playing fetch in the house and she saw a fly at the back door window. Her being the silly puppy she was launched herself at this fly forgetting that there was a window there and she managed to knock out almost her whole row of front teeth including her big canine teeth. There was a bit of blood but not enough to worry about. The funny part of this story was for the rest of the day she kept licking that area as if she was confused as to what happened to her teeth.
Who were the lucky winners?