Victoria

We're The Furballs (WTF)

We're The Furballs is Singapore's first dog petting cafe which opened in 2012.

As I'm not an avid lover of pets, I never ever bothered stepping into any animal petting cafes.

Today, I chose to visit one since all the movies were all fully booked and my boyfriend and I were at Bugis+. Since WTF is located right on the 7th floor of Bugis+ and he is obsessed with dogs so hey, why not?

I went into We're The Furballs without any expectations and I was really just prepared to sit at a corner and watch dogs running around in an open space.

It is the Third day of the Chinese New Year, and we paid $12.50 with a complimentary drink to enter.

We were introduced to the dogs one by one as we entered the play space. There wasn't a lot of other people at that point of time, there were only four others in the space.

We sat at one corner and quietly observed the dogs awhile.

There were 9 dogs in total, with Wooly being the newest dog in WTF.

The dogs took awhile to approach us and familiarize themselves with our scent by constantly sniffing us.

We were told by the staff that if we sit cross legged, it would invite the bigger dogs to cuddle up on our laps while by stretching out our legs allows the smaller dogs to hop on.

The first dog that lingered around me was Bui Bui, the french bulldog.

I stretched out my hand innocently and it licked my hand continuously and followed by licking my knee.

Licking my hand

Licking my leg

It got comfortable in my boyfriend's lap and cuddle up in his lap.

Keng Seng with Bui Bui

It slept on Seng's lap for quite awhile till it's eyes were closed. It went to walk around for awhile. I attempted to lure him onto my lap by letting him sniff Seng's jacket. It took awhile to settle down on my lap but it did!

Bui Bui on my lap

The dogs were all very exhausted and were all taking a nap all around. Here's me attempting to disturb Wooly, in his sleep.

Do we look alike?

As first timers, they gave us treats to lure the dogs into our laps. They are very treat-orientated; meaning to say whenever they sniff out a treat in our hands, they would enthusiastically run towards you all at once.

Here's three dogs waiting for their treats in my hands

Duchness is a spaniel whereas Slinky is a Dachshund.

Funfact: Slinky is being named after the Toy Story's sausage dog!

I was drinking my hot tea as Slinky hopped onto me.

Slinky on my lap

Seng used his treat to command Bui Bui how to do 'Paw', basically stretching his hand out and letting Bui Bui tap it.

Bui Bui falling asleep in Seng's arms

Bui Bui constantly followed Seng around and laid in his arms. I guess it must've liked Seng scent a lot!

2 hours flew past so quickly and we didn't want to leave. It was honestly an eye opening experience for me. I'm always afraid of dogs because they left me a pretty bad impression. It either end up hurting me by scratching me or intimidate me by barking relentlessly.

The dogs here definitely are people-friendly. Though it took awhile for them to get comfortable with you, they would approach you and settle down in your lap.

I've never associated dogs with the words 'adorable' or 'likeable'. However, it gave me a changed impression on dogs in general.

Now I see why Seng loves dogs so much, they're pretty adorable when they are innocently wondering around or playing around.

I will definitely visit WTF again, Seng already misses Bui Bui!

We're the Furballs(WTF)
Bugis+
201 Victoria Street #07-07
Singapore 188067
Mon-Thu: 1.00PM - 10.00PM
Fri-Sat: 12.30PM - 10.30PM
Sun: 1.00PM - 10.00PM

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, by victoria

dragonboat

I used to love running, but not anymore

Today's post will be a little different. It's going to be about something more personal and something I've been feeling for quite awhile.

The reason why I didn't post anything personal for the past couple of months was because I'm afraid of what people would think of me, but I'm just going to write in this space because I want to get it off my chest.

This is my opinion, my thought.

Everyone can have differing opinions but this is just mine and I hope that you would respect it as I'm just giving you a piece of how I've been feeling the past few months.

As many of you know, I've joined Dragon boat back in August.

Different team members struggle with different sections. Some may be the inability to lift heavy weights, some may not catch the correct strokes for rowing.

For me, it's running.

Every time when I've put on my pair of running shoes lately, all I ever feel is a heavy heart of course accompanying that heavy feet.

Don't get me wrong, I love to run.

It takes my mind off all the stress I'm facing, it's like a temporary escapade from reality. Your mind releases endorphin to allow you to sink in them after a long run.

There's always my favorite playlist played and blast at maximum volume into my eardrums to get the adrenaline pumping. I know it isn't exactly the best for my ears, but it deafening music covers up my never ending irregular, loud breathing. My constant gasping for air will be ignored by my body because I'm oblivious to it, making it easier to finish a run with much joy.

My mind would occupy itself whilst at it. It would think of anything.

This includes happy flashbacks, thinking back about my friends and how I really cherish them as recent memories came flashing past.

My mind will have a debate in my head till I get a solution about the situation I'm stressed out about, allowing me to have a clear direction to get it done. After coming to a conclusion I would catch myself giving a visual pat on the back saying, 'Hey it ain't that a big deal after all' .

There would also be times where I thought about tough times that I've been through. Personally, it was those times where I exceeded my own expectations for math at O and A levels.

Inevitably, people who had put me down would pop into my head as well. From temasek sec denying me of an opportunity to take A math, got kicked out of higher chinese cause I wasn't good enough, being called out for having L1R5 of 27 one month before O levels because i was the last few percentile in the whole school.

There would also be times where I think about my first heartbreak that stings my heart so bad. The exact feeling I felt on sitting on the concrete floor with my whole body feeling icy cold from all the relentless crying.

Of course, all these thoughts flooding through my mind gave me motivation to run with sudden burst of energy every now and then, quickening and lightening my feet and push myself forward.

When the run ends and all my thoughts settled down, I came to consensus and made peace with myself.

I felt nothing but bliss.

However, it just doesn't feel the same anymore.

As I laced up my shoelace and approached the starting line, I felt like a zombie from Walking Dead. I'm always the first in line because I'm the slowest in the team.

I ran, but my mind was blank for initial few hundred metres.

Slowly, I will start to lack behind from the others. This time, my mind just goes, 'Here we again'.

Words of encouragement were being echoed from the back telling me to keep up and don't give up.

I had to constantly push myself to catch up so that I wouldn't let my team mates down.

However, this only resulted in wasting of energy because I would just lack behind eventually, being even more worn out and little energy to last for the whole 3-4km run.

By this time, I would be trailing behind and away from the rest of the team. As I watch my team mates run with such elegance, there I was getting into my really weird posture by tilting my head towards my right and my feet hit the ground like I was about to create an earthquake with a magnitude of 9.0.

I was so ungraceful.

The things that flooded through my mind was just negative.

'When is this going to end? OMG f- my life. Okay I swear this will be the last time I'm going to run, I really just want this to end, it's so painful. Why do I even try, I can't even be as good as them. Why am I so different from the rest? -'.

I really don't know if it's a normal thing to feel like you're out of breath to the point that your chest will start to contract so hard that you can't even breathe even at start of the run. Sometimes, I really feel like it's not that I don't want to push myself.

I mean, come on. It isn't exactly nice to always be last in runs, it isn't nice being away from the team.

Nobody would want to the dull in this ugly scene whereby you are always the black sheep. No one. I'm sure everyone that goes to Uni has somewhat an ego that doesn't want to be bruised.

It's embarrassing. If anyone had the energy to keep up and catch up, they would.

I would.

I hate being a burden, especially dragging down a senior to run with you because as a junior you can't run alone.

Honestly, I'd rather run alone and complete the run myself.

I don't blame anyone for looking down on me because I just cannot run, because I would.

I would probably slap myself and stare myself with those judgmental eyes. I would despise having someone being such a letdown, slow ass shit.

I would.

After each run, I don't feel bliss like I used to before.

I felt pain; physically in my chest and emotionally; for having a bruised ego, being a burden of the team.

If only someone would feel, that immense pain I felt after every training runs. I've always wished someone would run in my body and let them truly feel how it's like running with that much of pain.

I wish someone would understand, how it's like, being in my shoes.

With all that being said, it's just how I feel and I guess I'm going to continue to feel like that until I get better at running.

I don't know if I ever would, but I'm not going to give up even though I've told myself countless times that I would quit trying.

I'm sure every dragon boater has a certain level of competitiveness in them being in a such adrenaline pumped sport, everyone wants to prove their worth.

Of course, not forgetting resilience and determination to stay on in this high demanding sport with more than half a week filled with training and successfully pulling through every session.

I'm not as weak mentality as I thought, if not I would've been gone by now.

I am just going to find joy in running again, soon.

Maybe by improving it won't feel as painful as it is now.

I'm not giving up.

Not yet.