Till next time,
Love,
Sheryl x
Hi there! I know it has been awhile since I've blogged about what I've been doing or where I have gone so here's a little post for you before I get all busy with school. School has been kind for the first week & yes, my week in school is over; a simple 3 day week in school. I haven't really gotten used to the waking up at 6/7am routine since I have been having the oddest and weirdest sleeping cycle over the holidays. Before you start nagging at me for whatever it is you're about to blabber on about. Yes, I should have tried to rewire my body clock a week or two before school started..... I know I know, my mistake. Oh well!! I am rather excited for school to begin and kick start.
Anyways, since school was starting, the boy managed to squeeze in 2 days of leave last week - on Thursday and Friday. We decided to finally visit We are The Furballs (WTF), after weeks of putting it off due to the many 1 star reviews we've seen on Facebook. After reading the comments or reviews, I had pretty much the mindset that the cafe had unfriendly dogs that were "no treats no affection" & the cafe also had obnoxious and unfriendly staff. My friend who went there also had a similar experience as those that gave 1/2 star reviews.............. an even greater oh no for me. (note: this is the mindset and impression I had BEFORE I entered the cafe)
Most of the other dogs were hogged by other customers so boohoo I only got to entertain and play with these few aha
Anyways, since school was starting, the boy managed to squeeze in 2 days of leave last week - on Thursday and Friday. We decided to finally visit We are The Furballs (WTF), after weeks of putting it off due to the many 1 star reviews we've seen on Facebook. After reading the comments or reviews, I had pretty much the mindset that the cafe had unfriendly dogs that were "no treats no affection" & the cafe also had obnoxious and unfriendly staff. My friend who went there also had a similar experience as those that gave 1/2 star reviews.............. an even greater oh no for me. (note: this is the mindset and impression I had BEFORE I entered the cafe)
Some might ask why did I bother heading down to the cafe since I had such a bad impression of the place. Reason why we decided to head on down? There were quite a handful of great reviews too. Plus, me and the boy are both huge lovers of animals. There was practically nothing that would stop us from experiencing a dog cafe.
So the cafe is situated on the top floor of Bugis+ and it's easier to just take a lift all the way to the 7th floor. After which it's rather easy to spot with it's really adorable and cutesy exterior design. They have different operating hours so do check out the timings below to prevent being disappointed. I highly suggest making an appointment or reservation if you're intending to drop by during the peak hours or during the weekends.
The boy & I went on a Thursday at around 1:30PM which was near to the opening time. There was only another pair there and the place was rather quiet. Since we were first timers, the staff also ensured we knew the rules and regulations clearly before we were allowed in. After we made payment, the staff showed us the way in and recommended we place our belongings in the shelves provided to prevent the dogs from chewing anything. She then introduced all the dogs and their breeds.
We sat around for a little while, not knowing what to do - whether to approach the pooches or to just sit around and wait for them to approach us. Since I've seen countless photos of Buibui, I really really wanted to get a chance to sayang it and to yknow just chill together with it. Ahh, but Buibui was in a really small and comfy corner snoozing away.
After realizing that Buibui would probably not move from the comfy spot, I made my way over to Duchess and Slinky. I absolutely love the Toy Story movie and to see the resemblances in Slinky made my day. Duchess wasn't really interested in us at all since she had her toys with her. Slinky on the other hand was pretty fine with us stroking it and petting it. Slinky even came over to snuggle next to my leg.
We clearly weren't the only people there and when the other customers there realized that they were not gonna be able to take photos with the dogs or interact with the dogs without treats and incentives, they headed over to the counter and bought some. I am not against buying treats for the dogs, but honestly speaking, once the treats have been introduced by one or two customers, the dogs would naturally only follow the ones with treats. After a few customers bought treats and were basically the only ones the dogs were interested in, the other customers followed suit to get an opportunity at winning the dog's affection. Personally, we felt it would have been better to just slowly let the dogs warm up to you instead of using the treats. Since without the treats the dogs would just walk away and resume their disinterest in you.
TIP: Be open-minded enough when you are there. Try to gain the trust and affection of the dogs by providing pats and all. Buying treats as a form of bribery will only get you that far. Cause once the dogs realize you have none left, they'll walk away and find someone else who will feed them.
Me and the boy refused to purchase treats and we decided to just be ourselves and attract whichever dog that wants us. Guess what. Even without treats, Buibui still came to us and cuddled on our laps for a good 15 minutes or so. Yes I repeat, without treats! It was possible to gain the attention and affection of the dogs without treats as bribery. Of course, this lasted only for the short period of time as the other customers walked over to tempt Buibui with treats.
As time went by (about an hour into our visit), we found ourselves just sitting around having nothing to do except watch people interact and bride dogs with treats. There were also much more customers that came in hence the increase in ratio of customers to dogs. When we saw that the dogs were all more interested in treats, we made the decision to leave to spend our time elsewhere.
All in all, the visit to WTF was truly eye-opening and amazing. I got to interact with a few of the friendlier ones and even got to have some cuddle on my lap/next to my leg. BUT as much as this has been a really fun experience, I still have to say that: If you're expecting a whole bunch of dogs to come and cuddle on your lap, it will not happen unless 1) you have treats 2) you're some sort of doggie king/queen. I kid you not. Would I go back there again? I'm still deciding since it was rather fun going there when they've just opened for the day and having little to no one 'fighting' with you for the dogs.
Most of the other dogs were hogged by other customers so boohoo I only got to entertain and play with these few aha
Till next time,
Love,
Sheryl x
Love,
Sheryl x
Note: This is just a little continuum from the previous few posts which were mainly just photo diaries. Links to the posts are here & here. I know I know, the last 2 posts were mainly a huge vomit of photos from dates/events/birthdays that happened over the last 2 months. I can't seem to find anything that I am truly sincerely passionate about writing just yet, so yeah. Boring updates from the last couple of months shall suffice as updates for this space for now.
Question to self: Why create a new post when I could have just continued from the previous one right? Well, I have no answer to that either. I just wanted to make things less messy and I don't know if it really worked.
Anyways, ignore my stupid rants and fast forward plentiful of boring days, and say hello to friYAY! The boy managed to take leave on Friday so we made last minute plans to visit the River Safari since we've visited the zoo before. I really wanted to go to River Safari because of Kai Kai and Jia Jia. I have this little or maybe a huge obsession with Pandas. I feel like they're my kind of animals. Sleep all day, everyday ahahahaha
We've learnt our lesson from the last time we went to the zoo with an empty stomach. So we made our way to grab a quick lunch before travelling to Choa Chu Kang bus interchange. We then took 927 from the interchange to the River Safari. The entire journey was about 30-35 minutes, excluding waiting time for the bus. When we arrived at the River Safari, we made our way to the counter and I flashed my tickets which were screenshots on my phone. Thankfully I didn't have to print it out and the online versions worked just fine. (you'll see a lot of photos of us looking like tourists, oops)
I should have warned the boy that the River Safari probably consisted of 70% fish, or water creatures. Something he was most definitely not a fan of. It completely slipped my mind when I suggested going since I was focusing mainly on the pandas. Well, he found out the harsh way haha oops. I was fascinated by all the different creatures and was busy pointing it out, but this boy right here. He just didn't listen at all. He was either trying to get a clear shot of the fish, or completely just zoned out. It didn't help that most of the exhibits were behind glass, which made the photos x100 more blur and just not pretty at all.
After awhile we gave up using the camera and decided to just stick to my phone + a selfie stick. Trust me, a selfie stick comes in super handy especially if you're someone like me who loves to take photos without having my face take up 80% of the frame.
Story time again!! Omg so when we were looking at the stork ^, I got pretty engrossed in just looking at it move and yknow, do its thing. Out of a sudden, the stork (I'm gonna call it A) found food from godknowswhere, and started eating. Of course, stork B wanted food too. But nope, A, wasn't gonna give it. So A flew away, and there was this tiny little piece of food left and B went straight for it. But it didn't grab it properly with its beak. AND THE FOOD DROPPED TO THE GROUND. And the poor stork B couldn't find it after. I swore it just looked aimlessly and couldn't find that little piece of meat gah. I was so devasted for B that I stood there like a weird person just pointing nonstop to the piece of meat. I stood there for possibly 20 minutes talking to the stork (like it'll ever hear me lol). I guess the boy thought I was going cray, talking to a stork through a glass panel hah
Moving onnnnnnnnnnnnn, we got closer to the panda exhibit and I was sooooo stoked!! I was basically jumping around like a little child EGGGGGCITED for the pandas. I've been to the River Safari once before, but both of the pandas were hiding the last time I went. Since we had a ton of time left (it was only 2PM or maybe earlier), we stayed at the panda exhibit area for probably 40 minutes or so. The boy was so captivated by the red panda and its cuteness, and so was I. It just so happened that when we entered, they were feeding the red panda. It was super duper adorable. It only wanted apple slices and completely ignored the (what I assumed was) high fibre biscuits. It also looked kinda sad and lonely since there was only 1 of it in the entire enclosure.
After the red panda retreated to the little corner on top of one of the branches, we decided to move along and see the pandas! You have no clue how much of a child I was that day, looking forward to seeing one of my fav animals ever. I took so many photos of the butts of Kai Kai & Jia Jia, as well as many (if I dare say so myself), nicely timed shots. *brims with joys and pride* Kai Kai and Jia Jia didn't do much the entire time we were looking at it/admiring its butt. Either way, it was still a great time just looking at them in their 'natural' habitat, doing absolutely nothing.
After staying at the panda enclosure for more than an hour (just a wild guess tbh), the crowd started to stream in and it was no longer as tranquil as before. We headed out towards the souvenir shop and walked around aimlessly. WE CHANCED UPON THESE SUPER FLUFFY AND SUPER ROUND BALLS OF FUR. And we fell in love with them.
I've always had this fear that the people mending the store would hate me for taking pictures/photos of the items sold or with the items. I don't know why or how this little voice came about to me but I just never felt okay taking photos like these in souvenir stores especially. Oh well!! They were way too adorable for me to resist. I might even consider going back just to get these cause LOOK AT IT. It just screams bring me home!! Right?
After we walked around the souvenir shop, we decided that we didn't get enough of the pandas. So we headed back into the enclosure and stuck around for a little longer.
River Safari has really really little things for you to see and take photos with/of. After the panda enclosure there was really nothing much left, unless you got tickets for the boat rides. I didn't get them cause from past experience, the animals won't be out for you to look at them anyways. So the ride didn't make much of a difference in my opinion. We walked around for an hour or so more before we decided to head off home. Right before we left, we saw Giant Otters which were just lazing around in the sun. And I swore, that's my life goals hahah to just be free of worries and laze without any burdens.
Although it was a short day at the River Safari, I still felt rather drained from all the walking (no idea why). So yadayada, that pretty much leaves us the end of the day. We left River Safari with contented hearts and souls. I felt like a child again there and I was just really happy we both enjoyed ourselves immensely.
Here's to many more adventures, my dear, and to loving animals more and more.
(The photo on the right is us reenacting the viral koala crying video, fyi!!)
It's 1:22AM, wow I've been trying to draft this out since 12midnight. Oh well, good night friends.
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love,
sheryl
