Well, today I am going to blog about my dog.. sort of like a tribute to her.
Her name is Poppy – a kind of flower. (One common species of Poppy is the Opium Poppies which we get drug and food from.)
She is an American Cocker Spaniel. We initially wanted to name her Milla, after the famous actress who starred in Resident Evil series, but after coming across “Poppy”, the name of a contestant on a local beauty contest which airing on the TV that evening… Poppy she shall be!
We bought Poppy from a pet farm in Pasir Ris in March 2003. I can’t recall the exact date but it was close to my birthday… We didn’t go with the intention of buying a dog, more like a casual visit to check out the doggies there. Until we saw her and her brother.. droopy eyes, floppy ears, so young and innocent.. we couldn’t resist her charm and eventually chose her over her brother (who was bullying her a little). Come to think of it now, I suspect she was putting on a show for us last time because she turns out to be extremely fierce loh!
So we brought her back to my home and what a sweet little creature she was! She was so tiny and was exploring the living room slowly… I have had hamsters, terrapins, a duckling, quails, fighting fishes (yes, I know my choice of pets has been strange in the past) but a dog is what I have always wanted. Poppy was the perfect pet and so adorable! That was until the problems surfaced..
She was afraid of being left alone and will whine from the kitchen where we left her to sleep at nights. Maybe she has a poor digestive system, her favorite pastime was to eat her poo.. which irritated and grossed my mum to the max! She was always pooping every few hours and we had to clean her and her mess up. The last straw came when my mum and sis went travelling and I have to rush home during lunch time to check on her.. only find her playing with her poo and shredding the newspapers that I have left in her pen for her to urinate on in a thousand pieces. After sleepless nights of her waking me up with her whines and with no one else at home helping me to clean her up, I asked Melvin to take her away.. something that I still feel guilty about..
He came that morning, right before dawn.. brought Poppy and most of her belongings to his sister’s home. Eventually, she was brought back to his home.. being her sister also couldn’t cope with her. I tried to visit her once a week, then once a month.. sometimes it was even as long as once every 2 months. She never forgot about me and was happy to jump and sit in my laps every times she saw me. Melvin was the patient one who never gave up on her.. trained her to pee on the newspapers which took him a long time for her to pick up. She was a sickly dog.. suffering a genetic disorder resulted her having left hind hip/ knee to grow at a weird angle. It was causing her alot of pain to stand and sometimes she would just drag herself around with her front limbs.. resembling a seal… She was also having seizures which would her to throw up and pee/ poo uncontrollably..
I was really worried when we were preparing for our wedding a couple of years ago.. on how would we cope with her at the new house… Melvin’s mum used to take care of Poppy when she was with them during that few years. We have to squeeze time in the morning to feed and walk her before we leave for work.. and to do the same in the evenings too.. there was alot of worries like how would she cope being at home alone for most part of the day.. well, things did work out eventually, with her being a lazy dog, she loves to sleep and laze the afternoons away. We keep her in the kitchen when we are out and she will go to the toilet when she needs to relieve herself. There are times when we skip her twice-daily walks and she will throw tantrums by peeing and dirtying the kitchen floor.. so naughty right?!
And not start on her temper.. she is one fierce dog loh! She loves to bark at neighbours - kids and karang-guni especially! She will not hesitate to bite if you commit any of the below offense:
1) Get too close to her when her owner is playing with/ cuddling her.
2) Get too close when she is feeding or when we are preparing her food.
3) Run when she is barking at you. *To stay firm and stationery when she is barking/ sniffing you out.
4) She doesn’t play fetch. Don’t you dare to grab her toys when she is playing with them. The last time I did that (on last Sat), I ended up with a bleeding middle finger. :-P
5) She is very prideful and doesn’t like it when you try fooling around with her. She doesn’t like it when you do “neh neh neh boo boo” or “ku chi ku chi” (tickle) actions.. The last time Melvin tried sweet talking to trick her into going back to the kitchen (which was just yesterday), he ended up with a bleeding knee cap. Haha!
So we are talking about a real prideful lady here.. but setting her fierce nature aside, she can be so adorable at times! Like how she would run to the door when I ask her “Has Melvin came home?”.. and how she would rush to the kitchen the minute she hears the sound of me using the chopping board.. she would come running thinking that I am preparing her meals! Sometimes, I would hug her so tightly and the minute she wriggle herself free from me, she would hide under Melvin’s work desk!
Now that I have gotten used to her, I don’t think I would be able to stand coming home and not seeing her. With Melvin barely around at home, she is a treasured companion to me. I am seriously hoping that our future maid is a dog lover too!
