Animals are such agreeable friends — they ask no questions; they pass no criticism.
English Victorian novelist and critic, George Eliot.
MY friends, how many dogs and cats do you keep at home?
I have two dogs, Cookie and Bailey, and a cat, Mimi.
And my son, Tzen, thinks I’m keeping too many pets at home.
In fact, he disapproves of keeping any pets at home because of the undeniable health and safety risks, especially the spread of zoonotic diseases (infections passed from animals to humans).
Indeed, come to think of it, the potential dangers of disease like Rabies, bites and allergies do make pet ownership a valid concern for many pet owners including yours truly.
That is why I’ve decided not to keep any more pets in the future after Cookie, Bailey and Mimi are gone not only because of the potential dangers of disease but also the hard work involved.
Yes, it is not easy to keep pets.
You need consistent daily effort — from cleaning messes and scheduling vet visits.
Leaving the pets at home while on vacation also needs careful planning. I usually pay a neighbour to feed my dogs.
As for my cat, I send it to a pet shop which offers pet boarding.
Now, let me share with you how I ended up with Cookie, Bailey and Mimi.
Many years ago, one of my nephews’ daughter was selling puppies on behalf of a classmate.
However, there was no taker for a fat, fluffy white and brown male mongrel puppy.
Of course, the business-minded girl would have been happy if I agreed to buy the puppy.
But at that time, I had two or three other big dogs and a cat at home.
I was not interested in a puppy.
I also noticed that the animal was not active; it seemed to be sleeping all the time.
Tired of asking around, my grandniece suddenly just left the poor puppy in my house without asking for any payment.
That was the end of the puppy business as far she was concerned.
I had no choice but to take care of the little animal.
My niece, Ah Hong, who names all my pets, named it Cookie.
Cookie, which looks like a German Shepherd, is, I think, about 16 years old now.
It is now the boss of all the pets in my house.
Next is Bailey, a three-year-old brown hair female dog.
I asked another nephew, Ah Kiong, to help me look for a puppy when Cookie became depressed and sad after Alvin, my black and white male cat, died.
Cookie was good with Alvin and after the cat passed away suddenly, it refused to eat and would lie quietly in a corner.
That was the first time I witnessed a dog mourning the loss of an animal companion.
Ah Kiong looked high and low for a puppy.
Then one day, he told me that someone left a litter of newborn brown hair puppies outside a mechanic workshop which belonged to his friend.
By the time my nephew went to the workshop, all the male puppies had been taken away by other people. Only a female puppy was left.
The puppy was very small when it arrived at my house.
Ah Hong named it Bailey.
Cookie began to eat again after we took in Bailey. Initially, it also bullied the little dog a lot. Until today, Bailey is still scared of Cookie.
After Alvin died, the rats had a field day in my house.
I caught some with the help of a mouse trap cage.
But the other rats were smart; they learnt quickly to avoid being trapped in the cage.
Thus, I had no choice but to seek the help of another nephew, Ah Lai.
Yes, I have many nephews.
After a few weeks, Ah Lai appeared in my house with a young male white and orange cat.
He said it belonged to a friend and was one of the cats which lived in his friend’s factory.
Since the colour of the cat’s coat reminded me of Mimi, a previous female cat I owned, I decided to name the newcomer Mimi.
Recently, I went away for nine days.
During my absence, my son, Tzen, had to feed the dogs and cat.
He fed my dogs once a day with chicken bones and rice or chicken rice and changed their water once a day.
He fed Mimi once a day with dry cat food. Tzen also let the dogs out once a day so that they could have their potty breaks.
By the time I returned home, all my pets had lost weight.
Unknown to my son, my dogs and cats are foodies.
They are fussy about their food and usually will not eat the same type of food for two or three consecutive days.
If my dogs could talk, I’m sure they would have exclaimed, “Oh no! Not chicken bones and chicken rice again today!”
When I am around, my dogs eat twice a day.
Sometimes, it is canned beef or salmon meat with rice.
Sometimes, it is chicken liver with rice and sometimes, it is braised pork with rice.
The menu changes every day.
My cat is also very fussy.
That is why I have to buy different brands of wet and dry cat food. Before I went away for nine days, Cookie and Bailey used to sleep in my living room.
Now, they don’t. Tzen has banned them from entering the house because of the hair they shed.
He explains dog hair traps allergens (like pet dander and pollen), embeds stubbornly into fabrics and carpets and carries outdoor dirt, odours and bacteria into the living space.
Now, every time my dogs scratch the door because they want to enter the house, I just shout, “You better stay outside. Otherwise Tzen will beat you” in Hokkien.
The scratching stops and all is quiet after that.
But the funny thing is that Tzen has never beaten any of the pets or shouted at them.
All he does is to look at them.
The views expressed here are those of the writer and do not necessarily represent the views of Sarawak Tribune. The writer can be reached at adelinel888@ gmail.com.
