So much that I used to spend more time with the dogs during visits to other people's home than I would with the hosts. I love dogs of any shape and size and used to pour over children's encylopedias filled of dogs and descriptions of how to identify and care for them.
I used to live in a house that had a nice size for a few dogs to live in, unfortunately, dad is very garden-proud - you know, the green version of being house proud. He flatly refused to have any dogs in the household unless its over his dead body. Correction, "until you have your own home", was what he used to say.
Mom did manage to sneak one in when I was 15 years old. One of her suppliers had found a litter of pariah (mixed breed) dogs in a construction site and passed one to her. I was overjoyed to see the little puppy who was black and shiny and so loving.
I named him Prince. My dad called him "Blackie" in tribute to the common naming practices in the kampungs (villages) of yesteryear. My mother butchered his name to Xiao Hei 小黑(little black). This naming convention runs in the family even today. Here's another example: we name our daughter Rebecca, my mother calls her 小小 (small small) and our inner family circle calls her Kaka. Its a genetic flaw, I tell you.
Anyway, Prince grew really quickly and rapidly became the first thing each of us looked for when we arrived home. He was an extremely cheeky dog and would get up to all sorts of mischief. Unfortunately we had a neighbour who's kid was rather mean and used to throw stones at Prince and pretend smack him when he was younger, even though we told her not to. As Prince grew, he would growl whenever he saw our neighbour. Mom feared that Prince may attack our neighbour's girl if he ran out of our gates accidentally and decided to give Prince away. I was very sad but the rational side of me knew that what she did was right.
It was to my utter happiness when I found out that Mr B, my then boyfriend, has a Japanese retriever at his parental home. I used to ask him to tell me stories about Mimi (yes, what a name) and I can still remember the mischief she got up to even today. Mimi was the most docile dog I've ever come across. She was so calm that she refused to bark at the cats which loiter around the neighbourhood, so much so that I used to watch my mom-in-law having to shoo the cats off the family cars while Mimi watched on with her head rested on her paws and that little twinkle in her eyes. Unfortunately she was stolen (or escaped, depending on who's version of the story you hear and believe) about 2 years into our 'dating' diary and again, there was no dog to be on the receiving end of my doggy love.
The next instance where I came close to having a dog was back in 2004 in Shanghai. Mr B and I were married, working hard and not really planning to have children, not till another 3 or 4 years at least. So we thought. We decided that it would be ok to start looking around and researching the "dog" situation in Shanghai. Mr B spoke to his colleagues who had dogs and asked for names of shops where we could possibly find a suitable candidate.
We discussed breeds and the practicalities of rearing the dog e.g. where it would sleep, who will walk it and were all set to start viewing doggidates when we found out that we were going to have a Baby. A baby..and so out went the dog plans.
Fast forward to today. I have reached the grand old age of 30 and am still dogless. I still enjoy oogling over dogs that pass me by but am somewhat more sensitive to the "germ factor" now that I often have a 3 year old in tow. It pleases me no end to watch Rebecca coo over dogs as well and she seems to find no end in pleasure when she's in their company.
We are blessed to have 2 dogs live next to my parents' home in Singapore, Tassly and Toby. Rebecca would jump up from her bed at the break of dawn and ask for permission to walk the dogs each morning. She repeats the walks again in the evening before dinner. In fact, I was told that she even took an active role in disciplining the dogs. "Toby, naughty dog, no biting at the lead" was what my nanny reported.
I'm estatic that she's a doggy lover as this means that we can have dogs live with us. Especially now that I own my own home. Which, if you recall, is the criteria my dad had set. So how about moving to a larger home in Shanghai Mr B? I'll continue to petition for it and meanwhile, wait for me my doggy. I know you're out there and I'll come get you one day.
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