My dog, My companion, My sister

My mother often jokingly tells her friend that she has three children. The eldest, being my sister, followed by me and lastly, our dog sister whom we “adopted” three years’ ago. My mum’s youngest “dogter” is a Chihuahua we bought from Pasir Ris Farm Mart. We have an instant connection with this little puppy when we chanced upon her in the pet shop. We decided to name her “Bambi” because she has such big teary eyes.

Bambi has been with us for three years and has brought many moments of joy to the family. Just like any other puppy, she took a while to settle down in her new home. Bambi was extremely demure and quite in her first week with us. We once thought she was mute because she did not bark at all. She finally broke her silence when my dad took away her food before she could finish. That marks the beginning of her endless “yelping” in the estate.

Chihuahuas are known to be fussy eaters. Bambi is no different. My mum tried out a variety of dog food, but Bambi would get sick and tired of them within a week if given the same food at every meal. My mother eventually resorted to preparing home-cooked food (a concoction of carrots, potatoes and pork) for Bambi and she seems to like it so far.

Everyone in the family treats her like a baby, even my maid. Bambi’s first T-shirt was bought by my maid at the Japanese Daiso department store for two dollars. It fitted her very well and she seems to like wearing clothes as well. It is quite difficult to find clothes for Bambi due to her petite stature, so my mum recycled some of our T-shirts by getting an aunty friend at the market who could sew very well and she ingeniously transformed them into new clothes for Bambi.

Bambi is also my alarm clock in the morning. She seems to have a biological clock in her body that tells her to wake me up after my sister has finished washing up in the morning. Dogs are perhaps creatures of habit. Last Monday, I did not have to go to school because of E-learning. My dog, nevertheless, did her job diligently the same time in the morning. My mum had to stop her and tell her that her big brother does not need to go to school that day, or otherwise I would have to bear her endless licking on my face.

I cannot imagine a day without Bambi. I look forward to going home from school every day to see Bambi as without fail, she would wait at the door for me when I return home. She seems to have this special ability to sense that we are nearby even before we take the lift up to our home. This is perhaps God’s special gift to dogs.