It's A Dog's Life

Some dogs have it all.

Others have nothing at all.

Some dogs get fresh chix drumsticks for meals, some get a buffet of half raw meat.

Others live on scraps they can find. Others just go hungry for days on end.

Some dogs have cosy beds to snuggle in. Some dogs even conquer their owners' beds.

Others just make do with whatever limited shelter they have, rain or shine.

Same species. Different lives. tong gou bu tong ming.

Was MSNing with Tongzhi just now and she was telling me about the condition of a dog she saw in her neighbourhood. This dog in question is very thin and a total living breathing ground for big fat ticks, feasting on his blood.

This dog has so much ticks on his body that they are all visible to the naked eye. Tongzhi mentioned that even his ears are blocked with ticks. His nails seem far apart cos there are ticks in between his legs.

And this dog apparently has owners.

When she told me this, I thought of Tikki, a dog found by Cephius. I will always remember her sad eyes when Damien and I first saw her. The look of hurt. Of suffering. Of confusement. Who knows what this dog has been through.

And when we touched her, we realised why she looked so depressed. She was loaded with ticks (thus we gave her the name "Tikki"). Fat ones, grey ones, baby ones.. u name it, u'll find it on her. It was a happy family of ticks, farking sucking on her blood.

Damien and I sent her to Namly for deticking and to the groomer to shave her down. Heck, even Dr Ling was appalled by the sheer number of ticks. It was farking raining ticks in her consultation room. [my hair is itchy just recalling it]. Oh, and just as our hearts ached for her, Dr Ling dropped another bomb - she suspected Tikki is very young, less than a yr old cos her uterus wasn't even fully developed yet.

Her previous owners can go to hell.

After we've cleared all ticks from Tikki's body, Cephius fostered her while we approached k9love for help in adoption. By then, Tikki had undergone a dramatic change. Her eyes sparkled and lost their sadness. She was constantly smiling, unlike our first encounter and her tail couldn't stop wagging. In fact she kept wagging that she hurt her tail and blood kept splattering on the balcony walls - not unlike a scene out of a horror movie. But even that wasn't enough to make her lose that smile.

And it's that smile that made us love her so much, esp Damien. Somehow he has a really really soft spot for her. Cephius adopted her in the end and Tikki is soon fast friends with his dog, Honey. Now, the whole family, dogs and all have migrated to Australia. For Tikki (Ceph changed her name to Vickie, but she'll always be Tikki to me) , life has never been the same again ever since the day Ceph found her.

But some dogs may not have Tikki's luck. Like this one which Tongzhi mentioned. He's in a worse shape than Tikki - he's lost his fur, is scrawny and doesn't seem to trust humans.

Tongzhi wants to do something, anything, even to the extend of sponsoring the dog's visit to the vet.

But this is not the case of a lost and found like Tikki. This is someone's dog we're talking about.

We all have different ways of treating our pets and there are many who treat their dogs as just... dogs. Sure, we have a growing niche who treats their dog like precious babies, but sadly, most Singaporeans just treat their dogs as a pet. An animal. A thing with a name and wags when you come home.

Is it wrong? Is it right? Are we to judge how a family treats their dog?

Some keep their dogs chained up all day. Some feed their dogs table scraps.

Others feel that having ticks is just part and parcel of having a dog. No big deal. Infested with ticks, you say? Well just lock the dog in the backyard. Its normal.

And because these dogs are "owned", some of them actually feel loved, despite their living conditions. After all, they still have an overhead and food to eat, better than their stray counterparts.

I don't know.

Being someone's dog makes the situation a bit sticky.

Ok i'm falling asleep in front of my comp right now so shall continue with my nonsensical blabbering tmr. Shagged after helping Mohan move just 1 pellet of cat food from the warehouse.
*proudly shows of newly developed muscles*