People are often so surprised when they hear I used to have dogs.
“YOU had dogs??”
Well yes, I grew up with dogs since I was 8 years old. My mother didn’t like cats (my father did!), so we never had cats at all. We had dogs, chickens, ducklings, rabbits and geese, all as pets. And we could because we lived in government quarters and there was space.
So here’s going down memory lane, rewinding back to 1971 when I was 8 years old.
This is me, in a rare occasion where I clipped my hair just to have my photo taken! That’s Puffin, my first dog, just after his bath. We were living in Jalan Hospital in Kampar, in a very old government quarters where at the back of our house was an old unmarked burial ground of those slaughtered during World War 2. The wooden house was very long too and it ended with two storerooms which we were told not enter because reptiles came to shed their skins there.
This is Kuala Kangsar and we moved there when I was 11 years old. We lived on Jalan Balai, another wooden government quarters. That’s Puffin and Remirth with me.
 
I was tasked to prepare Puffin and Remirth’s meals when I was old enough to handle the gas stove. We cooked the same thing for them all their lives – meat with soup and rice. There was no vet in Kampar or Kuala Kangsar, we had to go to Ipoh to see the vet, but Puffin and Remirth were hardly sick. The world was so much less polluted then!
Puffin and Remirth’s “spy-hole” in the balcony.
Everyone in town would look out for Puffin when they passed our house.
This was Puffin’s renowned “cheng cheng” pose. All our relatives and friends loved it! He greeted everyone with it.
 
That’s my elder brother and my mum. That white dog is Puteh. He belonged to a monk but we fostered him temporarily to nurse him back to health from an eye disease.
That’s my father, not one who smiled much, but he had a heart of gold. He was a keen reader.
It was around 1978 that Malaysia started to have colour TV! I remember we would rush through lunch after school just to wait for the trial runs at 2pm every day. They used the Donny & Marie shows for the trials. That was our small little TV.
We moved to Jalan Taiping because the government wanted back that house. I learnt to drive in this Mazda 1000. We rented this house and shared the compound with another wooden house where the firemen lived. This house also had a lot of reptile appearances.
Remirth was my mother’s bodyguard. She followed my mother everywhere.
 
That’s my paternal grandmother who came to stay with us.
 
We had to separate our dogs from our chickens!
And our pair of geese!
Puffin’s favourite place which we called “Fin’s Bin”.
A family photo! In the background are the portraits of my paternal grandfather and me – they were painted by my mum when she dabbled in oil painting. The Chinese painting on the far left and above the piano were done by me when I dabbled in Chinese brush painting after STPM.
This is the house in Bukit Kerajaan. The government decided to give us another quarters. This was up on an adjacent hill near the Istana in Kuala Kangsar. There was Bukit Chandan, the royal hill, and Bukit Kerajaan where the government servants stayed. In Bukit Kerajaan, again, encounters with reptiles. But our geese were very adept at alerting us.
My brother went to Singapore for his studies and I went to USM. That’s him wearing the tshirt I bought him!
Husband, on the left. He “rescued” Puffin when Puffin had his fur entangled under the sofa, so since then, Puffin accepted him! Remirth, on the other hand, accepted everyone! She even played with two big cobras…I remember most vividly how we had to quickly get her away.
My mother showing Remirth a birthday card she’d received. The birthday card was for Remirth, by the way.
My father was strictly no-nonsense (I definitely inherited his genes), but had such a soft spot for all animals. He loved the dogs so, so much. He loved all animals, actually. We seldom encountered cats, but when we did, you can be sure he’d be the first to pat and carry them.
Yes, I inherited his genes!
 
Spying on the chickens!
Puffin passed away peacefully surrounded by all of us, on the 7th day of Chinese New Year when he was 14 years old and I was 22. Remirth passed away, aged 12, in that same year, on the 15th day of the 2nd Chinese month, so just slightly more than a month later. My brother who had never learnt Chinese painting, took up the brushes and painted these in one sitting.
I remember my brother’s words, he said: “We didn’t watch Puffin and Remirth grow up. THEY watched us grow up.”
He was right.
Puffin and Remirth were there for all our milestones. They were always there for us.
I paid tribute to Puffin and Remirth in my first book, Pawprints on my Heart.
The post Down memory lane with Puffin and Remirth appeared first on AnimalCare.
More Articles By AnimalCare
|
| 
Member Login
