a genuine toy poodle, a daschund and a pomeranian

this is the third dog since we started living in this flat at jelapang. the present dog is a genuine toy poodle, yes, a pedigree. it is called tammy. it was given to us by a friend who had bought it for $850. do not be deceived by its size, it is no puppy. it gave birth to a single male which has since passed away because of kidney failure.

much as i do not welcome the dog because of the extra cleaning up that i have to do sometimes, i still find it useful having it in the flat. when my daughter is left alone at home, the dog is there to keep her company and to offer some form of security and protection. whenever someone walks past the flat or comes to the door, it will bark.

we had another poodle before tammy. i paid about the same amount of money for it. we named it pingyi. we did not, and still do not, take our dogs out for walks. pingyi never went out of the flat on its own but the only time it did, when my colleagues came to visit, it never returned. we pasted notices outside lift doors in the neighbouring blocks but it did not yield anything except for a scribbled response on one of the notices - "already cooked".

before pingyi, we had another small dog called maison. maison was a cross between a pomeranian and a terrier. it was quite a noisy and active dog. maison was also a gift from a friend. it came with a certificate and some papers. we had maison since we were living at towner road. it stayed with us until it had to be put to sleep because of old age. it was going blind and all its faculties were failing.

i had another small dog when we were living in a kampong. it was a daschund called liberty. what an ironic name! liberty never had much freedom. it was leashed to a guava tree most of the time. that black daschund was given to us by a relative.

i am a terrorist - i terrorise the dog. the poor dog will not step across the threhold of the kitchen when i am in the living room. when i am out of sight, it can even make its way to the rooms upstairs. one moment. it may be playing happily in the living room but the next moment, when it hears my voice, it will dash into the kitchen.