DODO

Dodo, is my beloved 8 year old Male cockier spaniel. My partner gave dodo to me as a present to cheer me up when I was itching to quit Melbourne and head back home.

Guess he was meant to be a bribe or some sort. But I feel in love with all of my dogs. So dodo was not going to be excluded.

I did abandon him for like 3 years while we moved back to Zhuhai and I had to work in Macao for like 2 years. We came back to Melbourne by July 2007, with me being 6 months pregnant with little Lya.

He was very fat by then, thanks to his generous god mother. This nurse from HeiLong Jiang, China. In fact, I had a heated argument with her on how not to overfeed my poor dog, who was at that time, 25 kgs. His ideal weight is like 13- 15 kgs?

Guilt-ridden myself, I basically was determined to like make it up to him and walked him almost every single day, for up to 1 hour , in an attempt to lose the weight.

Till Lya was born in November, it took me 4 months to like reach a weight of 18kgs.

A bit of information, overweight dogs are prone to many heart problems, arthritis, kidney failure and as my vet put it, " killing the dog with too much love".

Trust me, the nurse did not share my concern.

My partner and in-laws tried to persuade me to give up my dog, and let the god mother take care of him. I myself, know that it would not be fair and I always wanted my children to have a pet.

Dodo is very very good with Lya. Perhaps Lya adores him because she can pull his lip and flappy ears and he would not even growl or snap at her?

I grew up with pets and I believe that it advocates love, empathy, a mutual respect for a living being and unselfishness.

Anyone who do not like animals, tend to be a bit more self centered. Of coz, I am not saying everyone needs to like animals. That would spark endless debates and disagreements.

But pets somehow make my life better? How?

Dodo enforced me to walk more, get out more, love more, endure more and simply, how a simple lick from him can cure my moodiness?

I do tend to forsake my poor beloved dog. I have no idea how I am going to cope with 2 kids and dodo but I am sure, I will somehow land on my feet; with his paws on my thigh.