The Black Visitor
Original Post Date : August 15, 2005
Singapore is not a friendly place for pets.
Those stay in apartment, equivalent to maybe rumah susun in Jakarta, like me, are restricted to small dogs. So, we can only have dogs like terrier or smaller. Those stay in condominium or landed house, higher class, can keep whatever they like (although apartments are slightly bigger than condominium).
Another, the cost of maintenance for pets are very high. From nutrient, vaccines, groom and food, all of them are more expensive that what I consume. I’m telling the truth.
See, I can go to a doctor for 20-30 dollars. I brought my hamsters to doctor when they were sick, they cost 50 dollars, EACH. (more expensive than the hamsters itself + food + cage). The cost of grooming a dog’s hair is about 40-50 dollars, while mine is 10 dollar. Mhehe…we haven’t talk about their food, shampoo etc…. :)
So, I can’t have a dog here. Expensive and I can’t have bigger dog, which I like more. And I can’t leave them when I go overseas, of course I can put them in dog’s hotel, but they cost…uhm…
Funny. I always pictured myself staying alone, with my dog, in foreign country and outside in the garden reading a book while a prince would come after traveling all over the world looking for me. Mhahhahaha….
The diffs are I can’t afford a dog, I don’t have a garden and I’m married. :) Not bad at all.
One day, there was a black dog outside my unit. It sat in front of the trellis door and looked at us inside. I opened the door and petted him. He looked well maintained, but sad and lonely. So we played with him for a while, and went out to go somewhere. When we came back, he was still there, sitting in front of the door. He was very well behaved, although he kept trying to go in the house. We called SPCA for that poor lost dog, who knew the master was looking for him.
The longer he was there, the more we liked him, we made him food, milk and drinks and he ate it in second. So when night fell, at dinner time, my mom (who was visiting) agreed to keep it in the house until we found the owner or the SPCA came, she even made him special dinner. She was not really into pets, but she can be very friendly and responsible once she likes them. But, when we walked out, he was not there.
We were worried and spent times searching in the apartment, running up and down staircases, lifts, gutters and even asked everyone whether they saw that black dog. One neighbor uncle told us angrily that the dog scared her granddaughter (because it took lift together with them (?)) and the other complained about him straying around and probably took a dump somewhere in the block. Complaints and not much help.
After searching few more times up to the neighbor block and walking the stair again and again, twelve stories, we gave up. Maybe he already went back to his home. We were quite sad, thinking that maybe we could keep him with us that night.
Actually, there were many offer and opportunities to have a dog if not for the maintenance cost and restriction. Hubby was offered golden retriever puppies etc from friends. We visited SPCA some times, and there were many dogs abandoned by their owners there. But the one I fell in love with was a huge gently female Labrador which was not allowable for my apartment. Huh..
Singapore is not a friendly place for pets.
Those stay in apartment, equivalent to maybe rumah susun in Jakarta, like me, are restricted to small dogs. So, we can only have dogs like terrier or smaller. Those stay in condominium or landed house, higher class, can keep whatever they like (although apartments are slightly bigger than condominium).
Another, the cost of maintenance for pets are very high. From nutrient, vaccines, groom and food, all of them are more expensive that what I consume. I’m telling the truth.
See, I can go to a doctor for 20-30 dollars. I brought my hamsters to doctor when they were sick, they cost 50 dollars, EACH. (more expensive than the hamsters itself + food + cage). The cost of grooming a dog’s hair is about 40-50 dollars, while mine is 10 dollar. Mhehe…we haven’t talk about their food, shampoo etc…. :)
So, I can’t have a dog here. Expensive and I can’t have bigger dog, which I like more. And I can’t leave them when I go overseas, of course I can put them in dog’s hotel, but they cost…uhm…
Funny. I always pictured myself staying alone, with my dog, in foreign country and outside in the garden reading a book while a prince would come after traveling all over the world looking for me. Mhahhahaha….
The diffs are I can’t afford a dog, I don’t have a garden and I’m married. :) Not bad at all.
One day, there was a black dog outside my unit. It sat in front of the trellis door and looked at us inside. I opened the door and petted him. He looked well maintained, but sad and lonely. So we played with him for a while, and went out to go somewhere. When we came back, he was still there, sitting in front of the door. He was very well behaved, although he kept trying to go in the house. We called SPCA for that poor lost dog, who knew the master was looking for him.
The longer he was there, the more we liked him, we made him food, milk and drinks and he ate it in second. So when night fell, at dinner time, my mom (who was visiting) agreed to keep it in the house until we found the owner or the SPCA came, she even made him special dinner. She was not really into pets, but she can be very friendly and responsible once she likes them. But, when we walked out, he was not there.
We were worried and spent times searching in the apartment, running up and down staircases, lifts, gutters and even asked everyone whether they saw that black dog. One neighbor uncle told us angrily that the dog scared her granddaughter (because it took lift together with them (?)) and the other complained about him straying around and probably took a dump somewhere in the block. Complaints and not much help.
After searching few more times up to the neighbor block and walking the stair again and again, twelve stories, we gave up. Maybe he already went back to his home. We were quite sad, thinking that maybe we could keep him with us that night.
Actually, there were many offer and opportunities to have a dog if not for the maintenance cost and restriction. Hubby was offered golden retriever puppies etc from friends. We visited SPCA some times, and there were many dogs abandoned by their owners there. But the one I fell in love with was a huge gently female Labrador which was not allowable for my apartment. Huh..
posted by aping | 11:41 PM
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