My Busy Brain

I used to have four dogs when I was still married: Ubay, Samba, Nikki and Atun.  We lived at Cempaka Putih which has its annual flooding event. 

Ubay was our first dog.  We adopted him from the animal hospital in Ragunan.  He was skinny and full of ticks and flees in 2001 (3 months old).  Good for him, he grew up healthy, slender and very friendly, although he has a sneaky character.  Samba joined us in Desember 2001.  He is a mixed terrier with white, black and brown fur.  Ubay bullied him when he was younger and at one point, they cannot be mixed.  Samba hates dark skinned male. He bites.  Nikki was found on the street of Bangka Street three months later, tied to an electricity pole.  She is also a mixed breed with brown fur.  Nikki doesn’t like to be photographed and hates the ring of handphones (2 handphones were chewed). When she arrived, Ubay and Samba gave her a hard time but she constantly just barked and barked for a week and finally the boys accepted her. 

After a year, Nikki got pregnant and gave birth to 7 puppies.  We gave up all of them except Atun, named after a chubby character on a TV show.  Atun looks similar to Nikki, except that she has longer snout.  She was bitten by Ubay when she was younger, so even up to now, she is quite timid and nervous.  She is better, after I gave her some ‘therapy’: took her out more, introduced her to my friends, took her to watch me play basketball and more attention than the other.  Now she barks a lot and chases cats instead of just staring at them.

In 2004, I moved to an apartment where I couldn’t bring pets.  But every week I visited them, bathe them every other week and took them to the doctors, cut their nails and play with them.  I even took Atun for a vacation to Anyer and sometimes she spends the weekend at my apartment.  It was tough not living with my dogs for 2.5 years because they were my only sunshine in my life.

In 2007, I moved to a house in Cipete and at that time I was legally divorced.  We split ‘our kids’, Samba and Atun, the ones with ‘unique characters’ were with me, while Ubay and Nikki stayed in Cempaka Putih.  I do miss Nikki and Ubay once in a while, but I am happy enough that Samba and Atun are with me.

These two dogs are my life.  They cheer me up when I am down, they smile at me no matter what time I arrive home, I feel happy just stroking their furs.  Sure they sometimes annoy me when they chew my sandals, pillow case, ruin my plants, or accidentally pee in the house.  But they understand if I am upset.  They hide at the corner if they did something wrong.

I cannot imagine my life without them.  They have never failed to make me happy.  When I go travelling, I always miss them.  If something happens to them, I cannot think clearly.  I am so happy I have Al, my assistant, who also loves them dearly. 

Every night, when they sleep (we all sleep in the same room), I often look at their faces.  I feel so happy I have these two creatures giving me unconditional love in my life.  And I sometimes hug them, kiss and tell them, “Mommy loves you and we will always be together ’til death do us part”.