Your Pet Story: How a puppy rescued during a storm became a family pet

Velvet, the writer’s beloved ‘golden oldie’. — Lai Mei Wah

Do you have an interesting story about your pet that you would like to share? We’d love to hear from you. Tell us in 600-800 words (in Text or Word format), with three to four photos (1MB, captioned, in JPEG format). There is no payment for submissions. We reserve the right to edit all submissions. Email: [e-mail] with the subject 'My Pet Story'.

She came on a dark and stormy night. This is how my dog’s journey with my family began.

As the family sat down for dinner, we heard whimpering coming from the front of our house. It was raining cats and dogs. On investigation, we found a drenched and miserable puppy in the bushes near the drain. We took the poor puppy in and cleaned her up. We tried to check with our neighbours if anyone had lost a puppy but to no avail. So Velvet was here to stay.

My daughter named her thus as her fur was very soft and velvety. Velvet warmed up quickly to the family and loved her big brother Dexter, a two-year-old Labrador retriever. Velvet was well- behaved and never chewed our slippers. She loved to follow Dexter around and play with him. She would go for walks with Dexter; the neighbours thought she was his offspring.

As she grew older, Velvet began to show her true colours and started domineering her big brother. Everything belonged to her.

Velvet blossomed into a beautiful dog with long golden fur and a lion-like mane. She hated water like a cat. She was displeased if her favourite sleeping spot was wet, and bath time was always a game of hide and seek. She would recognise the word “bath” and disappear almost immediately.

Over the years, all the new dogs would learn from her example and run when it was bath time. Her aversion to water and anything wet was so great that she even preferred her medications in tablet form and she would splutter any liquid medicines all over her feeder’s face (which was, unfortunately, me).

Thunderstorms were the bane of Velvet’s life. She hated the rain and could not understand where the loud thunder was coming from. She would run out whenever there was thunder and bark frantically at the sky. She thought that something was falling from the skies. Over the years, I had to keep Velvet locked up during thunderstorms to prevent her from getting drenched in the rain.

Velvet’s possessive nature also caused her to fight with a pitbull. The stray pitbull had followed us home during one of our morning walks. The new dog tried to blend in and did not antagonise the resident dogs. As the new dog grew more attached to me, Velvet became jealous and eventually picked a fight with the pitbull. Luckily, I managed to break the fight but Velvet suffered a gash in her neck which needed the vet’s treatment. She never forgot that painful experience at the clinic. For peace to reign, I had to foster the pitbull to a friend.

Velvet was 11 years old when a new puppy joined us. She gave the young puppy the cold shoulder and quickly put her in place when the youngster tried to make overtures. The puppy was not allowed within a two-feet radius of the "queen" and would get a beating if she accidentally bumped into her.

Junior learnt her place in the hierarchy although she grew to twice of Velvet’s size and would keep a wide berth from her. I will never forget the panicked expression on Junior’s face when she realised that she was on a collision course with the queen while doing one of her crazy zoomies in the garden. It was hilarious to see the much bigger junior dog frantically try to change course.

But all dogs grow old and so Velvet aged through the years. She developed stiffness in her joints and would defer her morning walks on bad days. But she was still a sprightly old lady during her squirrel hunts in the garden. On cold rainy nights, she would sleep curled up on a warm blanket.

The year 2020 was memorable for my family not only because of the pandemic. Velvet had two life-threatening illnesses, the last of which she did not survive. She became weak and refused to eat even her favourite food. She would only take liquids via a syringe. A visit to the vet revealed that she had an infection in her womb and needed an emergency operation. However, Velvet was very resilient and was discharged after four hours post-operation (she actually chewed through her intravenous drip!). The vet had wanted to keep her overnight for further monitoring.

Alas, Velvet’s recovery did not last long. Six months later, Velvet developed a mass in her neck and became breathless. She stopped going for walks in the morning and needed help to go to toilet on the grassy area. We were devastated when the vet diagnosed lung cancer. She was breathless as her lungs were filled with fluid. The vet had to drain the fluid out but it was only a matter of time before it re-accumulated.

That was the most bittersweet two weeks of our lives as we showered Velvet with extra care and love. She received her favourite food and treats. She went on slow leisurely morning walks with the rest of the pack.

Velvet’s condition deteriorated after two weeks. We decided that it was time to let the grand dame of the pack go as painlessly and graciously as possible. She was already 14 years old in human years. She had lived a long and eventful life. She had outlived her older brother Dexter who passed away a year ago due to old age.

As Velvet slowly drifted off to the other world, on the vet’s table, I whispered assurances in her ears and bid her to go to sleep and dream of her favourite things. She looked very peaceful in her deep sleep.

I will always cherish the memories of Velvet’s antics and idiosyncrasies. The loss of a beloved pet is always sad but I remind myself that Velvet had lived a long and wonderful life with no regrets. It was fate that brought us together when we rescued her on that cold and rainy night. I pray and hope that Velvet will have a good afterlife.