My Pet Story: Sweetness during the pandemic


Adorable Candy at three months old. Photos: Irene Wong Swee Leng

MY PET STORY

Do you have an interesting story about your pet that you would like to share with readers? Tell us in 600-800 words (in Text or Word format), with three to four photos (1MB, in JPEG format, captioned). There is no payment for submissions. We reserve the right to edit all submissions. Email: lifestyle@thestar.com.my with the subject 'My Pet Story'.

When I saw Candy’s photo, I decided to adopt her. Candy was a three-month-old mixed breed, stray puppy then.

Luckily, a kind lady found her and put her up for adoption.

She was so scared and shivering with fear when I first met her to take her home. However, she relaxed when I carried her. We welcomed her to our family on Nov 8, 2020.

Upon her arrival at our house, she just sat in a corner of the toilet and dared not move around.

After one or two days, she became more active and curious to get to know us. She was so sweet that I named her Candy.

Candy was really playful as a puppy. She would run about in the garden and in the house, and “gallop” like a horse!

She loved to look over the fence to see Coco, our neighbour’s black dog. Coco is a few months younger than Candy.

Candy would get very excited and happy to see other dogs passing our house.

Candy became an MCO dog, growing up in the MCO environment, mostly staying at home. She got a lot of time with us, as most of us worked from home. Every day, we got to play with her as she grew from a puppy to a beautiful dog.

She has a very unusual, fluffy tail and therefore many admirers whenever she is outside in the garden or out at the vet’s. She has that gracious, elegant, majestic look whenever she sits and I have taken many wonderful pictures of her.

Candy has a unique tail that draws attention wherever she goes.Candy has a unique tail that draws attention wherever she goes.

I bought her several toys to chew, to keep her occupied. She loves to fetch her toy and bring it to me to play with her.

Candy is very alert and makes an excellent guard dog. Before the dustbin collectors come, or whenever they are a few houses away, she can already sense them coming and would start to bark. If anyone comes near our gate, she would bark.

She loves to explore the house – upstairs and downstairs – to look for lizards or insects. She catches and plays with them whenever she sees them. Whenever I am upstairs, she would be sitting, waiting outside my closed room door or at the staircase landing. She is such a faithful companion.

I trained her to pee in the toilet. She would poop in the garden or on the newspapers which are placed in a corner of the house.

She is intelligent and easy to train – she knows the commands “sit”, “down”, “come”, “go round”, and “fetch”. It is fun training and playing with her.

Whenever I call her, she comes to me. She always makes me laugh.

Candy loves to put her head on our laps whenever she wants some food or titbits from us.

Every evening at about 5pm, she prompts my hubby to let her out into the garden, where she would roam a while before having her dinner.

After supper, when we are ready to go to bed, she would quickly walk to her “bedroom” which is in a corner of the dining area, and sit there, ready to sleep, without us giving her any commands. So clever and intelligent!

Candy in a regal pose.Candy in a regal pose.

Soon, on Nov 8, we will be celebrating her second birthday. We are blessed to have her in our family and hope that we will have many more happy years with her.

We love you, our lovely MCO Candy!

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