Today was a rather busy day at work, and throughout I felt that my thoughts never stop running, perhaps due to the fact that it was my unofficial last day of work with this pet shop?
Some regulars actually came to send me off! So massive touched till I'm seriously closed to crying! They came with their dogs, chatted for a bit and wished me all the best for the next step of my career (in case you still don't know, I'm opening my own pet shop).
Anyway, that's not the point of this entry. Today, an old man came in with his maltese who has a really long coat of silky white fur and asked for a full grooming. I must say I'm quite surprised cos we see this man everyday with his dog, walking around the Yishun central area but he never once entered our shop. The maltese is very obedient dog that follows his owner very closely even without a leash on. When the man sits down, the dog sits down as well. When the man stands up and walks away, the dog would quickly catch up with the man's pace and follow wherever his owner leads him to. Despite being a DIY home-groomed dog, this dog is kept very clean and doesn't even have that awful doggy smell.
The old man told me, "I'm old already, haven't been feeling very well, I cannot cut Ah-Man's (dog's name) fur myself. Can you help me trim his fur? How much would it be? Ah-Man has never made me spend money on him, today will be his first time."
And then, he smiled and proceeded to show me some pictures of Ah-Man on his nokia phone. Seeing how much he cherish this dog, I went in and out of the grooming room several times to update him on the progress. Like how much I will be trimming off, now I'm going to bathe the boy, what I will be doing next, etc. By the end of nearly 2 hours (throughout the whole session, he patiently waited on the benches outside, standing up occasionally to wave to his dog), he thanked me from the bottom of his heart, even bowed to me and asked for my name, saying he will be back for me next time when Ah-Man needs a trim again. OMG, it felt so sad cos Ah-Man is like my last dog here! Anyway, I just thanked him and told him truthfully that I'm leaving the shop but he can always just look for my colleagues who will be around to serve Ah-Man and hope he will feel better next time when we see Ah-Man for a grooming session again.
Back to topic, SEE! There are owners who are loyal to their pets too. Just like how their dogs are loyal to them their entire life. Unlike some selfish idiots who claimed to be saving the strays (or adopting dogs) but it never lasted. It made me recall of how this particular woman who came to our shop with a mongrel yesterday and insisted to talk to boss. Boss refused to even step out of his office cos he knew this lady was here to dump her dog again. She had previously came here and gave (or maybe we can just use 'abandon') 4 dogs to boss. All with various excuses and reasons.: Medical problems, aggression, size problem (non-HDB approved), etc. If you can't have them for long, why bother to commit?
After which, she tied the mongrel to our table outside the shop for a while, but the whole process lasted >2 hours out in the hot weather. We were so worried that she would never come back. Zhuxia gave the dog a bowl of water. Rachel even planned to fish out the clip from the CCTV showing her leaving the dog behind if the woman never turn up. Passerby who saw her doing that even asked her why she want to leave the dog just like that. You know what's her reply? Really frustrating to hear. "If I don't leave here, then where I leave it? I DON'T WANT IT ANYMORE." OMG! The passerby then told her, "WAHLAU, AT LEAST YOU CALL SPCA AND ASK LA, YOU THROW HERE IN PUBLIC GOT PEOPLE WILL ADOPT MEH? THIS ONE SMALL SIZED STILL ADOPTABLE TO HDB PEOPLE LOR."
The mongrel at first sight looked pretty unfriendly. But when people walk passed her, all she wanted to was to move forward and lean closer but the leash was stopping her. When I pulled a chair and sat next to her during my break, she actually came over and placed her head underneath my hand which was hanging in the air and self-stroked. LOL! I totally took back my words about her being unfriendly. It's a friendly dog, but sadly with some skin problems. After a while, I was kept busy with work again. The irresponsible owner came and took the dog away.
Whatever happened to the dog eventually, I would never know. All I can do is just pray for lesser pets abandonment in this world. Sometimes, all we need, is just a little love - it doesn't even confine to human only.
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