Of Dogs & Parenthood

That's Shaggy in the picture with Chester. Dan and I brought him out to play with Chester last Saturday and i was quite surprised that my boy took to him quite well. Ivan once commented that Chester seems to have a "sacred bubble" around him and any invasion into that bubble (especially by other male Border Collies) will trigger off his fight response.

Anyway, Chester was good with Shaggy, and even played "big brother" to the kid, snapping threateningly at Archilles when he came near to sniff Shaggy out. In return, when SuperBill approached us and Chester got really nervy, Shaggy ended up growling at SuperBill as if he knew the 2 male Border Collies were arch-enemies and was trying to ward SuperBill off. Apparently, Shaggy has never growled at any other dog before! It's almost as if these 2 have already developed a brotherhood or something.

Shaggy loved Dan to bits and whined and made a fuss whenever Dan went away! According to Kingsley's S, Shaggy loves his men bald! (Dan says he's "getting there already"!) Anyway, we both love Shaggy and reckon he'll make a good l'il brother for Chester. It'll be soooooo good if baby Shaggy can find his furever home in us but the problem is our new house is not gonna be ready till 2 years later and there is probably no way either of us can take in a dog at this moment. It works out so well - Shaggy loves Dan and Chester loves me, so we'll both have our own dog to play mum/dad to. But then.....sigh sigh sigh.

Anyway, on the subject of dogs, raising one is just like raising a kid. Dogs go through different phases in life just like humans do. When Chester was young, i worried about him being too friendly and boisterous. Truth be told, my friends found him an annoying puppy, because he loved to pounce on everyone including strangers (mostly scared stiffed ones), all waggly tail and seeking for attention. Thank God for his too-cute looks back then. He was also exceptionally "kuniang" as a puppy (so my friend says) because he was so submissive and would roll on his back whenever he sees any other dog. I must admit i did pray that he would at least develop some sense of dignity and maybe a tad of defensiveness in him when he reaches doghood. And man, i think God must have heard my prayers.

Now that he's all grown up and matured, you'd think there's nothing more to worry about. BUT no, he's developed his "sacred bubble", he gets into brawls with other dogs that piss him off and humans find him too antisocial because he's grown out of his "come-pet-me" stage. I have to develop a new set of standards to handle him but at the same time, exert caution so as not to jeopardise the bond between us.

The comforting thing is throughout the different phases Chester goes through, we're still a tight team and he still has affection aplenty for the people he loves. Can't say the same for humans though. How many kids still remain as close to their parents after they reach adulthood? Sometimes i really wonder if a human's perception on Life rubs off on his/her pet. Chester's character does seem a little too similar to me (except for the snout, fur and what-not, of course!). I'll talk about this next time.

Hard isn't it? I reckon it'll be worse with a kid, since most of them have no inkling what "sit", "down", "stay", "no", "leave", "go outside", "don't disturb" means. At least Chester does. Raising him is like taking a baby step towards parenthood so i'm kinda glad he's taught me so much about being responsible and being patient.

On saying all this, i'm not saying that everyone should get a dog in preparation for being a parent. Shaggy was ousted out of his previous house because he had an uncanny ability to make his pregnant female human nauseous whenever he was in sight. So yeah, there you go.

Oh Shaggy. Sigh sigh sigh.