Farewell Joe Boy

written by Mummy --

Breed: Bichon Frise (Cross Breed)

D.O.B: 1/2/1998

P.O.D: 2/10/2009 (11 years)

Today marked the day that Joe Joe Boy, a pet which had been through thick and thin with us had finally passed on.

We all missed him badly. Even now as I wrote this blog, my tears couldn't stop flowing. This is the 1st time that we witness the death of an animal and it turned out to be our beloved Joe Joe boy.

I could still recall the day we went to SPCA to choose a dog for our family. He was in the cage with this poodle. This poodle was so busy showing off stunts and tricks hoping that we would choose her. Joe Joe boy (he was then named Picasso) was a quiet little dog, hiding at one corner, and wagging his tail at the sight of us.

He caught our eyes, and we decided to bring him home. It wasn't easy to adopt a dog from SPCA, as rules and regulations of SPCA states that all the family members whom are living in the same household will have to be present at the point in time when the dog was adopted.

I recall the first day we brought him back, and being in a new environment, he would love to roam around the house. There were many times where he could just squeeze through the main gate of the house as he was too skinny then. After many months of love and care showered upon him, he soon put on weight and couldn't squeeze through the gates anymore.

There were times when I strolled with him along the road, and, being a dog, he would roam and smell each and every corner till he found the spot to do his business. There was once when he was done with his business and he stayed at that particular place for more than 10 minutes and I got curious. So I called out to him and right away he started to move towards me but he avoided eye contact with me. This was indeed strange, so I bent down to look at him and guess what, there was this little white bone(chicken wing) that was in his mouth. I was too shocked to see him holding the bone in his mouth and realised why he avoide eye contact in the first place. It wasn't difficult to notice the white bone as he is a BLACK dog.

There were times when he would pester us for food when we gather at the table for dinner. He would stand on his paws and ask for food, and bark at the door if you accidentally locked it.

There was this once when I have finished cooking a bowl of noodles. Joe Joe was right underneath my hands holding the bowl of hot soup. As I didn't notice that he was right infront of me, I missed a step and the soup spilled on my hands instead. I guess everyone's natural response would be to let go of the bowl and let it fall to the floor but when I saw Joe Joe right below the bowl, I withdrew that thought. I held on to the bowl tightly fearing that it would cause him more hurt if I were to let go. It was so painful that even if I were to emptied the ice from the freezer, the pain wouldnt go away. That incident really left a strong impact on me and till now I am paranoid of bringing hot soup out of the kitchen.

There were times that my siblings and I were afraid of losing him. We make it a point every now and then to make sure that he is still breathing even when he lay on the floor to sleep. For the past few months that Joe Joe is still around, little Jeremiah will definitely be looking around for Joe Joe waiting to have fun with him. Joe Joe is more afraid of Jeremiah than Jeremiah is of him. Jeremiah would touch his tail and his body and giggled when the Joe Joe boy felt uneasy with the touch. It was fun looking at Jeremiah interacting with Joe Joe boy.

The day has finally come for him to leave us as he was old . He was 11 years old when he left us, which was equivalent to 77 years of human age. Today, Jeremiah knew that something was wrong as all he could do was to peep through the door and all he could see was Joe Joe boy laying motionlessly on the cushion. Jeremiah asked: "Mummy.... why?" as he pointed at Joe Joe, I told him that Joe Joe was tired and now he needed to rest. Jeremiah would then walk away.

His departure didn't came as a surprise to us but nevertheless, we still feel sad and refused to touch on the topic. I really hope that he is in a better place now and hope the atmosphere at my mum's would eventually get better.

He will always fondly remembered in our heart.