The Dog That Left Us (2005-04-11)
KL and I used to have a dog in Sydney, a bullmastiff called Chopper. I got the idea of his name after seeing a picture of a very fat cat with the same name and thought it would be a good name for our puppy which would eventually grow into a 64-kg ( 141 lb) giant.
I grew up in a house of dogs and cats (and other animals), and
Chopper was the kindest and most timid dog I ever lived with. He
never ever growled at people and was thrilled to see anyone that came
to our house. It's like Chopper could never get mad at
humans. Sometimes when I bought him a shin bone to munch on, I
would snatch it away from him while he was totally enjoying his
treat. And then he would look up at me, big floppy ears pulled
back and whimpered as if he was begging me to give him back his
bone. Thinking back, I can't believe I would do something so mean
to him but I was trying to prove that Chopper was the gentlest dog in
the world and I was right! Try this trick on a mean dog and you
might lose an arm!
Chopper was so sweet and placable that he was afraid of Daifoo. Ever since
he was struck by Daifoo in the face and bled when he was a puppy, he
had been cautious around our fearless cat. He was not game to go
close to Daifoo in case he was hit again! But Mauwi was a
different story, Mauwi was his toy. Chopper loved to run up to
Mauwi and put his big drooling mouth around her neck, which
would freeze her on the spot until Chopper grew tired of torturing his
prey.
One distinctive feature of Chopper was his smell. I had never met a dog that exuded worse body odor than him. You could shower him one minute and he would stink to high heaven the next. No amount of soap would get rid of his smell for even a few seconds, he's equivalent to humans who have a very very bad B.O. But body odor was the least of his problems.
Chopper was not a healthy dog. He suffered from many
ailments. He was allergic to many
and unknown allergens which made his paws constantly swollen, sometimes
to the point where they were too painful to walk on. His skin
broke out into lumps once in a while making him itch madly. He
had chronic kidney disease and once his left eye
lid would roll back causing the lashes to push inside the eye and gave
him a nasty infection! We took him to the vet so frequently that
even she had developed a special bond with Chopper. Despite the
suffering, pain, needles and medicine Chopper had to endure, he marched
on like a happy little trooper everyday.
On days when Chopper was well, he was as frisky as any other healthy dogs. We played games with him, walked him, took him to training classes, and enjoyed every minute with him. Unfortunately the good time was not meant to last.
On Feb 24, 1998 we returned home after having dinner with my family.
When our car pulled into the garage, Chopper was not standing and wagging
his tail to welcome us like he always would, instead he was lying as
still as a board on the cold concrete floor. It was an ominous
moment. KL walked over to
him thinking the worst and I
just stood by the car unable to move. KL turned around and said
softly, "He's gone."
Our vet told us he could have died of a heart attack which is not
uncommon in big breeds. She said
an autopsy could be done if we really wanted to find out the
cause. We said, "What for? It won't bring him back."
Two months later KL started the application for the research work at
Tokyo University. If Chopper had been alive then, we might not
have
made the decision to leave Sydney because no one would take a sick big
dog and we simply couldn't leave him behind even though we were really
excited
about the idea of living in Japan for a couple of years. May be
Chopper's death was a sign for us to leave Sydney, or perhaps it was
his way of letting us go without having to worry about him.
Sweet Chopper was four years old.
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