For some people, a dog is just a dog. A furry, four-legged animal that scratches around and licks its genital absentmindedly, and bark and whine for unknown reason.

But for others, a dog is a ray of sunshine. A source of happiness. A reason why we all want to rush home quickly. And a reason why we ever want to get up so early on weekends, if it weren’t for the constant whining we get for delaying their morning rituals.

Ever since I’ve had Micah, I have to admit that my life has changed completely. For better or worse, in sickness and in health. Quite literally, I’m afraid.

Dog lovers know that having a dog is not easy – it’s a lifetime commitment, as a dog can live up to twelve years or more, and during those years we must be prepared to face whatever challenges that come our ways – right from day one.

For Micah, it has been a bumpy road ever since I adopted him. He was crying all night the first time he was brought home, obviously missing his family and being scared of all the sudden, new environment he was forced to be in.

The loneliness that he had to face whenever I left him for work was not easy either. I had to put him in the back balcony upstairs and locked the door because the maid we had back then was scared of dogs. So every morning, Micah would cry and refused to be put there. He’d jump and jump in vain to see me vanished before his very eyes, until he would see me again in the afternoon.

What we humans often forget to realise is that dogs think and feel quite differently than us. When we leave them at home, they don’t know when we’re going to come back. All they know is that we’re gone, and they’re left alone. So all that whining and crying is not them being overdramatised, it’s their fear of loneliness.

Thankfully, Micah has reached and understanding that I will always come back, so every weekdays when I have to leave for work, I bid him farewell and scratch his neck and kiss the top of his forehead while telling him not to be naughty, and he just sits there and looks at me with those beautiful eyes. As I close the door, he just sits and stares at me. But the fact that he’s so understanding about it actually breaks my heart even more. I really wish I could bring him wherever I go.

There are funny moments too – moments that I really can’t explain except that perhaps, if it’s even possible, that Micah actually understands human language.

Whenever he has his toys lying around outside the bedroom, I always make sure he carries them back in. So when I head to the bedroom, I tell him to go get his toy. At first he seemed a bit confused, but not when I tell him to do so, he simply picks his toy up with his teeth, carries them all the way in to the bedroom. and drops them off once he’s inside.

When he is in my bedroom and he wants to go to the toilet, he simply goes and sits next to the door. If this still doesn’t catch my attention, he wails and cratches the door until I open it for him. Sometimes, when I’m too lazy, he can go to the toilet by himself, but most of the times he demands a company.

Then there are the strange habits. Remember how he climbs the bedside table and sleeps on it? Well, now he climbs the unused dining table downstairs by using the massaging chair that sits next to it. I noticed this when I was downstairs making something in the kitchen, when I realised that he was nowhere to be seen. I called him over and over when I noticed a brown, furry figure that had the same color as the dining table, lying comfortably on top of it. I was awed. Nobody taught him that, and I never would’ve thought of him as a dog who loved heights.

As a dachshund, I have to admit that Micah doesn’t particularly warm up to people that easily, unlike a Golden Retriever, or a Labrador. In fact, he is quite picky about them. But when he really likes someone, he will follow them around everywhere like their biggest fan. He even rolls around and taunt his belly, demanding a tummy rub from his newbest friend.

That’s what happened today, when I went over to Toni’s house. At first I was worried that he wouldn’t like it there because he is quite suspicious to new places, even more because there are no dogs there, unlike at Juinita’s house. But he fell in love with Toni and his house immediately (mostly because of the coffee smell). He was even served a special coffee made by Toni and he followed Toni around like a lovesick puppy ever since. I’ve never seen him so infatuated with a stranger that quickly before.

I was also worried that he wouldn’t be able to control his bladder, but to my surprise, Micah seemed to understand where he was supposed to go. I was worried he would go inside the house, but he actually did it at the front porch where the ground was cement-coated. I was awed once again by his cleverness.

He was also so excited to be able to explore Toni’s house and had the smell of coffee emanating from the kitchen, and because the fence was quite high and safe, he was able to sit in front of it and scare the people who walk or drive past by barking at them – something I wouldn’t let him do at home since our fence is wide enough for him to get out.

People at work think it’s funny that I care so much – perhaps even too much – about my dog. But for me, he is more than a dog. He is my son, and whenever I’m away I always think of him and wonder what he is doing at that very moment.

Humans think a dog must be so privileged to be loved and cared for by humans, but really, it is our privilege as human beings, to be able to experience the unconditional love of a dog – the love we feel everyday since morning till evening.

I talk to him when I’m lonesome like;
And I’m sure he understands.
When he looks at me so attentively,
And gently licks my hands;
Then he rubs his nose on my tailored clothes,
But I never say naught thereat.
For the good Lord knows I can buy more clothes,
But never a friend like that.

W. Dayton Wedgefarth

This post is dedicated to Elyani Gunadi and Parvita Siregar. Special thanks to Toni Wahid for the beautiful photographs of Micah.

It’s not exactly annoying, just mind-boggling and perhaps rather strange, as I already mentioned before. And because I managed to snap a few photos of him being caught in the act, I feel that I should explain this newly developed habit by pictures.

I know he has this thing for using the UPS underneath my desk as a leverage to get attention (and food) from me whenever I am snacking in front of the computer, but now he’s started to think that using the UPS as a leverage to climb the bedside table is a mighty fine idea to accomplish his… mission.

Once he gets on top of the table he starts doing maneuver of this and that, trying to find the most comfortable position, perhaps?

When he finally does, he lies down and rests peacefully, looking around from a new (higher) angle seems like a better place to ‘hang’.

What freaks me out the most is the fact that now he is able to do is oh-so-silently that when I turn around to look, he’s already lying on the table and he does this without drawing any attention from me whatsoever. I have to say that he’s starting to resemble his daddy’s sneaky little habit.

Because I am a kind mother, I decide to get rid of my books so that he has more space for himself. I think this is the beginning of something that I might regret later on, because at one point he actually manages to fall asleep…

And fall asleep he does…

But the sleeping does not last long. He still thinks that my bed is, after all, the most comfortable spot to lie his furry body and cuddle into a good deep sleep. Even though I am aware of his effort to climb onto the bed, he never tires to try again, and again, and again. And my answer is always, without failing, “NO! Back!” (meaning back away right now you furry little devil, or I will dethrone your ass down).

So now what happens is that this habit has become a daily thing. In a jerky, backward and forward session, he does this everyday – climbing on top of the bedside table, rests there for a while, gets bored and tries to get onto my bed.

If you think that’s weird, wait till you see this…

And this.

Despite how mildly annoying it is, I can’t help but feel besotted. This habit is the one thing he develops all on his own, by his own initiative, and even though God knows why he’s compelled to do this I have to hand it to this dog; he’s a one smart kiddo!

Dogs Never Lie About Love is a book by Jeffrey Masson – a birthday package from Elyani that I received yesterday. The book was also accompanied with a thick novel of Mario Puzo’s The Godfather’s Revenge by Mark Winegardner (serious stuff, might read it when have spare time) as well as this cool multi-chargers for mobile phones which I didn’t even know existed. The whole thing came in a cute white rattan bag that’s totally perfect for the upcoming summer season.

I am always excited when people gift me with books – especially if it’s about dogs; as it is my first time of being a caretaker of the canine creature, I am ever curious about the way dogs think and behave. Dogs Never Lie About Love talks a lot about the psychological aspects of dogs, but if it sounds boring to you, you’ll be in for a treat.

The following is a quote from its chapter on Why We Cherish Dogs:

“Dogs do not lie to you about how they feel because they cannot lie about feelings. A dog can deceive another dog, but only about facts (pretending, for example, not to see a bone the other dog has temporarily left unattended), not about feelings. Nobody has ever seen a sad dog pretending to be happy, or a happy dog pretending to be sad. When a dog is sad or happy, that feeling occupies its whole being; the dog becomes pure happiness or pure sadness. As Roger Caras wrote in A Dog is Listening; ‘A dog is utterly sincere. It cannot pretend. … People use you and pretend they don’t, while dogs use you in complete honesty because they have no choice, and they have not an ounce of deceit in their soul nor self-consciousness about any of this.”

And I’m convinced that it’s true. Since I adopted Micah over a year ago, I sincerely think that he is incapable of doing anything that resembles the trait of any human wickedness – cheating, lying, grudging and deceit.

Now that he’s grown up, he becomes more and more protective of me. Sometimes he barks in the middle of the night, bolts straight to the door and growls angrily at something that is only visible to him. While I, eyes slitty with sleep, feeling annoyed of having a massive headache due to the ringing from his barking which resonates through the walls and go straight to my ears.

It amuses me how he’s always keen to be the one who gets to the door before anyone else, whether we’re going in or out. At first I thought it was because he didn’t want to miss out on anything and that it was just the competitive side of him wanting to be the first in everything. But then I realized it was none other than the fact that he wanted to protect me from anything that might come from behind the door. He seems totally oblivious to the fact that his appearance and the size of him does not suit with the way he barks. People tend to think I own such a huge dog; therefore they are surprised when they found out how tiny Micah really is.

Thing is, Micah is a male dachshund who possesses a longer body than most dogs do, so I’d like to think that the sounds he produce from his throat might have to reverberate a couple of times through his ribs first before it actually comes out of his mouth – that’s why it’s so loud – too loud, even for a small dog like him.

Aside from being protective, Micah is capable of showing how much he wants to be spoilt, and he demands it too. When I’m on my laptop, he often stands and rests his front feet to the side of my chair and looks at me intently. If I ignore him (which is often), he will proceed to push his cold snout to the side of my arm to get my full attention. Not only the coldness from the tip of his wet nose shocks me, but it also distracts me from whatever I’m doing at that time, thus I end up stopping completely, pet him and pick him up so that he can sleep on my lap and finally continue to whatever activity that I do in front of my laptop.

I love hugging him and rest my chin on top of his head; his fur is so soft and he smells lovely – especially after I bathe him. He seems to know how much it displays my affection to him, because whenever I’m holding him and land kisses on his face, he will press his face to my chest, as if he is shy to be loved so much, or perhaps it’s his way of saying “I love you too.” At first I thought this was purely coincidental because I didn’t think a dog could recognize something that only human being can feel, but after many times of doing it, he always does the same thing back to me – his version of “I love you too” to me.

I am the one who should be grateful for this blatant act of love, for Micah loves me unconditionally no matter what. Even if I scold him and tells him off for being bad, he will still come running after me, tail wagging and everything, always so eager to see me and to be near to me as often as possible. Sometimes I feel so honored to have known such a wonderful creature, who loves me just for being me.

Adopting a dog is the only unconditional love money can buy. And sometimes, you’re lucky enough to get it for free.

Thank you Elyani, for the beautiful birthday present. You’re a gem, God bless you so

I’m going to have to change his diet since apparently he’s lost his appetite on the current dog food that I give to him, which is from Pedigree (I know, I know, I should’ve known better), thus resulting to him having a bit of a stomach problem and causing him to make the ‘uuuuuurkaguuuurrrka’ noise and puking up this foamy, yellowy stuff.

I actually feed him rice porridge with chicken meat or fish now, since that’s the only thing he wants to gob down with gusto, compared to the usual kibble that he responds with a dismayed look, and throws his head the other way, as if he’s sniggering at me, going, “You expect me to eat that?”

Apparently, Pedigree is not the best brand to give as it can cause hair loss and it contains a lot of colourings – I noticed it myself when one of the kibble fell into his water bowl and the water soon changed color to red!

Anyhow, I’ve been told that different food will give different results. Even my breeder told me that a good brand will affect how the fur grows – which explains why Micah’s fur is not growing any longer and in fact he seems to be molting all the time. I’ve practically got dog hair all over my laptop, speakers, TV and what-elses!

The actual reason why I went to Pedigree was because it was so difficult finding a good brand of kibble – they are either sold t very far away locations (I’m talking about going from Bekasi to Pluit or Kemang!) and you can not guarantee that they are always there – sometimes they can be out of stock and I am forced to change into other brands, which reflects badly on Micah’s diet.

There has also been a recall for quite a number of brands and those in the list, are, unfortunately, the ones always available at the pet stores, such as Alpo, Science Diet, and Royal Canin.

There have been a few people recommending me to try Eagle Pack and Orijen – very good for the fur, and apparently they smell so good, one dog owner even says that she almost gave it a try herself! The low point of them being the best and most recommended brands is that they are mighty expensive – for a pack of Eagle Pack Holistic weighing at 7 kg, it cost a whopping Rp. 440,000!

Oh well. The things people do for love … right?

But it’s all worth it, especially when seeing Micah being so happy and enjoying his life. Some people have told me to give Micah a go at Show Dogs events but I’m not too sure I’d want to – perhaps some people take pride in knowing their dogs are champions but my beau and I have agreed that we will love Micah no matter what he turns out to be – providing that he’s not a naughty one at least!

To end this post which is, yet again, about Micah, do enjoy this cool clip I found on Youtube which reminds me so much of my own Micah.

Cute isn’t he?

I’m a dog person.

I’ve known it since I was little that whenever a dog caught my sight, I melted to goo and my heart was filled with mixed feelings of affection (because of how cute it was) and fear (because the dogs that I had stumbled upon in most cases were unfriendly mutts who had taken the fun of chasing me around the streets).

Nevertheless, the urge to own one had never faded away, as it got stronger when local TV stations decided to play dog movies with friendly canine figures such as Lassie, Benji and that huge-ass Saint Bernard, Beethoven. In my mind, owning a pet dog would be like having a friend who would love me unconditionally, no matter what.

I craved for the canine companionship so much that I’d made constant whining of “Can I have a dog mum? Can I please?” to my mother to put up with, in which she always grimly replied with, “No. It’ll dirty up the whole house and make it smell like turds.” And even when I begged her to differ by saying, “But muuuum…” whilst displaying child-like cutesy-ness in order to melt her cold-hearted resolution, she’d stop me, as quick as lightning would, by saying, “No. End of conversation.”

So to fill such emptiness in my heart that only the presence of a dog could, I had to do regular visits to friends who owned dogs as pets. Yes, it was shameful, yes, it was selfish, but I was desperate, and besides, I honestly think they didn’t mind it at all.

Take my friend Syl, for example. I got acquainted with her during my university years, in which she had to endure being interrupted during dinner time because I turned up at the door of her apartment, totally uninvited, just so that I could have a squeeze on Ashley, her Pomeranian-Maltese pup. Yes, I had no shame, so sue me.

When I finally entered adulthood (haha!) and realised that I was like any other grown-up people who had to get up in the mornings and went to work to earn money, and coming back home feeling depressed and bullied (office politic, enough said), I really thought I was fooling myself because the child in me still, after all those years, yearned for the presence of the furry canine companion.

The feeling grew stronger as years went by, and I still cooed at the sight of dogs. So when one of my work colleagues told me she owned a chihuahua, I went to visit her place and even though it wasn’t the type of dog I would prefer to have, it was still one nevertheless. Beggars can’t be choosers, right?

At the late age of 25 I finally had the courage to rebel to my mother; I brought a dog home without her permission. We got into a huge fights, say things we didn’t mean to each other, and I threatened to leave home when she finally caved in with a final warning that I had to take care of it properly because otherwise my head would be on the chopping block.

After eleven months of ups and downs in raising a little mini dachshund pup, I sincerely have to say that adopting Micah as my dog was one of the best decisions I’ve made in my life. It was through him that I learnt a great deal of patience, careness and love.

There were days when I felt like giving up when Micah had not yet learnt to master the art of housebreaking, and yet there were also days when I felt so in love with him simply because of the way he looked at me. No matter how many times I’ve yelled and spanked his little furry butt for being naughty, he always pounced back, happy as Larry to see me, licking me all over and displaying his love to me in such a matter-of-fact way that I didn’t have the heart to stay angry for more than five minutes.

Owning a dog is one of the best essentials in life, and thus I know perfectly why God created dogs; it’s to teach us human how to love unconditionally.