Tall, athletic, all-black, ears sticking up, this dog is eerily like Jasper, Randal says Photo: behance.net
Dear BUZZ Editor
I wonder if a reader might come up with a clever way out of this dilemma: what to do with a woman who won’t agree to adopt another dog?
My wife and I, over 30 years together, have had four canine family members, first, a HK pedigree we found at the SPCA, then a daft doolally cocker spaniel given by a friend, followed by a wire-haired dachshound brought home by our daughter and lastly — of this I am very proud — a Sai Kung pedigree I found back from a jog near the country park barrier in the gutter, a little ball of fluff. I took him home and my wife accepted him. We named him, Jasper. He was all black, unusually long-limbed and became one of the loves of my life, because retired, I spent so much time with him. We’d go running together. I particularly remember how he loved the plateau up on the hill where the paragliders fly. Jasper would race around the trails showing off how fast he was. When recceeing a trail for the Hash House Harriers deep in the bush with a friend we were impressed with how Jasper could find the way through the undergrowth. In the afternoons I used to take Jasper everywhere with me around the watering holes of Sai Kung. One morning, December 18, a day that will live in infamy in my mind, I got up to find Jasper, who would always come to greet me, couldn’t stand. Obviously he was seriously ill so I started at 6.30am trying to find a vet. Finally, desperate, took him to our old vet in Happy Valley at about 8am. I had to leave. Some time later the vet called, “Jasper has turned orange, had a seizure and there is little we can do for him”. You have to say the terrible words*.
It is strange. My wife and I talk about our dogs, two died of old age and two of sudden diseases, every day. She loves them just as much as I do. I dream of them about three times a week, always trying to protect them in the dreams. We agree we will know we are in heaven if we wake up and our four dogs are running towards us. My wife is not a reader, she spends all her leisure time watching videos on an i-pad. What does she look for? Cute dog films. Yet she won’t agree to our adopting another dog. I think it is a matter of control, for some feminine reason, she needs to be all controlling.
What do you do? I’ve got a dog-shaped hole in my heart. It’s five years since we lost Jasper. Multiple times I have said to her, let’s get another dog. No, she says. A dog will tie us down. As I’ll soon turn 75 and if I have the same life span as Dad, I’ll be dead in 10 years. I want to spend my last years with a dog companion.
What to do? Perhaps, dear Editor, you have a smart reader out there, an Agony Aunt Agatha-type, who will come up with a way out of this impasse. We are otherwise a happy couple.
Sincerely
Randal Hewitt
Sha Kok Mei, Sai Kung
- Make sure your dog gets all its vaccinations. Jasper may have died of leptospirosis, common in the New Territories
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