Marley & Me

I watched this show just now on Astro. I know, old show but it's something that I didn't managed to watch last time.

Dogs. Never really have much thoughts on them. Do not know much significance and importance of them neither. My dad loves dogs. But he is always too irresponsible to take care of them.

He brought several dogs home before and then gave them away.

It's like bringing back toys and to take them away later.

It was more of a burden actually, cleaning their poo and buying their food.

But there is this particular dog my dad brought back. It was the dog we last had too.

It was a cross breed between a golden retriever and a chow chow.

Father chow chow. But mother golden retriever.

So it has face of a father, nose like the mother.

Legs also like a golden retriever's.

Tail very cute, like a bouquet of flowers.

I find it very cute.

Like a hybrid of bear and lion.

It was very temperamental and shy.

It doesn't simply bark at people, unlike the previous dogs.

It somehow managed to know which are strangers and not.

Other dogs will be bark at the garbage men or postmen.

But this dog....very chilled. Just sit and stare.

Everytime when I come home from school, it will rush to me and hump my legs.

Whenever it wants to poo, it will make some noises so we will take him out for a walk to poo.

Every morning, when it will start making noise.

My dad will be too lazy to take him out.

Sometimes, he will get mad and just shut the front glass door and let it whine.

Then, I will have to force myself to get up and take it out for a walk.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention its name.

"Lui" or 錢 which means "money" in Hokkien.

So whenever we call him, it's like calling money to come over.

Although it's cute, I still find it a burden or rather troublesome.

But there is one day, I feel rather..... I just wanted someone to hug.

So I call it over and put my arms over it.

It didn't move. It looked like it kinda enjoyed me hugging it.

So cute.

I took a toy stick, waved it at him. He stood up with its tail wagging excitedly.

I threw the toy stick, thinking that he will bring it back to me, like what all golden retrievers would do.

But unfortunately, this dog is plain weird. It picked up the stick and ran away.

I had to chase him to get back the stick.

Oh yeah, as he grew, he became heavier.

Whenever I took him out for a walk, when it ran, I have to follow it because it was too heavy.

Sometimes I just purposely stood there, trying to show him some authority.

But he was too strong for me.

Nothing special, actually. Isn't that what usually people experienced when they have dogs?

There's this one scene that caught my attention.

My mom was a babysitter and we had this little girl, about 1 yr old plus. She can walk and talk.

Very cute girl.

She got so used to see us calling "Lui" over so she tried calling one day.

Lui came over and poked his head through my front door fence. (what do you call door with holes?)

She would attempted to touch it, reaching out her little hands to touch its nose.

Then, tried to grab its fur on its head.

She squealed excitedly and pull back her hands.

Then, she laughed and jumped like a silly girl.

Then, she reached out her hands to touch it again.

Lui just sat there, blinking, letting her do whatever she wants.

That suddenly made me feel that it was so human.

It didn't seem like an animal, which would bite or lick given an opportunity.

It just seem......to understand.

And I thought animals can't think or rationalize.

It just seem amazing to me.

Watching her play with the dog.

Even with the doors opened.

It just sat there, as if like protecting her and letting her do whatever she wants.

We gave him away in the end.

It was a good dog, but we couldn't afford the time to take care of him.

He deserved a better owner.

I actually saw tears in my sister's eyes when we gave him away.

She is not the type to express her feelings or cry.

I guess he did meant something to her.

Last time, I would purposely drove over to the new owner's house with a snack for him.

He came excitedly when I called out to him.

Then, I would touch it and watch him for awhile.

When I was about to leave, it started whining. As if it was crying.

As I drove off, I can still hear him barking and whining.

As if saying, "Don't leave me alone here. Take me back. I miss you."

I stopped visiting him.

Because it made me feel sad.

It made my eyes watery whenever I leave him.

He is a good dog.

And he deserves a better owner than me and my family.

Did you notice that sometimes I use "he" instead of "it"?

Because there is some sense of humanity in that dog.

He seem to have emotions and feelings too, just like us humans.

I am sure most of you have your own stories to tell, if you have a dog.

How you got it, what it did, how it ran away or how it died.

I've got a good friend, Charisse, who cannot seem to get over her dog tat ran away.

Even a new one cannot replace or help her overcome her longingness for the previous one.

She couldn't feel or show much affection towards the new one.

I guess the old one stole her heart and ran away.

Marley & Me was a nice movie.

Horrible dog but it was the best dog the couple ever had.

The movie ended with Marley dying of old age.

Owning a dog always end with sadness, because dogs don't live as long as humans do.

I guess things do come and go.

Happiness is only for rent, I suppose. Not for sale.

God gave us good things and only to take them back in the end.

I am not sure why.

But I guess the only thing we can do is to appreciate what we have now, while it's still there.

And have no regrets later when it comes to an end.

I shall end this post with a quote from the main character from the movie.

"A dog has no use for fancy cars or big homes or designer clothes. Status symbol means nothing to him. A waterlogged stick will do just fine. A dog judges others not by their color or creed or class but by who they are inside. A dog doesn't care if you are rich or poor, educated or illiterate, clever or dull. Give him your heart and he will give you his. It was really quite simple, and yet we humans, so much wiser and more sophisticated, have always had trouble figuring out what really counts and what does not"