A for Adoption

I have been drawn to animals for as long as I can remember. Some of my earliest books – apart from those by Enid Blyton and series such as The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew – were compendiums of different wildlife species. My favourite outings were always to the Singapore Zoological Gardens and one of my first heroes was Bernard Harrison. I was thrilled when my family decided to get a dog when I was in secondary two.

Hock was a pedigree ‘purchased from a responsible breeder’ and ‘came from a line of championship dogs’. He arrived unceremoniously in a covered plastic basket so shallow he couldn’t even stand up. We were first-time dog owners and relied on trial and error, or the advice of those who seemed more knowledgeable than us.