The Puppy or the Plants

By Juliana N. Chang

A full-time loving mother of two squabbling children adopts a puppy from her mother’s pet dog’s litter. The puppy they named, Huan Huan, which means happy, has become the peacemaker to a homemaker. Now, she needs to deal with a dog that is growling in the manger. Fortunately, she has all the supportive canine lovers around her. They all share wonderful experience of their magnificent, furry four-legged best friends. Dogs of the same street bark alike.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Partridge Publishing Singapore
• Release date: Nov 19, 2020
• ISBN: 9781543761474

Juliana N. Chang

JULIANA N. CHANG is a full-time mother of two young children, a wife of an ordained clergyman and a former trained teacher living in the city of Kuching, Sarawak, the Federation of Malaysia. A homely person who loves to cook, bake, clean and take care of her pet dogs.

Book preview

PROLOGUE

Mandy and Sam were siblings. Mandy was a 10-year-old preadolescent, and Sam was a 5-year-old preschooler. Angie was their full-time stay-at-home doting mother. The children often argued unnecessarily and squabbled over small little things such as toys, books, TV programmes, or who should sit with their mother in front when she was driving or whose turn it was to dial the phone to ring their father or even who should pick up the phone when their father rang them. These petty arguments often made their mother feel irritated. But many times, their mother handled these petty arguments well before they fester into a major conflict, and she was aware of the sibling rivalry.

Their mother would be a stern but infallible judge to decide who was right. She was also an impartial referee to decide who should get the ball to stay in the field and who should be given the red card to be sent off the field to sit on the bench. And the gesture of a peace settlement would be the children making a pinkie promise. When Mandy and Sam locked their pinkies to signify a promise, Angie would ask, Promise? When the children answered, their mother would say, When the promise is broken, the pinkies will be cut off. She said it over a million times, but not even half of their pinkie was cut off. They often became grumpy. If the grumpiness went on too long and irritating, their mother often found ways to persuade them to maintain love and peace in her home.

Their mother was such a loving and caring person. Mandy and Sam were very lucky to have a full-time mother, and the most important thing had been this mother tolerated patiently the constant arguments of little things. Other people would feel annoyed by their repeated arguments but not Angie. Fortunately, Mandy and Sam were good siblings because the arguments never lasted until sunset. They got over it quickly.

1

Petty Squabbles

Last year, Mandy celebrated her ninth birthday at home. Their father could not come back for the celebration, but he had promised to make up for the celebration in the future. Both children were just like any other young children who love cakes especially birthday cakes with fancy decoration. Mandy was anticipating, but Sam was green with envy the moment he saw the cake at the bakery.

Angie took out the cake from the fridge and carefully unboxed it at the kitchen counter. Sam had been very impatient to see the final cake because he helped to choose when they were at the bakery a week ago. Other than that, it must have been the scent of the fresh strawberries trapped in the box now released and drifted past the anticipating child’s nose that made him more impatient. Angie brought out the circular-shaped cake decorated with Frozen character figurines on the light blue jelly surface surrounded with piped fresh cream and six fat fresh strawberries on top. The white fresh cream frosting covered the whole outside of the cake and finished with identical chocolate drippings. Angie ordered their favourite strawberry-and-vanilla-flavoured layered cake. Angie arrived at the dining table, while the cake was still on her hands; Sam’s hand reached the cake like a bird pecking a worm. His mother gave him an impulsive warning ‘No! Wait!’ She looked at her son and breathed out a relieved breath.

Sam just ignorantly answered, ‘I just want to touch it a bit.’

Angie placed the cake carefully on the dining table in front of the birthday girl and lit the candles with a lighter. The children sat quietly on their chairs beaming with sunshine smiles especially the birthday girl who smiled the sweetest. Then, Angie said, ‘OK, now . . .’

Before Angie could finish her sentence, Sam swiftly moved forward, and with only one big puff, all the candles were blown out. Mandy was so flabbergasted that she just looked with jaw dropped. Immediately she grabbed her fists tightly and snarled, ‘Yuckkkk! Look at you, blowing out spit. And this is my cake!’

‘Mum, Mandy hasn’t made a wish.’ He just wittily changed the topic.

‘My birthday wish is you lick off all your spit from this cake!’

‘Where is my spit? Here? Here? There? On Olaf’s face?’ Sam just pointed at the figurines randomly and twisted the corners of his lips, shook his head sideways, rolled his eyes upwards, and held up both his palms in front of his naughty little face. He even stuck out his tongue before he put his hands down.

Angie knew her little boy was envy with the celebration. He just needed a little attention. She tried to distract him as much as she could and cheer her daughter up as best as possible. After all, this was a celebration they waited for a year to experience. A year of anticipation for a child is a long time to wait, and a childhood birthday only comes once a year with a limited period of twelve years only for every human being. So it should not be spoilt by scolding, screaming, or threatening. She needed to maintain the right temperature when situation got heated up. Angie kept her mood very cool and light that night.

‘Do you need to make a wish? I can always light the candles again,’ Angie calmly said to Mandy while brushing her daughter’s long black hair that reached half of her back. Mandy almost lost all her mood, and she needed to be comforted the most. She felt so down, and it was shown from the way her head rested on her upright arms with cheeks pressed so tightly between her palms. Her mother just gave her a magical hug, and it worked wonderfully. She felt better. Then, the celebration continued.

‘Yes. I want to blow the candles myself. Please cup his mouth, Mum.’

‘Sure, I will, my little princess.’Angie was smiling, and then she turned towards Sam to give him a stern warning. She gave options to him to cup his own mouth or she would have to do it. Sam did not have a choice, so he cupped his mouth with both his little palms. Later, Angie lit the candles again, and this time Mandy made a wish and blew out the candles. They cut the cake and ate it peacefully. Angie divided the toys fairly to each child before they squabbled who should take Sven or Olaf. But there was still a little squabble. It was settled when they agreed amicably to trade the Troll for Olaf. Well, barter system still works very well sometimes regardless of how advanced a civilisation is.

There were many times they argued in the supermarket. They argued who should push the trolley basket or which department they should visit first or who should take out the things from the trolley to place them on the counter at the cashier. They are just like any normal children who are curious with the beeping sounds of the scanning machine, so they shoved and pushed each other there.

But this trip to the supermarket, their mother emerged as a winner. And Angie was just a little overreacting. The only thing missing from the show was the applause of the spectators. When they entered the supermarket, the children rushed to the fruit counters and asked their mother to pick the watermelon of their choice. The children were too excited and distracted by the pile of watermelons, so they forgot it was a supermarket. Their mother just took her sweet time looking at other fresh, inviting fruits near her. When she got nearer to them, the squabble got intense.

‘Mum, please take this one. This watermelon has darker colour, just like the ones you always choose, and it must be juicy,’Mandy tried to convince her mother.

‘No. Pick