Pawspectives

Three years ago, I signed up for something more binding than my HDB loan. Unlike the loan, nobody sat me down first to explain the terms and conditions. If they had, I might actually have read them — unlike literally every other legal document in my life. I got a dog because, like most of us, I saw one lying happily in the shade of a void deck and thought: that looks like the retirement I want. Turns out he's the one who's retired. I'm the one doing overtime.

Twenty years ago, I met a dog whose eyes held the whole sky... I didn't know then that I wasn't just gaining a dog. I was signing up for twenty years of being taught, patiently and repeatedly, how to love something that could not speak. Loving a new animal does not quietly erase the one who came before — if anything, it proves how much that first love mattered, because you're choosing to survive its absence by giving the same gift again.

In Singapore, some dogs are abandoned. Others are simply left behind by life. Dog Dog—affectionately known as Mr. No Name Dog—was once part of a family. He had an elderly couple to call home, a familiar routine, and people who loved him. Then, everything changed. His human passed away. His remaining caregiver was living with dementia and could no longer care for him. And somewhere along the way, an old dog who had once known the comfort of a home became a dog who was