Some couples of days ago, my sister’s friend just lost one of her dogs. Was a Chihuahua puppy named Norton. Of course it broke her heart. Sherin, my sister’s friend, has three dogs, as far as I know: a golden retriever named Apple, a pitbull named something, and Norton the Chihuahua. From what I’ve heard, Norton ran to the street and got hit by a car. What a jerk! I mean the driver.
Somewhere in 2008...
All my condolences for Sherin and her family. May Norton rest in peace. All dogs go to heaven, right?
Oh, man. I know the feeling. Losing a dog feels horrible, feels like… hell… maybe, I don’t even know how hell is. Anyway, I’ve lost a dog too about two years ago. Well, one and a half years ago, to be exact. My dog died on June 10, 2010, right before the World Cup 2010, right before my very birthday.
I’ve told you before about him. His name was Socky. He was just 2 years old when he died. He got sick.
I’ve wanted to tell you about him since so long ago, but I had no time, then I just forgot. But now that something horrible like that just happened, I think it’s about time.
So, I met Socky for the first time in the middle of 2008. I forgot the exact day, but I’m pretty sure it was somewhere in July or August 2008. At that time I used to write my diary every single day, but I never mention Socky before we really, really knew each other. I mean, I didn’t even know his name yet back then. So, I’m not sure about the date, but I remember I was just got back home from Karawaci. I was still living in my old house in Jalan Camar.
Socky was one of my neighbor’s dogs. When I was in Jalan Camar, I surrounded by dog lovers. Everyone seems to be a dog-person. I know at least 8 to 10 neighbors who own one dog or more. Socky’s owner was one of them.
Ticoalu family was known by other neighbors for their aggressive dogs. They always have so many dogs, at least more than three, and the dogs were always aggressive. And in Camar, the dogs are just free as a bird. Well, not as a bird, because the dogs don’t fly. I mean, in Camar, it’s always okay to let the dogs out. When some cute dogs were out and play, it’s entertaining for some people. But when Ticoalu’s dogs were out… people were afraid of passing their house. Yeah, people, including me.
But one day in 2008, when I just got back from Karawaci, I passed the Ticoalu’s house with my car, and I saw two cute little puppies playing in front of that house. I spontaneously jumped out of the car and reached them inside my arms. Oh! I can’t forget how cute they were! They were Socky and his sister, Polo. Yeah, I know, who would name a little girl ‘Polo’, right? Hehe…
When I sat there to play and cuddle with them, the both tried to jump on my legs. Oh they were so cute! Have I said that?
After playing for a while with them, I walked to my house, that was only about 10 meters away. Yeah, that close.
The next days after, those two little puppies came and played in my house lots of times. My own dog, Bulbul, is not an aggressive dog, so it was always okay for another dog to just come and play, and sometimes even eat Bulbul’s food. Well, now that Bulbul’s getting older, he’s not always like that anymore. But he’s still nice by the way.
Anyway, me and my family were very happy with those puppies coming to our house pretty often. They’re very entertaining. Sometimes they eat Bulbul’s food. Polo was more strong, tough, active, and smart. Socky was not so active as a puppy, not smart in-a-dog-way, but smart in the tricky way. Polo liked to play fight, she always bite Socky’s ear to provoke him. But Socky was passive. He was more interested with the food. It was very funny. It was just like Polo was the male one.
Socky seemed to be a coward, he always been dominated by Polo (and later by Bulbul). But in fact, Socky was so much brave. Even though they played in our house a lot, Polo wasn’t really comfort with us. I could hold her easily. But she was still afraid with the rest of my family sometimes. But Socky was different. He easily got along with us. Someday, those two dogs came to my house to eat Bulbul’s food. When I came to protect Bulbul’s food, Polo stopped eating and ran right away. But Socky kept eating like nothing happened. I pulled Bulbul’s bowl. But Socky’s mouth just followed the bowl. That was so cute. So finally I just let them finish that food.
Sometimes me and Deany just watched them play together with Bulbul. We did nothing, just watched and laughed. It was really fun.
Then one day, Socky’s owner gave Polo away. They gave her to someone who might live far enough from there. So Socky was alone. There were other dogs, two female named Crispy and Mocca, and one male named Bruno. They both old, about 10 to 14 years old. They were aggressive and not nice at all. They always barked at people. From their physical appearances, I think they were mixed Welsh Corgy dogs, a breed of guarding dog. They were tiny, but aggressive and super protective. Mocca was Socky and Polo’s mother. The Ticoalu’s maid said that Bulbul was their father. But they didn’t look like Bulbul at all. They were short and tiny just like their mother. And also aggressive and not nice to people.
After they gave Polo away, Socky became the only puppy in that house. So he liked it better to be at my old house with Bulbul. Because Bulbul was still so young back then. He was just 3 years old. Bulbul was still skinny, super friendly, and playful. So Socky came pretty often to play with Bulbul, and eat Bulbul’s food.
Ah.., that was one hell of great memories, seeing them playing like that.
Socky in his earlier life. I took these pics with my SLR camera one morning in the middle of 2008.
Socky was a really talented model.
After a while, someday Bulbul started protecting his food. Maybe he started to feel that it wasn't right, letting other dogs eating his food just like that. So, then we realized that we could use Socky's presence to solve Bulbul's eating problem. Bulbul used to have this eating problem. He doesn't wanna eat the food, if we don't feed it to his mouth. It's kinda hard to make him start eating. But once he wanna start, he won't stop.
But, with Socky's presence, Bulbul was afraid that Socky would eat his food. So, every times Socky came to our house, first Bulbul would attack him. Well, he wasn't really attacking Socky. It was just like a warning. He would start growling. Then he ate his food quickly. Socky was afraid of Bulbul, so he wouldn't come inside before Bulbul finished eating.
So that was how we used Socky to make Bulbul eat. We did it so many times, until one day, we feel pity that Socky was only used like that. While Bulbul was eating, Socky just sat and watched. Then he would lick the empty bowl after Bulbul finish the meal. We didn't wanna feed Socky. He's not our dog. If we feed him, he would never leave our house. He would think that he was our dog. But then, he was already like our dog anyway. He came almost everyday, sometimes even slept in our car port. So, one day, we started feeding Socky too. Since then, every time we fed Bulbul, we also fed Socky.
In my old house in Jalan Camar, we let the dogs not only out, but also in. Bulbul could go inside and outside the house as he like. Well, we used to keep him in the car port: he was not allowed to be inside the house or outside the fence. But since he was getting bigger, he could jump through the fence and the window. So it became useless to keep him anywhere. He was really, really free.
So, there were times when we already fed Socky every time he came, but never let him go inside our house. So Socky could only come to our front yard, front porch and the carport. That was the only thing differentiated Socky and Bulbul. But sometimes he ran so fast and made it inside our house. But we carried him to the backyard. Then Bulbul and Socky would play so happily on the green grass. They played fight, balls, sandals, everything.
One night, the rain fell. It was a hell of rain. It was a storm. Earlier that day, Socky came to our house to play with Bulbul. When the rain started falling, Bulbul came inside the house. But we couldn't let Socky in, because he wasn't our dog. But me and Bapak felt pity, seeing him sitting in the car port like that, in the middle of the big rain. Socky couldn't go home. I wanted to let him in, and so did Bapak. But we were afraid of Mama. But finally Bapak let Socky in anyway, and when I was in the kitchen with Mama, we were surprised that suddenly a very little, cold nose kissed our calves.
Mama didn't like the idea of letting people's dog inside our house, but she couldn't be angry. Socky really took her heart. Socky took everyone's heart.
Since then, Socky became more often came inside our house. Someday, Socky came when it was time to bath Bulbul. Nuroso, the young man that used to work for our family, used to bath Bulbul. Considering that Socky started think that he was allowed to come inside the house, Mama (or maybe Bapak, I forgot) told Nur to bath Socky too. So that was how he finally, unofficially, became our dog. Well, we fed him, we gave him bath, he could come inside the house as he like, so, he was no different with Bulbul. The only difference was, Socky could also go to Ticoalu family's house anytime he wanted to.
After a pretty long time, Socky was more often in our house than in his real owner's house, and later he was hardly ever go to his real owner's house. Socky ate in our house, washed and cleaned in our house, and always slept in our house.
His favorite spot was the first rung of the stairs. He slept there almost all the time. His other favorite spot was on the floor, next to the big window that face the backyard, between the backdoor and the fridge. Oh! And of course, anywhere I was.
Mama didn't like the idea of letting people's dog inside our house, but she couldn't be angry. Socky really took her heart. Socky took everyone's heart.
Since then, Socky became more often came inside our house. Someday, Socky came when it was time to bath Bulbul. Nuroso, the young man that used to work for our family, used to bath Bulbul. Considering that Socky started think that he was allowed to come inside the house, Mama (or maybe Bapak, I forgot) told Nur to bath Socky too. So that was how he finally, unofficially, became our dog. Well, we fed him, we gave him bath, he could come inside the house as he like, so, he was no different with Bulbul. The only difference was, Socky could also go to Ticoalu family's house anytime he wanted to.
After a pretty long time, Socky was more often in our house than in his real owner's house, and later he was hardly ever go to his real owner's house. Socky ate in our house, washed and cleaned in our house, and always slept in our house.
His favorite spot was the first rung of the stairs. He slept there almost all the time. His other favorite spot was on the floor, next to the big window that face the backyard, between the backdoor and the fridge. Oh! And of course, anywhere I was.
Socky broke all the rules. He easily went upstairs, entered the bathroom, waiting for me while I took a bath. Sometimes he slept in the bathroom floor. He really liked the bathroom. Sometimes when my bedroom door was open, Socky just came inside my bedroom. Bulbul would never do that.
I remember how hard and how loud I laughed, when I realized that Socky really hated his reflection on the bathroom mirror. He didn't know that that short little dog he saw was himself. He kept barking on his reflection. I tried to make him understand that it was him, by holding him, and show him my reflection holding his. But he barked to my reflection too. Oh... so cute! It was hilarious!
The other funny thing about Socky was, he was a really smart, intelligent, even genius dog! He really knew how to take people's sympathy. Once, Deany was just came home with Ella, her close friend, and Socky did something bad, I forgot what was it. Deany was mad at Socky and yelled, "Socky!" and then Socky fell to the ground and act dead. Deany and Ella were like, "What? Where did he learn that?"
It was unbelievable. I mean, he's not trained at all. He didn't even understand 'sit' and 'jump'.
And once, some shitty debt collectors (I f***in hate debt collectors I wish all the debt collectors die) came to our neighbor's house, and one of those shits hit Socky (I wish the one who did it die of cancer or any torturing condition). Socky was totally okay. But still, I was really mad that someone could do such thing to such a lovely creature.
When Nur told me about that incident, Mama said maybe the shit was afraid of Socky. Then I said, "No way! Socky is a harmless, cute, little dog!" Then, just as if he understood what I said, Socky came to me and asked for a hug. He put on that angelic, innocence baby face, and made cute noises. Aaaaww.... so cute!!!
On 2009, our family started moving to the new house in Senayan Bintaro. We've been building that house since early 2008. The moving progress took a very long time and effort. There were about 6 or 7 months when we lived in two house. We kept moving between the old house and the new house. There were still lots of our belongings in the old house.
So, sometimes we lived in the old house, sometimes we lived in the new house. But the fridge was still in the old house, and we kept the dogs food in the fridge. So the dogs were always in the old house. Sometimes...
I remember how hard and how loud I laughed, when I realized that Socky really hated his reflection on the bathroom mirror. He didn't know that that short little dog he saw was himself. He kept barking on his reflection. I tried to make him understand that it was him, by holding him, and show him my reflection holding his. But he barked to my reflection too. Oh... so cute! It was hilarious!
The other funny thing about Socky was, he was a really smart, intelligent, even genius dog! He really knew how to take people's sympathy. Once, Deany was just came home with Ella, her close friend, and Socky did something bad, I forgot what was it. Deany was mad at Socky and yelled, "Socky!" and then Socky fell to the ground and act dead. Deany and Ella were like, "What? Where did he learn that?"
It was unbelievable. I mean, he's not trained at all. He didn't even understand 'sit' and 'jump'.
And once, some shitty debt collectors (I f***in hate debt collectors I wish all the debt collectors die) came to our neighbor's house, and one of those shits hit Socky (I wish the one who did it die of cancer or any torturing condition). Socky was totally okay. But still, I was really mad that someone could do such thing to such a lovely creature.
When Nur told me about that incident, Mama said maybe the shit was afraid of Socky. Then I said, "No way! Socky is a harmless, cute, little dog!" Then, just as if he understood what I said, Socky came to me and asked for a hug. He put on that angelic, innocence baby face, and made cute noises. Aaaaww.... so cute!!!
On 2009, our family started moving to the new house in Senayan Bintaro. We've been building that house since early 2008. The moving progress took a very long time and effort. There were about 6 or 7 months when we lived in two house. We kept moving between the old house and the new house. There were still lots of our belongings in the old house.
So, sometimes we lived in the old house, sometimes we lived in the new house. But the fridge was still in the old house, and we kept the dogs food in the fridge. So the dogs were always in the old house. Sometimes...
...
