How much is that doggie in the window?

Isabelle Soh
Feb 16, 2015
3 min read

A few months ago, Mark finally graduated and it was time to say goodbye to Utah's scorching hot sun. Oh yeah, you couldn't have imagined how happy I was!

We packed up all that we had into our trusty little Prius and embarked on a super long drive from Provo to Seattle. I am surprised we managed to squeeze everything into the car.

I know the car looked abused but I assure you that no Priuses were hurt in the moving.

While the ride was seriously a pain in the butt (I could have flown from Singapore to Frankfurt in the same duration) and I wish I could attribute my lack of blogging to it, it really didn't take us six months to get here. So I guess I have to confess that I don't have a good excuse for not writing and I apologise for leaving you hanging. Oops. haha.

Anyway, we got our new apartment and it is so pretty with big windows. The dining and living both have a garden view and we even bought a swing for the porch! I know you are all excited to see how my place (or your free lodging in Seattle) is done up but as much as I want to share it with you too, we probably will have to wait until I've done my spring cleaning for the year. haha.

Well, long before our move, Mark and I always talked getting a pet. I'm not sure if I should be telling you this but I'm terrible with pets. I had chickens once and they ended up as curry for dinner. My dog, Chole, was put to sleep. I killed my hamster too, by jumping off my swing and landing on it. There was also this tortoise that escaped from the container and probably got flushed down the toilet.

The most epic one, however, is the story of my rabbit.

I got a bunny for my 10th birthday and was the happiest girl ever. I would let the rabbit run loose in our garden and there was this once when it started eating the yellow flowers from this huge plant that we had.

Seeing how happy my rabbit was and thinking that the flowers were so delicious, I helped the bunny gather all the fallen petals and placed them in his cage. Boy, I thought my rabbit was the luckiest one alive (haha) to have such an awesome owner.

It was the next day and I ran to the rabbit cage to say goodbye to my rabbit before I boarded my school bus. There were no more petals left and my bunny was motionless on the bottom of the cage. I poked it a few times but it didn't respond. My rabbit had died.

I was dragged up the school bus with tears streaming down my face and I cried all the way to school. I really loved my bunny =(

A few weeks after, I learnt in Science class that those yellow flowers were Allamanda - a poisonous spieces. Since then on, I always got the Allamanda questions right in my tests.

Despite having numerous unsuccessful attempts at having pets, Mimi, my huge Mongrel, was one - and most probably the only - animal that survived under my watch. She lived till a ripe old age and eventually eloped with the neighbour's dog.

Based on my experience, I figured that the bigger the animal was, the higher chances that it will survive (like Mark, he is still alive and well today), so I told Mark that if we were going to get a living thing, it has to be a BIG, HUGE, GIGANTIC dog like Mimi.

Ok, Mark scoffed at me too when he eventually saw Mimi's picture. But she really was humongous in my memories!

It was only a week since we got to our new place and even though we hadn't unpack nor bought all our furtiture, we, being itchy backsides (Noun: someone who does something disruptive out of boredom - The Coxford Singlish Dictionary, TalkingCock.com), went window shopping at Seattle Humane Society.