You are your dog’s lifetime companion

By Kevin Jingga

We spend mostly 20 years or more together with our dogs. But this is their whole life.

Carrey has been in Melbourne for six years. She used to have a lot of dogs back in her home country.

Now she has Doremi, a four-year-old male Schnauzer.

“I missed my dogs so much and I live here alone. I want to keep him as my family,” Carrey said.

She said raising a dog required many sacrifices, like putting her dog’s interest before herself and also lots of time.

“He’s like my son, I buy him the best food. Sometimes when I want to eat expensive food, I just try to keep myself from it. But if he wants to eat something, I will pay for it,” she said.

She walks Doremi at least an hour every day.

“I treat him and he can do a lot of actions and tricks,” she said.

When asked to show the tricks, she said, “sit”, “down” or “shake hand” to Doremi and he followed her instructions.

“He did not go to school and I trained him directly. He is very smart,” she said.

She understands that the responsibility to take care of Doremi is much more than to spend time together. For her, it is a lifetime commitment.

“I would never leave him and he does not want to leave me,” she said.

Despite being time-consuming and expensive, she feels it is a worthwhile sacrifice.

“When I hold him, I feel very happy,” she said.

She thought for a very long time before buying Doremi.

“I want to be his companion for his whole life because he can only be my companion for 20 years at most, but it’s his whole life,” she said

Occasionally she had nightmares about Doremi and she would would wake up in tears.

“I dreamed he was lost and I cried and when I woke up I found that I am actually crying,” she laughed.