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Mê Thú Cưng

Features 36 53

Having puppies as new family members in Vietnam

What

a week – my Vietnamese
girlfriend and I celebrated a year
together. It is pretty amazing
considering all the fighting we did.
Ha-ha. Also I got a new family! In
Vietnam, it’s simple – like instant
noodles – just add puppies!
It has been an eerie feeling waiting
to receive the pups from a local
Vietnamese family. It’s been forty
years since I last had a pet. My first dog
had the rather human name of ‘Paulie’
however he had the small body, curled
tail, and sharp eyes of a Vietnamese
dog. He chose us. We discovered him
shivering and hungry at our front door.
He was my best friend, secret teller,
uncomplaining listener of all my
troubles and my companion for more
than a decade in front of the TV,
running to the shops or just playing
on the grass in front of our home. I
missed him dearly, especially as I
wasn’t there when he passed away – a
guilt I’ve carried for a long time.
Paulie was also one of a string of
strange connections that led me to
live in Vietnam. I watched the Vietnam

War as we called it (the American war
in Vietnam, I later found out…) with
him on the sofa. Paulie was somehow
not like other dogs in our street –
aloof, alone yet strong, proud and very
brave. I pitied the dog that stepped on
our lawn! Paulie would charge it down
– no mercy!
Forty years (maybe longer) have
passed and now I have two beautiful
tiny balls of fur sleeping in my garden
on a warm Friday afternoon, which
makes me wonder if I’m so boring that
everyone falls asleep at my place!
Well, apart from the famous curled
tail and ability to sleep through any
noise, it turns out the pups love
Vietnamese steamed rice with just a
dash of unsugared milk. My girlfriend
also tried the tiniest bit of Vietnamese
chicken curry with the rice too. They
also seemed to like scrambled eggs
as a treat – com ga (rice with chicken)
is not far off the menu! Their tiny tails
wiggled in delight!
Funnily enough, they both respond to
“Em oi!” (a Vietnamese phrase to catch
a woman or man’s attention when
you need to ask them for something
or their help, etc.,
used especially in
restaurants) when
it’s dinnertime.
Also sleeping from
11:30 am seems to
be hardwired into
the pups – or is it
just the heat? I have
a large garden and
a big kitchen but
where do they really
love to sleep? Under
the motorbike! Their
grandfather
must
have been the pet of
a xe om (motorbike)
taxi service! Head
on
the
wheel,
feet spread wide,
crawling on the
foot space, resting

under the foot stand… They love the
motorbike.
Like a lot of my students – almost 85
percent of whom are university-age
women or older – there’s a younger,
smaller brother. Blackie is a girl; she’s
going to be tall. Whenever the camera
is in my hand she’s ready for the
photo. Sometimes she looks at me as
if to say, “Hang on, and let me fix my
hair” then it’s a big smile. Little Matty
is the younger, friendlier brother, full
of curiosity like most young boys. He
likes chewing my toes and messing
around in the garden. Blackie bullies
Matty just a little bit but still loves to
sleep next to him.
At food time, there’s no queuing. They
growl at each other fighting for the
same water and bump each other out
of the way. They both walk as if they
were on motorbikes: cutting from the
left to the right in front of me, doing
unannounced U-turns, and never
looking before they walk in front of me!
I can imagine them on my motorbike
barking, “Dad! Turn right!”, “Forget
about that man walking across the
road, just run him down!”
They are learning to dig and destroy
the garden. I laugh a lot because
when I catch them eating the plants,
they put their heads on the ground
and look at each other as if to say, “It
wasn’t me – it was him!”
Yet for all this, they are just balls of
unconditional love, looking to me
for the same and they’ll get it. For
all my difficulties in Vietnam, this
land has given me a great girlfriend,
an interesting life, and two young
companions to share the beautiful
central coast weather and lifestyle
with.
Soon I’ll introduce them to the local
street and take them out for walks
during the cooler parts of the day. Our
adventures are only just beginning!

By Stivi Cook

Matty & Blackie
Issue 04 | July + August 2014 | petmagazine.vn

47