Tikoy

Act 41:

“It’s never too late… To Have A Pet

It makes you a gentler person, more compassionate, more tactile. It expands your life and widens your focus. It brings rewards: unconditional love. Time for reflection, warmth.” – Patrick Lindsay

Quote in book: “To his dog everyman is king” ~ Anonymous

Growing up we had lots of pets. Fish, birds, and dogs. My dad really took care of all pets for us. The birds I’ve talked about in a different blog.

Fish: For as long as I remember, we always had a fish tank. This was beyond that sad goldfish in a bowl. It was a real fish tank. It was a good 30-35 gallons, maybe more. It had fake plants, rocks, moss and sea snails and I think we had like little eel things, too. I remember there was a little mermaid figurine in the tank that we got from Mickey Ds and put in there. We had all kinds of fish in there. I don’t remember any of the types we had, but I could probably point them out if we were at a fish store.

The dogs: As a family, we’ve had/have 7 dogs. Three of them have been West Highland Terriers, aka Westies. All 7 of the dogs were rescues. Right now my brother has Rusty, who we think is a boxer/jack russell mix. My mom has Geoff (a westie) and Nanukla, we call her ‘Nuk’ for short (American husky). We also had Mickey (a westie), who died on Xmas day in 2009. I think out of all the dogs he’s my second favorite. Before Mickey, there was my brother’s dog Mr. George (cocker spaniel). We called him “Mister” for short. If I remember correctly, he named him after George Jetson. He was so sweet, but not the smartest dog in the world. Before him, there was Kay or Strike Two, who was a mostly black w/ a little bit of white mutt. She was the only dog we did not keep. She would chew on everything and didn’t get along w/ our other dog. I always wonder what happened to her. I still feel bad we had to give her back. =(

My dog.

The first one we had. The only dog I can truly claim as mine and that was bonded to me. Tikoy or Tickle. Tikoy is the Filipino name for a gelatinous rice cake thing that is used to celebrate Chinese New year. Don’t ask me why I named him that. I think it was because Tikoy the food is white and Tikoy the dog was also white. So, Tikoy had two names, because I think I wanted to have an English name for him too. We called him Tickle to all of the non-filipino friends. I’m pretty sure he, at first, answered to both of them, but we mostly called him Tikoy, so that’s what stuck.

I LOVED that dog. He was my best friend. He was the cutest dog. I still miss him and sometimes I still dream about him. We got him when I was 3 (almost 4) years old, just after my brother was born. My mom always tells the story about how Tikoy was such a great baby sitter of my brother. My mom would put my brother on a blanket in the living room and then go into the kitchen, where you couldn’t see the blanket. If/when my brother rolled off the blanket, Tikoy would bark! Then my mom would come running into the room and put my brother back into the middle of the blanket. Even as my brother got older, Tikoy would think he was the boss of him.

We got Tikoy from a Pat, a lady my mom used to work with. Pat is an amazing woman. She’s got tons of cats and dogs that she’s rescued. She used to have horses. She has a huge property. I remember going there a kid and just playing w/ all the animals. Apparently, someone found Tikoy on the freeway. He was sitting in the middle of the freeway on the white lines, so as to not get run over. Pat’s place was like a second home to him. Whenever we went on vacation we brought him there. He always had so many dogs to play with there. He even had a great dane, Dana, as his girlfriend. It was sooo funny watching this beautiful Great Dane following around a little white dog about the ¼ the size of her.

Tikoy was the smartest dog. In the house I grew up in Walnut, CA (not Walnut Creek… Just Walnut in SoCal), the dogs room was the laundry room and it had a doggie door to the backyard. No matter how we blocked that doggie door, Tikoy always figured a way to get out. At first, we just put the little metallic hooks to lock it, but he figured he could use his nose to unhook them. Then we put a bar over the door, so even if he unhooked the hooks he wouldn’t be able to get out, but he figured out a way to push the bar out of the holster and get out. I think finally we had to put something in front of the doggie door that was too heavy to move, so he couldn’t get out. So, we would the dogs in the laundry room because Tikoy also figured out how to get out of the backyard. He would squeeze through the wooden planks and then he dug a small hole to be able to get out. I remember once finding the gate open, not having a clue how he did that. Whenever he got out of the backyard he’d run far far away. The first couple times he did it we were so worried, but he always came back, either by that night or by the morning. He always would come home.

He lived to be 17 years old. I always thought it was 19, but my mom and I just redid the math again. So, he was there through every moment of my childhood that I can remember. He was a big part of it. He was blind in his last few years, but I knew he still knew me and he would always come cuddle w/ me, even when I came home from college. My mom had to put him to sleep while I was away at college. I remember the day she told me. It was during my freshman year of college right after my Winter Quarter finals. She told me she put him to sleep because he had a tumor in his stomach. But she told me days after it happened, because I was in the middle of finals and she didn’t want me to get distracted. I’m glad she did that, but it still haunts me that I never got a chance to say good bye.

Here are some pics of him and me. My mom was nice enough to scan these for me this morning. I only had one of him here at my place.

This was underneath our pinball table

Our cousins had the same crayola sleeping bag

He's telling me a secret

See I can hold him

I can hold him up higher. We're in front of the dog house my dad and I built

We painted it white and numbered it 150A, because our address was 150 Carbonia. Yes, that's me inside!

He went w/ us on Halloween. He was excited

This is my favorite Halloween costume ever! My mom made it for me

In his basket, but it's by the fireplace for some reason. I must've put it there, because it wasn't normally there.

On XMAS day. I put that ridiculous ribbon on his head he was not a happy camper

Hugs!

I was in high school, so I'm a lot older, but he looks the same.

I miss him, but I know my dad is w/ him, Mister, and Mickey. He is hard to replace, which is one of the reasons I don't have any pets today. The other reason is that I'm never home, so I would never want to have any animal spend more time in day care than w/ me. I'm not that cruel. But some day, I want to have another pet, but now is not the time.