HEART BEAT AT MY FEET Pet Personalities

I have a very silly confession to make. As a child, growing up in Byculla, studying at St. Agnes, the Clare Road Convent school, where we had quite a few Chinese students studying, I never could distinguish between one Chinese mom and another.

They all looked the same to me. I would see them occasionally on Reports Day or when they came for the PTA meetings, or Sports Day and always wondered who was Way Chhin, Mei Yan and Mei Lan’s mum, or Lily’s or Queen Tham’s. Just couldn’t tell.

I guess it’s the same with people who don’t have dogs as pets. They just can’t tell the difference between two dogs of similar breed, especially when they are similarly coloured, too. Dogs not only look different – I can tell one Lab/Retriever from another – but they have their own, distinct personalities, too. That is, apart from their inherent breed traits. Pet parents, especially those who have had a series of dogs, even if all of them have been of one particular breed, will tell you innumerable stories of their babies, how each has been different from the other, not unlike their human children!