This is admittedly not my typical blog post, but Angel was a major figure in my life over most of the last decade.
On 31st October, we said goodbye to our beautiful, kind, unintentionally hilarious, world traveller and friend to everyone she met, Angel.
Anyone who has read the blog, or even viewed my Instagram over the past few years may have seen her crop up from time to time – so I thought it would be only fitting to do her justice, and maybe help me come to terms with the silence in our house and the void in our hearts, in one of the few ways I know how; write about how a feisty, middle-aged Pom/Spitz quickly became a full-time sidekick at home, working from home, hiking, out in the car, and pretty much everything in between.
We first met in 2017 – Vannesha’s treasured best friend, sidekick and ‘best girl’. I love dogs, but certainly wasn’t ready to have one, not that that was apparently a concern to either of them…
When the pandemic kicked off, a compromise quickly had to be made; stay in the suburbs (not an option for someone who enjoyed inner-city living such as myself, and was otherwise convinced the pandemic would be done and dusted in a few weeks), or all move into my (no dogs allowed) condo in downtown KL.
…And cue several months of some of the greatest dog-related drama ever witnessed – starting with the only way of getting her out of the house being to put her, and carry her, in a Sports Direct bag, covered loosely with a hoodie before getting in the lift. Easier said than done; you can only imagine how many times I had to cough over a snort or a half-bark emanating from the bag, while in the lift.
She also developed a proclivity towards my carefully maintained house plants – at one point winding up very unwell in the vet having chewed one plant completely bare overnight.
Clearly we couldn’t have barking taking place either – so every (human) meal needed to be scarfed down as quickly as possible.
But in spite of it all, it made me much more amenable to her wonderful, hilariously comic, curious character – and the stage was set for our next chapter. You could even say the pandemic defined a most unexpected friendship.
In the middle of 2020, I returned home. The inability to secure long-term residence beyond short-term work permits, and the subsequent inability to secure credit cards, loan, the higher property price for foreigners eventually put me off staying any longer in Malaysia and made it far less easy to ‘settle' as I was getting older.
Several months later, we picked up where we left off, when both Vannesha & Angel arrived to Dublin Airport, having made the move over. Having heard so many horror stories about moving pets, nerves were tense – they needn’t have been; she strolled out of her crate into Terminal 1’s short-term car park, and wandered around as if she’d been there a hundred times, despite the new surroundings and frosty cold.
Our last few years were spent doing all the things we all enjoyed – plenty of hikes, outings and drives up and down to ‘Grandma’ in Dublin.
If we were at something, there was a good chance Angel was, too – she even got the run of the Limerick racecourse when we got our first covid vaccines; I wandered the course with her while waiting, and vice-versa.
Even as time went on, and we eventually had to buy a pom-sized backpack to occasionally carry her in, she was still quite ruthless given her size and managed the longest trails around Howth, the 12 o’clock hills in Clare, Moylussa, and so many more.
Summer would roll around, and we wouldn’t be without our own BBQ / drinking buddy, no matter which part of Ireland that was.
Given my role is remote and I have continued to fully work from home, we became full-time colleagues, Angel deciding exactly the right moment to start making a fuss was always when I had to present at an all-hands or similar. And, of course, plenty of silliness.
Angel turned 15 last December, and deep down we knew every day was even more precious than the last – nevertheless, she continued to bounce around the house, kicking off at the first sight of anyone cooking something delicious, sleeping during my meetings (we can’t blame her sometimes, let’s be honest), still enjoying the odd hike – even if she was carried much of it – and of course, her favourite treat, the end of a tub of Ben & Jerry’s Cookie Dough.
In that regard, it gives me comfort, much as it broke our heart, that her final few weeks were so abrupt and sudden.
We learned only on the 23rd October that the bump we’d noticed in her mouth, was an aggressive, well-developed oral tumour in her lower jaw bone that, with her age and other existing conditions we’d so carefully managed, was inoperable.
Things turned very rapidly – this was a fight she was unable to win and she almost seemed to know it. After just over a week of doing our very best as she visibly struggled more and more every day; we had to put our own wishes aside, and say goodbye, even though it absolutely broke our hearts like nothing else.
For a dog so lively, so loved and such a lover of life, I can only be thankful that she didn’t suffer for long and got to enjoy life, as I know she did, for as much time as possible.
Vannesha; thank you for forcing me to get past my own stubbornness and beloved no-attachments expat life by hook or by crook, and for (eventually) trusting me with your absolute prized possession. I hope you’ll agree, I don’t make the worst Pom Father after all?
Angel – thank you for showing us both fearlessness, how to enjoy every moment and live life in full, and to worry less and just embrace every new experience, person and place.
After all, what other dog from the tropics walks off a plane in Ireland in winter as if they own the airport, and then walks into my Mother’s house as if they’ve known each other all along?
Always remembered, and always loved. Thank you, and rest well, Angel.
