My Keller

When I was 8 years old, my father got a labrador retriever for me. I remember how, as a family, we sat in silence in my parent's room in our house at Pasir Panjang, as we thought of a meaningful name for our new dog. We wanted to make sure that our dog would have a nice name, something that special and unique. Then somebody suggested Keller, inspired by Helen Keller. Labradors were well-known as guide dogs and since we were getting a labrador, we finally decided on the name "Keller".

By the time Keller officially arrived in my house, he was already quite big, although you could still consider him a puppy. The one and only time I carried him into the house, it was on someone's(I think mine) birthday. He was only a few months old and yet I was already struggling to keep him in my arms. It was not because he was wriggling about. Instead I remember him to be rather still, actually. Keller just looked around in slight bewilderment as I brought him out of the backyard into the dining room. He was so heavy that not before long, I quickly put him down, back into his backyard again, before my arms broke under this weight. Since then, I would just pet or play with him.

In my old house at Pasir Panjang, the kitchen sink looked out into the washing area and the backyard that Keller was kept in. It was a long, narrow yard that ensured that Keller could do his business at one end while keeping the larger portion of the other end clean. He could also run back and forth like a mad dog when he heard the doorbell ring or spied a car waiting outside our gate.

The thing that I remembered the best about him was that he would always jump up onto the kitchen sill to look into the kitchen. My brother and I used to lure him with Honey Stars so that we could take cute shots of him. We would just lean over the sink and out of the window, catch Keller's eye, then begin to shake the box of Honey Stars. Next thing you would hear is the scraping of nails as he scrambled to jump up onto the window sill.

Through the years, he got older and fatter. He moved to my present house with us. He grew quieter. Then he lost weight as we cut down the number of meals he had daily and brought him out to the surrounding parks to do his big and small business.

With age, he started to have skin problems. He had lumps growing in him and had to go for an operation to remove the lumps just in case they turned harmful or diseased. The last time I got to see him, he was rubbing his body against the railings of his cage and the tiled floor so that he could relieve himself of his body itches.

Then I heard Keller was vomiting and having very bad diarrhoea. He had lumps growing again and my parents decided to send him to the hospital.

I then found out from my dad on Friday night that he was put to sleep last Thursday, 11th Jan. He would be 10 years old this year.

My Keller