Day 9

Mommy's back, but not her baby.

Empty

Why am I feeling like the only one thing I have left has been taken away from me?

A Mother's Tears

My beloved Piper has run out of the house and gone missing since Friday morning, Feb 27, sometime around 8 in the morning.

She should hopefully still be around the area, though we are worried she might have walked further to other neighborhoods.

Apparently, just at my void deck, she had rushed out to the carpark, and she was hit by a car. There was a loud bang, but she got up, limped, and ran off.

Piper is very likely injured now, and even more so, traumatized and distressed, so she might have lost her way back home or even to familiar grounds.

We have put up some posters around the blocks. A mini search party has been out since Friday morning. Leads have been very, very sparse.

We will continue to search for her - finding her is very crucial, especially considering she might be badly injured and helpless. We will also put up more posters, and in more areas.

Anyone who knows me, will know Piper. And what she means to me.

I am unfortunately still in Hong Kong, and unable to fly back to Singapore immediately.

Please help me in any little way you can:
(1) send and pass on this notice to as many friends as you can (you may send the link to this post),
(2) help disseminate posters,
(3) help look for Piper - in open areas, in neighborhoods, asking around.

Please remember Piper is in need of urgent help - she is likely injured from the car accident, and on top of that, she has a chronic skin problem that is easily triggered off by stress.

I don't quite expect anyone to actually help with (2) or (3), but please do help send this notice to as many people as you can - for all we know, you might know someone who knows someone, or who might know someone who knows someone else, who might have picked up my baby or seen her scurrying somewhere.


I will be eternally grateful to everyone, anyone.

*****

My baby is the most incorrigible dog ever. If you think Marley's worst, that's because you haven't met Piper. She's always the problematic one, everything from her chronic stressed-out skin, to her perpetual hunt for food in every nook and corner, to her immense greed for every thing edible, to her runaways from home, to her unfailing ability to make me worry endlessly.

When I am not home, she's the one who pouts and lies lifelessly on the front door mat.

When I am home, she's the one who defies Grandma's orders and jumps up onto the bed to crash into my lap.

She is probably one of the smelliest dogs in the world, but to me, it's just Piper. I wear Piper like my favorite everyday scent.

She's too rough for a girl. She plays taunt with you. Stick out your hand to pat her, and she lowers into her crouching stance, thinking you're up for a jaw fight. Reach out further, and she starts growling and barking - and then backs off and scampers away. Loser.

Run after her, grab her, and flip her over belly side up, and she squirms like you're trying to throw her into a pot of boiling oil.

Trying to give her a shower (which she always badly needs) entails chasing her around the whole house, and sometimes having to lie face-down on the floor, straining your arm to grab her from under the bed. It also means having your couch and bed all wet after she dries herself from the painful ordeal. Just ask Grandma.

She sticks to no one, but treats you like you're her best friend if you happen to be eating. When I'm home, however, she sticks to me like 3M tape, everywhere from the bathroom to the bed, never letting me out of sight. Everyone else in the house is practically non-existent. When I go out, she scolds me, "Where the hell do you think you're going again?"

When I pack my luggage, her ears stick up, her eyes widen, I swear I can see her tiny heart pumping away really fast beneath her furry chest. She jumps into the work-in-progress when I turn my back.

And when I eventually roll the luggage out of the room and step out of the house, she looks at me with the saddest eyes I have ever seen on anyone - human or dog.

And this is the precise moment I start tearing.


Piper,

What the hell are you doing now? Where are you?

Aren't you hungry? Aren't you tired? Are you in pain? Did you make new friends?

Are you ever coming home? Are you ever coming back to Mommy?

You know, don't you? You know, Mommy's has been seriously thinking of bringing you over to the Honks. The new place Mommy's just got, you and your sister, you two are going to live like crazy in that quirky place. And Mommy got a queen bed, and it's a spring!

Come home, Piper. Come home, and then come back with Mommy.

I'm waiting.

You can't do this to Mommy.