The Boy with Sad Eyes

Time and time again, answers to my wishes and prayers happen without any prior planning and that they are granted according to God’s timing.

When I bought my house in November 2005, I wasn’t specifically looking for a house. I fell in love with my house after seeing it in a free monthly advertorial magazine. The house nearly slipped away from my grasp when another buyer was willing to purchase the property with the same amount. Somehow I couldn’t get the house out of my mind and like a sad puppy, I looked at the magazine and the website over and over again – with a faint hope when I continued to see that the house was still on sale.  It was only when the other buyer couldn’t arrange a suitable financing that the agent contacted me again. The rest is history – the house has its quirkiness and faults but I love it for its limitations and character.

My getting marriage was also a bit of a “sudden” decision – even my ex-colleagues and acquaintances were a bit surprised to hear that I was getting married. Yani fell into my life in 2007 and although I had no plans of going steady with her or marrying her when I met her, God probably looked at us with bemusement in His eyes. Our wedding planning was relatively short as well but we had a good wedding ceremony on 27 December 2009 and a follow-up celebration on 10 January 2010. It’s still early days in our life but we’re still going on strong together.  Both of us have strong characters so it’s a constant period of adjustment, of loving, as well as giving and taking – which certainly makes our life exciting. 🙂

It was a similar story with Burton, my PT Cruiser – although I had been looking for a car and had toyed with buying a Mazda, a Toyota or even a Volkswagen, my mind continued to return to PT Cruiser. Many of my friends have known about my interest in PT Cruisers years before I had “met” Burton.  I had been looking at second-hand Mazdas and Fords when Burton was advertised slightly above the upper limit of my financial boundary. I was very excited and told Yani about it – Yani advised that perhaps I should buy something cheap and cheerful for my first car and should not buy a PT Cruiser. Being a stubborn man that I am, I kept on visiting carsguide.com.au – wishing that the price would be reduced and that nobody would snap it up in the meantime. Shortly after, the owner dropped the price by $1,000 which then made the price fall within my range. The rest is again history – Burton has its faults and limitations – but I love him, even when he costs me a lot for service and parts. 🙂

I told my friends years ago that I had wanted to buy a car, a house and a dog – pretty much in that order. I joked that my wife (and children) would need to fit in there somewhere. I suppose that the three wishes were reflective of my self-independence and selfishness at that stage. My selfishness has been slowly been chipped away after my relationship with Yani and I’m sure that it will be eroded even further in the next chapter that we are about to embark on.

I have always wanted to have a dog – having an aquarium full of tropical fish doesn’t really give me the canine companionship that I am looking for. I like all sorts of animal – I grew up with cats, but I want a dog now.  So I have been scouring Animal Welfare‘s website, RSPCA’s adoptapet, Pet Rescue, The Advertiser’s classifieds on Saturdays and Gumtree looking for a puppy or a dog to love. I have done numerous online questionnaires to match my situation with suitable breeds, and have visited plenty of websites detailing the personalities of different dog breeds. I had wanted to buy or adopt a Boston Terrier or a Miniature Schnauzer as I was looking for a smallish dog that would fit through my small doggie door.

Then I saw Indy’s sad eyes on Gumtree.

Although I had not been looking at English Staffordshire Bull Terrier (affectionately known as ‘Staffies’), the breed being more active and having medium-sized body. There are a lot of bad press about American Pit Bull Terrier that are often linked unfairly to American Staffordshire Bull Terrier or English Staffordshire Bull Terrier. I read through the advertisement and read a lot of websites to learn more about their characters and then I mustered enough courage to contact the seller.

The family who owns Indy currently is a lovely young family who live down in Christies Beach. They have two young children and an older Staffy already and because of their busy lifestyle, they felt that they had neglected Indy and that he deserved a lot of love, training and attention. Yani and I visited them, along with our friends Sigit and Ane. Indy’s an excitable boy who loves to run around the backyard with a deflated footy ball in his mouth. He looked at me and tried to ignore me. 🙂 I guess I would need to win his trust. 🙂 I like a good challenge!

Indy’s current ‘Mum’, Rachel asked whether I would like to walk him around the block and having done my homework beforehand, I knew that walking the dog is one of the things that new owners need to do. He walked nicely although he tried to pull my lead several times. He was better behaved than the other dog who consistently pulled Rachel’s lead. Indy knows how to sit and stay already and when I felt his body and even his mouth, he didn’t try to bite me. Good boy, I thought. Throughout the ordeal, he put his tail between his legs, in the sign of subservience and fear. His eyes didn’t show the sadness that was portrayed on the photo, but more of an aloofness and bravado. He probably wanted to assert his power in a situation that was so strange to him. 🙂

Indy’s ‘Mum and Dad’ bought Indy at a reputable breeder in 2008 (Indy’s three years’ old now) and had passed puppy school. Indy still needs to go through obedience training (which I need to do with him anyway). They asked me some questions as well, just to ensure that I wasn’t a suss person who was looking for a guard dog and abuse Indy; in return I also asked them some questions just to ensure that they were not trying to offload a problematic dog. I would probably find out later on. 🙂 I have been informed that Indy’s quite protective of his food, but they mentioned that he plays nicely with other dogs. Although they spent quite a large amount of money to buy Indy three years ago, the amount that they’re asking is really small as they say that they are just feeling guilty that Indy’s not getting the care and attention that he deserves. After spending some time with Indy and the family, I made the big decision to adopt him. Yani was a bit reluctant at first but she agreed with my decision (as long as I help to clean up the house as well). Hehe. 🙂

So, tomorrow afternoon, I will pick Indy up and bring her home. I know that my selfishness will continue to be challenged – and that I will get to exercise more, having to walk him up every day (a commitment that I have made). Perhaps this will be our dry run before we have our baby (no, it’s not on its way just yet, don’t get too excited!) :D. Having learned from the way God provided me with the house, a loving wife, a car, and now a dog, I know better than trying to outpace God’s plan. 😉

Let the woofy fun begin!