To a New Home

It’s strange to say this after bringing Tiger back for only two months, but the dog with a feline name was brought to a new home.

It was a unanimous decision by me and my parents to give Tiger away to a better home. It’s not that we don’t like this pup. We have our reasons. Tiger’s overly playful and somewhat destructive nature has become a problem to us and our beloved Apple. When Tiger was still small, Apple had no problem with this little brother, proactively sought the little one to play, enduring his playful nipping. But as he grew larger and stronger and more playful, Tiger tend to bite harder and play rougher. Perhaps it’s because of Apple’s more quiet nature or that she wasn’t as playful, she spent most of her time hiding in her favorite spot instead of out in the living room.

Not only that, he would steal Apple’s chew bone right in front of her. Maybe it happened one time too many, once Apple rushed Tiger and bite him hard. At one time, Apple's attack on Tiger was so aggressive, mom and I had to separate them until Apple settled down. Since then, whenever Tiger steal her bone or tried to jump up the sofa while she was on it, she would growl and nip at him. Otherwise she would spend the whole day hiding. We can tell that she no longer enjoying herself at home and living a relaxing life when Tiger was around. 

We feel sorry for Apple. Initially we brought her home so she can be a playmate for Gigi, our previous pet Chihuahua, but she passed away shortly afterwards. We thought of doing the same thing for Apple by bringing in Tiger, so she can have someone to play with. Instead, she looked more alone, hiding from Tiger all the time.

As I said before, Tiger is very playful and a bit destructive. Whatever he can put his mouth into, you can bet it won’t stay in one piece for long. He already tore a huge hole at the bottom of our sofa. We tried to train and discipline him, but with everyone busy working, the effort simply wasn’t enough. Even Apple’s painful bites and fierce growling failed to make Tiger to behave. As Tiger grew larger than Apple, he’ll overpower his older sister for sure.

After much consideration, for Apple’s and Tiger’s sake, we decided to give Tiger to someone we know would love and care for him as much as we do. That someone was one of our relatives who visited us a few days ago. When they saw Tiger, they fell in love with him. We knew that they are dog lovers too, so after discussing with mom and dad, we decided that we will give Tiger to them.

Yesterday morning, mom called the relative and asked them if they were interested in adopting Tiger. We thought they would come on Saturday. But in the evening of the same day, they came by to pick up their new pet. It was before I reach home, so I didn’t have the chance to say goodbye. Fortunately they live at USJ, so we could go visit them when we wanted to.

This was good news to Apple too. Already she’s back to her usual habit of hanging around in the living room, napping on the sofa, scratching your leg if you stopped petting her. I noticed that she looked much more relaxed. She even gets to play with her favorite white rubber ball that we had to hide from Tiger. I think we did the right thing.

We’re not sure if we’ll get another pup for Apple. If we do, we’ll definitely look for a female pup with a more mellow and peaceful behavior.