I have never felt more seen than in a Reddit thread on ‘what’s a band you irrationally hate’ and I immediately thought ‘imagine dragons’ and, at the top of the thread people are also saying ‘imagine dragons’ but now I have reasons
‘Imagine dragons is like the music a tech ceo uses to introduce his new killer API’
‘Imagine dragons is music that people use to sign up young people to the military’
It made me very much distrustful of Arcane, which was sad. I REALLY don’t like them
Starting a thread about my life with Cookie, while she’s in intensive care right now in San Francisco. She’s still conscious, but it’s not looking great. Even if she gets to come home I think it’s time to prepare to say goodbye to her.
1. This was the very first time I saw her.
I was 24 years old. I’d just moved to Petaling Jaya, Malaysia. With the first serious girlfriend I had. We thought it’d be a great idea to get a dog.
I took a pic of the moment I saw Cookie in Damansara Uptown
4. One of the first things anyone told me about having Cookie was, that her nose was ‘white’ but would fill up and become blacker, then she would lose pigmentation in her nose as a senior.
That’s one of the things I’ve been observing about this face I’ve been looking at.
For a few years she had a cute black heart shaped nose, that had two heart shape ‘blanks’ on them. That’s who she was: a dog with hearts for everyone.
In recent photos you can see her nose is losing pigmentation
6. The hardest thing she’s ever done, other than perhaps actively dying right this moment: in 2012 I got extremely sick, broke up with my ex, quit my job(s), moved home (and Cookie). It wasn’t far (250 miles) but we still crossed a border. There was no plan other than to try to recover, with Cookie by my side.
She was in a quarantine for 4 months by herself. I visited as much as I could, but it was really hard. We’ve been through stuff together.
5. In Malaysia, her best friend was a cat called Gangster, who lived with us. Gangster passed on the same year we left Malaysia. Cookie never developed a close relationship with any other animal. She was bonded to him and they grew up together. Gangster was only 3 months younger than her, and was born in the house we lived (a stray cat came and decided she would have babies at our home. We kept all of them, including mum)
7. When it was finally time to leave the quarantine facility, she couldn’t believe it. We wound up having 6 wonderful years in Singapore where she was greatly loved by all.
Someone recently told me that if someone gets a Cavalier in Singapore now, people will say oh like Cookie?
My parents absolutely spoiled her and so did everyone she met there.
10. In San Francisco, she loved walking. And walking. And running. She’s a city dog so she never loved dog runs or big hikes, but she loved the urban parks and nature we have here.
She especially loved the greenery on the Berkeley campus. It was full of squirrels she would pretend to chase (she never succeeded).
11. 2009 (KL), 2016 (Singapore), 2024 (San Francisco).
When I went to pick out a puppy I almost went home with her sister. But my ex said ‘this puppy looks like she’s stubborn about picking you’ and I’m glad I listened to her.
I didn’t know what I was doing in life in 2009, but I knew all of it would have her in it, no matter how hard it was going to be.
13. We did most of our non-park walks in Japantown, Chinatown and Nob Hill. Up until she started having issues, she had a list of cafes and shops where she knew she could always count on a treat.
Even the places that didn’t have treats eventually broke down and went to get some for her. Because of her, I got to explore every part of the city.
Sad to say, she passed this morning. Cookie lived a grand, amazing life. She brought me so much joy. I am so thankful for the last two months of extra time that she gave us.
All of these photos were taken in June 2024. She was happy and mobile and lucid, and she passed at home surrounded by people who love her. 14 years and 8 months of joy and happiness. She taught me so much. I will always love you Cookie
(Good news, she was discharged from intensive care. She has a bit more time with us but she does have some pretty serious stuff going on with her. We will monitor to see how she’s doing. She lost a large amount of body mass from this episode but she has started to eat again. I’m thankful for whatever extra time we’ve got together.)
Sometimes I think about how weird it was to have grown up in a city state that doesn’t grow its own food and that doesn’t have seasons. ‘Eat seasonally’ was an intellectual, not lived concept: we could get anything, from anywhere, anytime, from both north and south hemispheres. Our butter came from Australia, NZ, Japan, France, Italy; even chicken came in from another country.
And yet, a lot of lived experiences with spices, cooking cultures. Maybe only HK is like that.
This is why when someone asks my mother, would you live in America with your daughter, she laughs and she says, but what would I do without one hundred noodles for breakfast??
I feel that way every day, at breakfast, when I do not have one hundred different types and styles of noodles to choose from for $3 each.