Pet therapy

After having had cancer and a relapse, and been told by my onco that 'my cancer will come back again, it's just a matter of time', there is no denying that I can't totally run away from the knowledge that I am a potential for another relapse.

However, I cannot let this knowledge control me, and neither do I allow myself to live in fear of it. Like LY said, the first diagnosis was the scariest, but after that with each relapse, one sought of 'get used' or 'immuned' to it. Life has to go on.

Keeping busy and getting myself involved in activities help me take my mind off cancer. Like the old adage: "what is life if full of care, we have no time to stand and stare." True, I also spent a lot of time sleeping, but I am trying to break out of that 'hibernating mode' as I don't have enough productive hours left and it's becoming more like a chronic fatigue syndrome.

One big distraction that I have at home is our puppy, Coco. She is one of my 'de-stressor' ever since she came to us. She is my pet therapy, and my 'constant companion' at home and I feared she may have become too attached to me. Her breed has a life expectancy of 10 - 12 years and it's like a competition between us to see who can outlive the other.

She is shown here with her favourite toy and can even fall asleep with the toy still in her mouth.


Thanks to the influence of a friend, who is an ardent cat lover, and probably lover of all animals as well, recently I found myself paying attention to cats.

Coincidentally, this orange and white one has also recently decided to become our unofficial 'watchcat'. And here, he/she (umm.. I don't know how to tell its gender) is sleeping 'on the job' outside my door.

With dogs, a quick peek is all one needs to tell its gender, but with
cats, nature probably has among other things, their modesty in mind by making their genitals as unobtrusive and inconspicuous as possible.

He/she likes to sleep with a paw over the eyes.

My son said, maybe we should adopt this, but this one likes its independence, and only appear at certain times of the day.