Who the heck is Chetz?

Hi! I’m Chetz Togom and I’m from Malaysia living with my 12 rescued dogs (shhhh…. ). My life has totally changed since I have these dogs.

There’s this saying, “What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Stronger” which means I should have the strength of Superman by now because living with many dogs at home is already a challenge, but that’s not as huge as the challenge of having dogs while living around humans.

How It Started

The picture of the puppies on the right was taken on March 12th, 2007 (03.12.07), also the day my beloved grandmother passed away. I arrived home after an eight-hour drive from my grandmother’s funeral in Batu Pahat, Johor.

When I saw them, somehow all my sadness and tiredness disappeared.

My best friend was actually the one who found them. It was on Sunday 03.11.07 around 2pm when we walked out of Queensbay Mall Penang.

I went to the car first but my best friend disappeared and came back to the car a few minutes later carrying a box with tears running on her face.

Inside the box were five tiny little furry creatures.

We quickly drove to our vet to get them examined. We were directed to the SPCA in Penang as the Vet said they were too young to be left there.

So we drove to SPCA Penang and gave the 5 pups to the caretaker since the SPCA was closed by the time we reached there.

I still remember this clearly. I was driving from Kulim, Kedah to Batu Pahat, Johor that morning on Monday, March 12 when I got a call from my best friend, I think I had almost arrived in Kuala Lumpur.

“They are going to put them to sleep. Shall we bring them home?” asked my best friend. “Yeah, bring them home,” was my answer.

So, my best friend picked them up from SPCA Penang while I attended my grandma’s funeral.

I love my grandma. She’s considered as my mom since she took care of me since I was 44 days old. I lived with my grandparents, so they were my parents. When I was a kid, I would cry every time my grandparents talked about their death. I didn’t want them to die.

When my grandma was asleep, I would go into her room, stand beside her bed and watched whether her stomach was moving or not in a breathing rhythm. I just realized I do that to my dogs now, oh and to my best friend too… hehehe. Best friend, if you’re reading this, sorry I’m stalking you when you’re sleeping

I guess it’s a habit.

Anyway, that’s when my life started to change. From five beasts in 2007, now there 12 beasts in 2012.

Let me introduce my beasts to you….

The five in the box…

Ciku Schmiku

He’s the leader of the pack. Always the one in front of the gate (he will chase away the other the dogs), always wanting to be the first to get TLC and he would push the other dogs when I’m giving them TLC.

I still remember when he was a puppy, he was so happy that he managed to climb his cage and escape.

The mistake he made was that he came to me straight after he escaped, because I put him back in…. hahahahaha. He ran to me with his happy proud face, I think he said, “Look! I escaped!”

Oren Goren

He’s a happy boy and the spiderman of the quintet. He’s the one to find a way out or make a hole on the fence to escape.

It’s actually funny when I observed him doing this from far joined by the rest.

While Oren was busy figuring out and trying out the ways to escape, the rest (Ciku, Ross and Jasper) would just sit around watching Oren as he made the escape path.

He’s also famous for his ‘suspicious’ eyes and he likes to grumble.

He also has his mood-swings, so the others better stay away from him when he’s cranky if they don’t wanna get a ‘duku’ (or slap) from him.

Ross Jaws

Ross was the smallest litter from the box. When we found him, he didn’t move at all.

At first we taught he was dead already. But when we checked, he was still breathing.

Among the Brindles, Ross is the smallest and the smartest. He’s a fast learner.

He received the ‘Jaws’ in his name when he accidentally bit my best friend’s thigh when he was fighting with Yusni.

Ross is the type who would fight till the death.

It’s very hard to separate him when he fought with Yusni then.

Small Brindles

Big Brindles

Yusni Gusni

The only girl in the litter. This one is fierce, very protective and won’t back down from a fight and will do so to the death most likely.

Yusni saved my best friend by chasing away burglars who broke into our house when my best friend was alone at home a few years ago.

She’s very alert and clever and loves chest scratches.

Golek Shmolek

Big, blur and my most sensitive boy who likes to ‘golek’ (lay down, rolling on his back) hence the name. If he’s stressed, he will get skin problems.

His stomach is also sensitive. He would easily get diarrhea if we give him a little bit different food from the usual.

Other than that, he doesn’t give me much troubles compared to the rest of the beasts.

Flip Jack

This one rescued by my best friend. He is the first dog that got me interested in having my own dog.

He’s our Public Relation Officer, very friendly. My friend will joke saying, “This one will invite the burglars to come in for tea!”

We used to think that was what he would do until one day in Kulim when there was this man who came to the house. He stood at the gate and Flip started growling and barking at him like mad dog while standing in front of my best friend. We didn’t go out.

Later we found out that the uncle was holding sand in his hand. We didn’t know why.

Both Flip and Yusni can be depended to save our lives. A cobra came to our house twice and while Flip and Yusni barking at the cobra (thank God the cobra was outside of the gate and they couldn’t reach the cobra) while Gabriel or Indiana stood further away, just looking!

Indiana Bones

We found Indiana when we lived in Rawang. Well, actually Indiana found us.

Out of nowhere suddenly this dog with funny way of walking would come greet us in front of house when we came back from work.

Rain or shine, he’d be there to greet us. So, we took him in.

We named him Indiana Bones because when came we were watching an Indiana Jones movie.

I’m not sure whether it’s just me, but Indiana has a funny looking face that when I look at him I want to laugh.

Chestnut

This is my therapist, Dr. Chestnut. Her former name was Ruby. She was abandoned by one of my neighbors in Rawang.

They just locked her outside of the house and didn’t let her in whether it’s raining or hot outside.

We took her in and now she’s our therapist. She’s the most caring dog.

She’ll know if my best friend or I’m not well. If we are sad or stressed she would come put her paw on our chest or her head on our legs or lick our face.

Gabriel Michael & Jasper Jackson a.k.a. The Brothers from Hell

If you find me homeless living under a bridge or in a hospital or dead because of heart attack, it’s because of these two!

They are the naughtiest and the trouble makers. Fighting, barking, howling, stealing food.

Gabriel Michael

Found him in Rawang housing area. He was a friendly puppy.

The ex owner abandoned him with a collar. Thank God one of the people who lived there took it off.

When I found him, he wasn’t in a bad shape as someone was feeding him.

He’s very focused when I train him, a fast learner. Usually dogs who give a lot of trouble are the intelligent ones. In my experience anyway – I could be wrong and I’m not generalizing.

Jasper Jackson

This is the Head Devil! I found him when he was trying to commit suicide, by putting himself in front of a moving car.

It was about a month after I found Gabriel. Unlike Gabriel, Jasper’s condition was pretty bad.

He was badly infested by ticks. He was really weak when I got him. Probably the kind soul that inhabited Jasper previously, left his body and a devil/demon took over the body with a mission to make my best friend and I go mad.

This boy LOVES to bark. See people – bark. See fly – bark. Ant – bark. Leaf moves – bark. Poop – bark!

But among all my beasts, it seems he’s the most playful and intelligent.

Riang Ria

Ria was rescued by Nerq Suzana. Nerq had brought her to a few vets to save her life. We didn’t really know what really happened to her. She might have been hit by a car or she might be a distemper survivor.

When we took her in, we didn’t really know what her future would look like. We just did our best.

But now there are a lot of improvements. She’s becoming a naughty beast just like the rest.

Click here to read more about Ria’s story.

Stevie Ray Qasseem

Beast No. 12. In February 2011, my friend who owns a pet store called and told me her client found a blind puppy at a construction site. Her client said if nobody wants him, he wanted to put him to sleep.

So, I took him in. I have never seen a blind dog, let alone have any experience in taking care of blind one.

But it turned out that he’s not much different than the other dogs.

Yeah, he bangs into walls and furniture once in a while when he gets excited. But most of the time he moves around just like the other dogs. He seems to know where things are.

So, there they are, the 12 beasts.

It’s not easy have 12 dogs in the house especially if you have neighbors.

But thank God, the situation is getting better.

My goal is to buy a huge land for my dogs and be a Professional Dog Advocate and to help people to live happily with their dogs by sharing my knowledge and experiences.

So, I really appreciate your support in helping me spreading the words about my website, my work and buying stuff and service from my affiliate links on my website and Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/ChetzTogom).

Thank you for following me and supporting me and my dogs.

God Bless.

Chetz Togom

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