The Star's Reliving 40 Years
I wondered if it was appropriate to post about this, because of The Star's move to use the 1994 article to run in their last [Reliving 40 years] segment.
Yeah, if you open today's Sunday Star and flip to the Nation page 18, the old article headed 'Man helpless as dog attacks wife'
is the article that talks about the deadly dog attack that took Grandma's life in year 1994.
(probably it's one of those significant dog attacks on people, for everytime it comes to a dog-attack incident, this 1994 news always gets related/included into the news).
That's Grandma Neoh, and the other picture of an old man holding his dog is Grandpa (who passed away last year at the ripe old age of 101 years old. YEAH HE'S A CENTENARY WOOOT!) Both grandparents are on the father's side.
Mentioned in the papers were brothers Rick Tan (the eldest, and the one that Dad super-hate until today and the one who I've never set my eyes on until today), and Kelvin Tan (who was incidentally another problematic relative who created a HUGE hoohah during last year's Grandpa's funeral. I cannot divulge more).
On the next page, the Star had conveniently updated the public with the status of the killer dog LeRoc.
WHAT The Star hadn't updated of course, is what happened next:
(And I think it best that I write it here, for my own records. I'll probably forget about the whole thing a few days later.)
--- the poor Pekingese that Grandpa was holding? A few months after the incident, the maid took the dog out for a walk ---- and the dog disappeared, without a trace. Poor maid was left crying as Uncle Kelvin throw a huge tantrum on losing late Grandma's beloved dog (I don't know how Uncle Kelvin questioned her, but she plainly cannot even describe how the dog got lost).They had the neighborhood search and all that and even put up a reward, but said Pekingese never did return. I had surmised either someone dog-napped the fella, or it felt into the huge monsoon drain in the 'hood (there was a huge one running through the Taman), but what we all knew was it was never found.
- LeRoc (only today I finally found out its name), while it did become a police dog, what eventually happened - was one day, the same dog (which the Star had described as having good temperament and all the good qualities of a, y'know, loyal dog), went and attacked another policewoman (and from what Mom told me, the policewoman ended up seriously injured), so then the police dog squad ultimately decided to 'put the dog to sleep' by shooting it --- citing that they cannot continue to rehabilitate this dog if it *stills* continue to attack people, even after training.
- LeRoc's previous master who was a neighbour in the opposite house and down the road a few houses, he/she reportedly paid back the Tan family RM30k as compensation. The Star reported that LeRoc was left unchained/not on a leash --- but back then when I went to see the person's house, the black front gates are unusually high (almost 12ft) --- it's no way possible for a dog to jump that high, much less a human (the human will have to scale up the gates before he can even climb over it), and being all straight bars, ya'd think the dog had somehow earned ninja skills to climb the gate without any possible footholds.
(which may then explained why the owner didn't bother to chain the dog up.)
But, This is the mystery that is still unsolved today --- how is it that a dog, inside the house's compound, could possibly jumped more than 12ft high to run across and bite an aging lady by the neck?
(this is also one helluva strange bit that remains unsolved - the dog somehow knows where the human's weak point is, and how to lunge for that sensitive area between the head and the chest, but how? Good timing? Pure luck? Or was it, somehow, programmed to kill someone? No one knows, and the dog had carried its secret to its grave, case closed.)
How the rest of the Tan family spread across Malaysia gonna react to this seemingly return from the dead that of Grandma's, but
what I do know is, this incident has happened more than 10 years ago, and frankly, we the family don't need reminding via the papers.
(what with last year's Grandpa's passing and the subsequent sh*tstorm that happened after, no thanks to Uncle Kelvin.)
So nope, The Star, don't expect a thank you or hugs and kisses or even nolstagic-laced praises for republishing the old article.
Just let us move on with our lives, already.
-L
Yeah, if you open today's Sunday Star and flip to the Nation page 18, the old article headed 'Man helpless as dog attacks wife'
is the article that talks about the deadly dog attack that took Grandma's life in year 1994.
(probably it's one of those significant dog attacks on people, for everytime it comes to a dog-attack incident, this 1994 news always gets related/included into the news).
That's Grandma Neoh, and the other picture of an old man holding his dog is Grandpa (who passed away last year at the ripe old age of 101 years old. YEAH HE'S A CENTENARY WOOOT!) Both grandparents are on the father's side.
Mentioned in the papers were brothers Rick Tan (the eldest, and the one that Dad super-hate until today and the one who I've never set my eyes on until today), and Kelvin Tan (who was incidentally another problematic relative who created a HUGE hoohah during last year's Grandpa's funeral. I cannot divulge more).
On the next page, the Star had conveniently updated the public with the status of the killer dog LeRoc.
WHAT The Star hadn't updated of course, is what happened next:
(And I think it best that I write it here, for my own records. I'll probably forget about the whole thing a few days later.)
--- the poor Pekingese that Grandpa was holding? A few months after the incident, the maid took the dog out for a walk ---- and the dog disappeared, without a trace. Poor maid was left crying as Uncle Kelvin throw a huge tantrum on losing late Grandma's beloved dog (I don't know how Uncle Kelvin questioned her, but she plainly cannot even describe how the dog got lost).They had the neighborhood search and all that and even put up a reward, but said Pekingese never did return. I had surmised either someone dog-napped the fella, or it felt into the huge monsoon drain in the 'hood (there was a huge one running through the Taman), but what we all knew was it was never found.
- LeRoc (only today I finally found out its name), while it did become a police dog, what eventually happened - was one day, the same dog (which the Star had described as having good temperament and all the good qualities of a, y'know, loyal dog), went and attacked another policewoman (and from what Mom told me, the policewoman ended up seriously injured), so then the police dog squad ultimately decided to 'put the dog to sleep' by shooting it --- citing that they cannot continue to rehabilitate this dog if it *stills* continue to attack people, even after training.
- LeRoc's previous master who was a neighbour in the opposite house and down the road a few houses, he/she reportedly paid back the Tan family RM30k as compensation. The Star reported that LeRoc was left unchained/not on a leash --- but back then when I went to see the person's house, the black front gates are unusually high (almost 12ft) --- it's no way possible for a dog to jump that high, much less a human (the human will have to scale up the gates before he can even climb over it), and being all straight bars, ya'd think the dog had somehow earned ninja skills to climb the gate without any possible footholds.
(which may then explained why the owner didn't bother to chain the dog up.)
But, This is the mystery that is still unsolved today --- how is it that a dog, inside the house's compound, could possibly jumped more than 12ft high to run across and bite an aging lady by the neck?
(this is also one helluva strange bit that remains unsolved - the dog somehow knows where the human's weak point is, and how to lunge for that sensitive area between the head and the chest, but how? Good timing? Pure luck? Or was it, somehow, programmed to kill someone? No one knows, and the dog had carried its secret to its grave, case closed.)
How the rest of the Tan family spread across Malaysia gonna react to this seemingly return from the dead that of Grandma's, but
what I do know is, this incident has happened more than 10 years ago, and frankly, we the family don't need reminding via the papers.
(what with last year's Grandpa's passing and the subsequent sh*tstorm that happened after, no thanks to Uncle Kelvin.)
So nope, The Star, don't expect a thank you or hugs and kisses or even nolstagic-laced praises for republishing the old article.
Just let us move on with our lives, already.
-L