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Hi there fellow gardeners. It's time to say goodbye to Indonesia for the last time.
Sure, there's still time to go back before the expat. family returns to Australia next year but my heart would break if I had to say a final goodbye to Chloe. I have nicknamed her Chloe the Kampung Cutie because that's just what she is.
'She' is Chloe, the beloved pet of my two granddaughters but Chloe is to remain in Jakarta when the family comes home permanently.
Chloe was a street puppy and stray dogs are generally called 'Kampung' or village dogs over there.
She has lived the life of Riley for the past four years, that's for sure, but for reasons best known to my daughter and son-in-law, Chloe will stay behind.
Two small girls are stricken about the situation, as are other family members.
It's particularly hard for me to see my grandchildren confused and distressed and I am concerned too, that they will get the message that a pet is just a disposable commodity and nothing more. Already, their parents are encouraging them to think about having a 'designer' puppy in Australia.
If the situation was governed by financial considerations, I would better understand but I know for a fact that is not the case.
I have been an animal lover all my life and my children were raised with pets sharing their formative years and beyond. As a family, we adopted many stray animals and I can only think that I may have overdone the pet situation.
That's entirely possible of course, as is the generational thing with the all-too-common attitude of "if it doesn't work or you just don't like something or it's not designer perfect, throw it away".
Chloe is the size of a small black kelpie and yes, she is impossibly cute. She is loveable, friendly, intelligent and brave; a terrific watchdog around her two young charges.
The piano teacher is regarded as an alien even though he visits every week and the maths tutor is only just tolerated. She has endeared herself to me in no uncertain way and I will carry a memory-photo of her with me forever.
As a 10-year-old, the same age as Ellie, one of my granddaughters, I vividly remember having to stay alone in my room while my own beloved dog Sandy, was taken away to be shot.
His crime? To jump up on my little brother and push him over. The dog was simply defending me from what he perceived was an attack from a small boy with a large stick.
I didn't hear the shot thank goodness and I never saw Sandy again. He had been abandoned at the house we had purchased in Lancefield, he was my first dog, he was my shadow and he died protecting me.
It no doubt set me on the path of animal adoption and a determination to give unwanted and abandoned animals a happier life. I have done this on numerous occasions and will continue to do so as long as I am able.
There are no guarantees for Chloe, I'm afraid.
About a dozen dogs, many of them pedigreed, were dumped at one of the animal shelters in Jakarta the weekend before I came home. A Canadian volunteer told me about the plight of these poor dogs, many of them expat. cast-offs.
* See this week's edition of The Free Press for full article.