I met up with 3 very close ex-classmates on Tuesday night and brought along Zara and Tuyam.

While we had dinner, Zara was playing with Zhu-Zhu, the schnauzer, one of my friend brought along. Zara fed her bread, patted her, and followed her, calling “Joe Joe!” “Dog Dog!” after her. Tuyam then noticed that Zara has some rashes and swelling on the back of her palms. Zara must be like me, allergy to animals saliva. When my skin touches animal saliva, it’ll get itchy all over; if the rash has just been developed, normally just rinsing it with soapy water will get rid of it. It will get worse if I don’t take immediate action. I quickly got Tuyam to wash her hands, and true enough, soon after that, the red patches and swelling were gone.

Since she has this allergy, we stopped her from playing with the dog. My friend took out a box full of her son’s toys and Zara was happily kept busy by the goodies she found.

I’m an animal lover, at one point, I had 2 dogs, 2 cats, 3 kittens, 2 guinea pigs. Dogs and cats were stray whom I brought home (hid in the boot when my mum wasn’t looking and innocently said I don’t know how it got there). Cared for lovingly by my mum (whom although strict, has never scolded me from bringing stray home) and me. Back then, I always had rashes all over me, but I was ignorant of the cause, and it didn’t’ bother me.

When I was older, I realise the cause of the rashes and itch, and I started being more careful with animals. After handling any animals, I have to immediately wash my hands. No co-sleeping with animals which I used to do. This helps.

Looks like the ‘curse’ now had landed on Zara as well, whom also seems to love animal a lot. Isn’t it ironic?