Photo taken on 20.03.2018: Avante’s 10th birthday celebration with her family, Jacq & Gennet.

Seating on our sofa watching C.S.I., I thought I heard the sound of a dog’s whining. Thinking it was from a dog’s “making out” (the ignorant me thought it was similar to a cat’s), I resumed my attention to my favourite TV show. An hour later, the whining persisted. I turned down the volume and heard the cries again. This time, the image of a dog being abused flashed across my suspicious mind. I turned to Gennet and decided to confront the abuser. The cries were getting louder and I could only imagine what the little “thing” could be facing. It was nearing to midnight and Gennet was concerned that I would be alone in the dark, and decided to join me in my pursuit.

Five minutes later, armed with a hand-controlled manual torchlight from the car, and a towel (*wonder why I even thought of the towel if we were to confront an abuser), we headed down the jogging path near the Clementi-Sunset Way canal. It was cold, very cold, as the day had seen pouring rain. The ground was wet and the night dark and misty. It was as though we were in a scene from Nancy Drew (*a childhood book character of the adventures of Nancy Drew) heading into the chilling dark night, trekking slowly, armed with only our senses.

Walking along the jogging path, no one in sight, I noticed my heart was beating fast, and I talked loudly for fear of hearing any other voices. The whining continued, and we walked towards where the sound was coming from. And then it stopped. Our light reflected a pair of eyes. For a moment I was stunned, not knowing what to do. I approached cautiously and found myself staring at a little puppy. The puppy was wet and covered with mud. Somehow he/she has fallen into the 2-meter drain, and only having a meshed steel-plate (to trap the debris) prevented the puppy from heading towards the canal entrance.

Ants were crawling up my legs and I called 999 (the only number I remembered in case of emergency). I was standing near the drain, surrounded by tall grassland and the idea of snakes creeped into my thoughts. The officer who picked up the phone said that all the policemen were out on despatch (wonder what that meant), and there was no one to attend to my call for help. He suggested that I call S.P.C.A. Instead, I decided to simply just climb down into drain (slimy, wet, dark, dirty), to pick the puppy up. The puppy has since stopped whining. Poor little fella, all alone, and what huge lungs this puppy must have to have kept calling out to us (we lived on the 12th storey).

The puppy did not resist my outstretched hands, and soon he/she was hauled up into Gennet’s arms, wrapped in towel. As I was trying to find my way out of the 2-meter drain, my thoughts strayed to the wonder of …”oooh, I wonder if this puppy is a boy or girl. I’ve never had a female dog before.” By the time I got out of Gennet, who has never had nor wanted a dog, started to call the puppy “Brownie” (could it be because the puppy was brown in colour?). I stared at Gennet, rolled my eyes, “no way!”. How about Avante?* Somehow the name just slipped in; quite like the adventure we just had! What does Avante mean?*

Walking out of the jogging path, into the light, we took our first photo at 1.01 am, Thursday, 20th March 2008.

* What I learnt later -

The moment you named the dog, ah, the dog’s yours!

While walking Avante a few months later, a group of ladies walking their dogs were amused when I kept asking Avante to stop and sit. One of them kindly educated me that Avante means Forward or Ahead in Latin. And here I was calling out, “Avante (Forward / Ahead)! Stop. Sit.” How confusing that must have had been for Avante.
For those who asked: Avante, the dog, came first and then we welcomed Avante, the car, 6 months later.

Find out more about Avante’s message and super power!

How Avante Came to Be.