Bobby Kang

Bobby, a maltese, died on Sep 11, aged 15

There comes a time in any dog's life where the expectation of being Man's Best Friend will surely weigh down on the pet. Many pets achieve this by simply being the cutest thing on four legs, with owners being constantly proud of the fact that their dog can chase a ball or not use the table leg as a toilet.

In the 10 years that Bobby lived with his owner Candy Kang, he did not fulfill that expectation in the conventional sense. He would sit idly by as other dogs run like they have rabies after small animals and balls, and in his later years, would treat anything that he could stand on as a toilet, so much so that in his final few months, he had to wear a diaper everywhere he went.

Bobby did far more to exceed whatever expectations has ever been placed on the canine population. He was no ordinary dog. Unlike his butt-sniffing species, Bobby has inspired a line of merchandise, aptly named as whitedogbobby (http://www.whitedogbobby.com/) and prompted Candy's rebellious streak which led to her, and other street artists, tagging images of him all over Singapore (you can still see him on a wooden board at Marina Square at the pathway leading to the Golden Village cinema, and outside the 1st floor toilet wall of Red Dot Traffic at Maxwell Road), and in cities such as Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok, Bali, Hong Kong, Macau, Tokyo, Sydney, London, Paris, Groningen, Wurzberg, Toronto, Ottawa, Washington D.C., Philadelphia and New York City.

His merchandise, which includes notebooks, stuffed toys, head cushions, pendants, T-shirts, doggy T-shirts and many others have warmed hundreds, if not thousands, of hearts and have been sold in cities as far away as London. Cartoonized paintings of him, together with his real-life brother, Italian Greyhound Hungry, and imaginary friend Wabbit, were on exhibition in Singapore, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Perth and, if you can wrap your head around it, Jerusalem.

Indeed, it is his popularity that saw him and Candy being featured quite a fair bit in the local media, as well as media as illustrious and distant as Australia's Vogue magazine. For all of Bobby's achievements, which is too lengthy to regurgitate here, check out www.flickr.com/photos/whitedogbobby/.

His passing away ("Has to be on Sep 11, that stupid dog," said his teary owner just minutes after his passing) saw an outpouring of emotion and condolences. In the few short months that he set up a Facebook account, he has 233 friends. His wall on Facebook is littered with well-wishers when he was sick, and messages of grief after he passed away, many of whom are from strangers who do not know his owner.

All that is just the public Bobby. Privately, he was a Herculean pillar of strength. When Candy went through a troubled marriage, Bobby would sit by her side and watch her as she quietly broke down. When Hungry came into his life, Bobby would become big brother. Ever so often, when Hungry was fearful of other dogs or humans, Bobby would rush to stand in between Hungry and the aggressor, despite being the smaller and physically weaker dog.

While his intelligence cannot be said to be of Einsteinian proportions, there was little doubt that Bobby had character in abundance.

Non-dog owners would wonder what the fuss is all about. He is, after all, just an animal. Surely this is being blown out of proportion. They are, perhaps, right. His death really is a passing in the physical sense. His spirit, in many forms, lives on.