“We were on our way out when we saw Gemma eating chocolate! They had to induce her to vomit to get it all out. And that’s how we spent our New Year’s celebration,” Chan, 36, recalled.
It wasn’t Gemma’s first brush with chaos – and it certainly wouldn’t be her last. Truly, Chan’s beloved husky is known for her mischief as much as her affection.
She opens kitchen drawers to look for snacks. She jumps onto dining tables in search of food. And she knows how to push down door handles to let herself into rooms she isn’t supposed to be in.
“We were more fascinated than angry,” Chan said with a laugh. Watching the CCTV footage back only confirmed one thing: Gemma is frighteningly smart.
At night, however, all that cleverness melts into something gentler. Gemma refuses to sleep apart, even if Chan were to move to another room.
“She’ll open the door and she’ll jump onto my bed,” Chan shared. “She always wants to sleep with me.”
That quiet insistence on closeness feels especially poignant when one learns where Gemma came from. Chan didn’t rescue Gemma herself – but she found her at precisely the right moment.
Scrolling through Facebook one day, she came across a post by a friend who had saved a husky from the roadside. Abandoned after being used for breeding, the dog had survived on rubbish, plastics, and whatever she could find while wandering alone.
“I was really very heartbroken when I saw her story,” Chan recalled.
At the time, she already had one husky at home – Maya. Chan hadn’t been actively searching, but when she saw Gemma – energetic, cheerful and full of personality – something clicked.
“I thought, why not give this dog a second chance?” Chan expressed.
Gemma was estimated to be four or five years old when she came home. Adult dogs often come with emotional baggage, and Gemma was no exception. She was cautious. Guarded. Especially around other dogs.
Food, toys: everything was off-limits at first. Trust took about a month of patience, space, and quiet observation.
“She would just sit at the side and observe when we played with Maya,” Chan remembered.
Slowly, thankfully, Gemma learnt she was safe. Today, the two dogs are “the best sisters ever”.
Now, Gemma has transformed into a “super cheeky, super playful” girl – and, in Chan’s words, is “very manja. She wants attention. She wants people to pet her”.
Her intelligence continues to show up in unexpected, and chaotic, ways. Once, Gemma even opened Chan’s bedroom door, climbed onto the bed, and peed – a brief attempt at marking territory that never happened again.
Despite the mischief, Gemma is deeply affectionate. In the car, she insists on sitting in the front seat. Chan calls her a “passenger princess”.
While she drives, Gemma paws gently her for attention. Their bond feels different from anything Chan has experienced before: “Super bonded,” she said simply.
In giving Gemma a second chance, Chan didn’t just take in a rescue dog. She gained a companion who understands the meaning of closeness, trust and love, because Gemma finally has the safety and security to do so.
This article was written by Dinesh Kumar Maganathan @ FMT Lifestyle. Read more pet stories here.
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