A Gentle Note to Our Readers...
Before you dive in, we want to share a gentle word from our hearts. The story you are about to read is the real, unvarnished truth of our journey with our late son, Wangcai. It covers moments of deep joy, but it also dives into intense grief, sudden medical emergencies, and the painful realities of loss.
We chose not to hide or sugarcoat any part of our heartbreak because it is the very foundation upon which JOOF was built. If you are currently managing a sick or aging pet, please take care of your heart as you read. This is a story of heavy rain, but ultimately, it is a testament to how deeply we love our animals, how we learned to listen to their unique voices, and why we fight so hard for them today.
Our Story
How Our Journey Begins (2018)
We started finding out more about pet health back in 2018. As a first-time pet owner without knowledge about backyard breeding, nor being in any dog community groups in Singapore, we got our Frenchie at a pet shop that happened to be breeding their own animals. Wangcai was born to one of the owner's dogs + another customer's dog, but they were a licensed pet shop.
He came home at 4 months old with mites, a yeast infection, constant stomach issues, hot spots, food sensitivities, environmental sensitivities, and skin rashes.
After many vet visits and switching to different premium quality dry food—including the go-to hypoallergenic diet from the vet's office—he didn't become better. We did the typical environmental allergy blood test and all other remedies the vet recommended. We even tried one shot of Cytopoint, which ended up worsening his condition. He got himself into a pool of blood daily from scratching, full-body hives, and things were pretty out of control.
I didn't really sleep for days, researching as much as I could to find out what could be happening to our pup. Ever since, I stopped his antihistamines, antibiotics, and everything that the vet gave. I threw it away—every single medication, medicated shampoo, steroid cream, deworming pill, and flea/tick medication, all down the rubbish bin!
We came to realize that conventional methods are designed for acute care, which is highly useful for emergency responses. Unfortunately, they don’t have a good track record for chronic diseases. Conventional treatments often merely suppressed Wangcai's symptoms temporarily, while the root cause of the disease raged on untouched, destroying his tissue and life force at deeper levels.
Knowing that these treatments were actually hurting his immune system filled my heart with absolute guilt and pain. I cried for days. Our poor baby was suffering with a large bald hole on his head, red armpits, a bright red groin, a body full of hives, scabs, dandruff, and bleeding paws. He had to wear a cone 24/7 and couldn't enjoy any quality of life.
During my desperate late-night research, we chanced upon the Glacier Peak Holistics Pet Wellness Life Stress Scan (a food & environmental sensitivity test) from the US. We took a leap of faith and did it. To our shock, his results were filled with red flags! Following the results and advice from the holistic pet community, we decided to explore a fresh food diet instead.
But because of his severely damaged gut, serious stomach issues arose. We tried to transition him cold-turkey to raw food based on advice from raw food manufacturers, but he ended up pooping pure blood. Luckily, with the help of a pro-raw vet and the local holistic community, we managed to stabilize his stool on a cooked diet first. It took three intense, stressful attempts and 12 full months of careful food transitioning, but we finally successfully transitioned him onto a raw diet that suited him perfectly. His skin issues finally started to heal—and that is when we knew this was our true calling.
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We came to realize that conventional methods are designed for acute care, which is highly useful for emergency responses. Unfortunately, they don’t have a good track record for chronic diseases. Conventional treatments often merely suppressed Wangcai's symptoms temporarily, while the root cause of the disease raged on untouched, destroying his tissue and life force at deeper levels.
Knowing that these treatments were actually hurting his immune system filled my heart with absolute guilt and pain. I cried for days. Our poor baby was suffering with a large bald hole on his head, red armpits, a bright red groin, a body full of hives, scabs, dandruff, and bleeding paws. He had to wear a cone 24/7 and couldn't enjoy any quality of life.
During my desperate late-night research, we chanced upon the Glacier Peak Holistics Pet Wellness Life Stress Scan (a food & environmental sensitivity test) from the US. We took a leap of faith and did it. To our shock, his results were filled with red flags! Following the results and advice from the holistic pet community, we decided to explore a fresh food diet instead.
But because of his severely damaged gut, serious stomach issues arose. We tried to transition him cold-turkey to raw food based on advice from raw food manufacturers, but he ended up pooping pure blood. Luckily, with the help of a pro-raw vet and the local holistic community, we managed to stabilize his stool on a cooked diet first. It took three intense, stressful attempts and 12 full months of careful food transitioning, but we finally successfully transitioned him onto a raw diet that suited him perfectly. His skin issues finally started to heal—and that is when we knew this was our true calling.
The Result: A Holistic Solution
You are what you eat and digest. Diet is the foundation for health. Much of the food reaching our tables these days is grown on soil degraded by intense commercial farming. With nutrients depleted from our soil, environmental contamination, and high toxicity, high-quality supplementation is highly recommended to have a profound preventive impact and raise our animals to optimum health.
We started going deeper, researching and learning as much as we could about pet health, lifestyles, supplementation, nutrition, and the many invisible factors that impact our furkids' quality of life. In fact, we are still learning every single day—we believe we will never stop. Every animal is a unique individual, and the profound lessons our dear boy gave us are things that money could never buy.
Driven by this passion, we took a leap of faith and launched our first pet supplies business, JJ E-Homez, right in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic. With the events industry completely halted, we bootstrapped everything. We had absolutely zero prior experience in e-commerce, and we knew nothing about running a pet business.
Our small home became our office, our packing station, and our warehouse, overflowing with boxes. But we were never alone—Wangcai was right there with us through every single step, every mistake, and every steep learning curve. His face was all over our website showcasing our product categories. In fact, almost everyone who visited our site or contacted us would ask, "Is that your own dog? He is so handsome!" Proud mama would always instantly reply, "Yes, he is our son! His name is Wangcai!"
Soon, JJ E-Homez grew from a humble home setup into a trusted name within the Singapore pet community. Showing how we managed Wangcai’s overall wellness naturally influenced more and more pet parents to seek alternative, holistic solutions for their own dogs. We are so incredibly grateful to every single person who has walked this path alongside us and trusted us with their furkids. Thank you so much!
We started going deeper, researching and learning as much as we could about pet health, lifestyles, supplementation, nutrition, and the many invisible factors that impact our furkids' quality of life. In fact, we are still learning every single day—we believe we will never stop. Every animal is a unique individual, and the profound lessons our dear boy gave us are things that money could never buy.
Driven by this passion, we took a leap of faith and launched our first pet supplies business, JJ E-Homez, right in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic. With the events industry completely halted, we bootstrapped everything. We had absolutely zero prior experience in e-commerce, and we knew nothing about running a pet business.
Our small home became our office, our packing station, and our warehouse, overflowing with boxes. But we were never alone—Wangcai was right there with us through every single step, every mistake, and every steep learning curve. His face was all over our website showcasing our product categories. In fact, almost everyone who visited our site or contacted us would ask, "Is that your own dog? He is so handsome!" Proud mama would always instantly reply, "Yes, he is our son! His name is Wangcai!"
Soon, JJ E-Homez grew from a humble home setup into a trusted name within the Singapore pet community. Showing how we managed Wangcai’s overall wellness naturally influenced more and more pet parents to seek alternative, holistic solutions for their own dogs. We are so incredibly grateful to every single person who has walked this path alongside us and trusted us with their furkids. Thank you so much!
The Start of the Unfortunate
When symptoms started appearing, Wangcai was around 3 years old. We went through an X-ray to find out further about the joint conditions because he was rubbing his thigh/hip area against the floor, but there were no walking or running issues at all. Looking at the first X-ray we did, the doctor said there was no problem with the hips, spine, and not even the ankles and toes. We found nothing on the joints. However, we did find out that he had an enlarged prostate, so the doctor blamed it on the prostate that was enlarged and said it could be hindering his hip area, so he was rubbing his thigh/hip.
So I took the advice and tried to shrink the prostate with herbs that were recommended by the vet to see if it helped. About 4 months later, it didn't help and the prostate didn't shrink much. The doctor advised to neuter this time around, but because he had no clinical signs of prostate problems, the vet advised me to think it through and try another herbal remedy. Because early neutering would have caused more joint problems and many other side effects too, I wanted more time to seriously think about it. At the same time, I also wanted to try another herbal remedy to shrink the prostate, if that was truly the cause of him rubbing his thigh/hip.
But at the back of my mind, I thought it was the joints, hips, or wherever it was that was causing the joint symptoms and not the prostate enlargement issue at all, because Wangcai didn't have issues with urination and no symptoms urgently required him to be neutered due to a medical condition. I believed it was the joint. Nevertheless, I respected the vet's professional opinion and tried again with another herb for the prostate. At the same time, I also started giving him regular chiropractic sessions and some form of hydrotherapy sessions because I thought it was the joint.
Another 3 months passed and the prostate was still not shrinking, but it was also not affecting his whole reproductive system. Zero symptoms. Chiropractic and hydrotherapy sessions had been giving some relief here and there, but it was not yet fixing the joint conditions. So I went to the vet again and said it was not the prostate, and the doctor said it was not the joint, leaving this mom figuring it out alone.
Well, at that point we should have gone to seek a few more opinions from other vets and even orthopedic vets, but frankly speaking, financially we were struggling due to COVID-19. My events agency was not able to run a lot of projects, only online projects, and competition on our events agency went from bad to worse. My husband's emcee hosting gigs also halted, and he could only work on deliveries and transportation like Grab to earn as much as possible as he needed to feed the house. We also started JJ E-Homez Holistic Pet during COVID-19, before all these cascades of issues with Wangcai. Managing the cash flow of the old and new business, as well as making ends meet on our daily requirements, was not easy for us, especially when we were bootstrapping our business. Financially and mentally we were drained, and thus we were holding back to see if there was a way we could figure out which part of the joint was giving the problems.
The continuing of chiropractic and hydrotherapy sessions also needed to be lessened on the frequency due to our financial constraints. We wanted to start physiotherapy but were also taken aback looking at all the financial strain going on. So sadly, in reality, without much diagnostics done, we actually could only do that much. I just had to continue working harder on my events agency as well as the new pet store business, while my husband continued to fight for all the emcee gigs he could grab and drive and deliver just for all of us to survive while waiting for the economy to slowly bounce back. So because of everything, I also didn't manage to have time to further research what could be possibly happening to the joint. I was just giving relief and relief at that point.
Unfortunately, Wangcai experienced a CCL injury when we daycared him with one of the home sitter. His temperament had always been crazy, due to a fear factor that was inflicted by a trainer when he was still a puppy. Ever since, he didn't have the best temper when seeing another dog or certain objects that he was afraid of. We should have searched for a better trainer back then, but the damage had been done, and we just had to manage his temperament since then. The house sitter didn't seem to be able to control him or to be more aware of the surroundings, and allowed him to launch, etc., thus hurting his hind legs.
We went back to the vet again and couldn't really see much either, and the vet just passed it off as some CCL injury. We continued to rest him and give relief whenever we could. He kinda recovered after about 1 week from the injury, but due to our work, plus the fact that he couldn't be home alone due to anxiety, I had to place him in another center for daycare, and all these just set off what was about to come... too many activities going on, not enough rest.
Well, at that point we should have gone to seek a few more opinions from other vets and even orthopedic vets, but frankly speaking, financially we were struggling due to COVID-19. My events agency was not able to run a lot of projects, only online projects, and competition on our events agency went from bad to worse. My husband's emcee hosting gigs also halted, and he could only work on deliveries and transportation like Grab to earn as much as possible as he needed to feed the house. We also started JJ E-Homez Holistic Pet during COVID-19, before all these cascades of issues with Wangcai. Managing the cash flow of the old and new business, as well as making ends meet on our daily requirements, was not easy for us, especially when we were bootstrapping our business. Financially and mentally we were drained, and thus we were holding back to see if there was a way we could figure out which part of the joint was giving the problems.
The continuing of chiropractic and hydrotherapy sessions also needed to be lessened on the frequency due to our financial constraints. We wanted to start physiotherapy but were also taken aback looking at all the financial strain going on. So sadly, in reality, without much diagnostics done, we actually could only do that much. I just had to continue working harder on my events agency as well as the new pet store business, while my husband continued to fight for all the emcee gigs he could grab and drive and deliver just for all of us to survive while waiting for the economy to slowly bounce back. So because of everything, I also didn't manage to have time to further research what could be possibly happening to the joint. I was just giving relief and relief at that point.
Unfortunately, Wangcai experienced a CCL injury when we daycared him with one of the home sitter. His temperament had always been crazy, due to a fear factor that was inflicted by a trainer when he was still a puppy. Ever since, he didn't have the best temper when seeing another dog or certain objects that he was afraid of. We should have searched for a better trainer back then, but the damage had been done, and we just had to manage his temperament since then. The house sitter didn't seem to be able to control him or to be more aware of the surroundings, and allowed him to launch, etc., thus hurting his hind legs.
We went back to the vet again and couldn't really see much either, and the vet just passed it off as some CCL injury. We continued to rest him and give relief whenever we could. He kinda recovered after about 1 week from the injury, but due to our work, plus the fact that he couldn't be home alone due to anxiety, I had to place him in another center for daycare, and all these just set off what was about to come... too many activities going on, not enough rest.
The IVDD Tragedy & The Financial Panic
Multiple relief was given with our best ability. Wangcai was 4 years old now, and we were managing just okay on his joint relief while working hard on our finances. Arguments were inevitable, especially when it came to financials. It just stressed out the entire family; it happened that this period was our ultimate downtime. But as calm as we could be so as not to bring stress to Wangcai, the tragedy still happened.
One morning, Wangcai woke up and was walking weirdly. I thought he had injured himself again. My husband, who had been part of a Frenchie IVDD group, caught his legs and told me it could be IVDD. I knew about IVDD, but I didn't know deep enough. The only thing I knew was that surgery was needed to relieve the protrusion. Not sure if it was a minor injury or true IVDD, we scheduled a vet visit again, but this time around it was with another vet. Sadly, when noon came, Wangcai's weakness worsened. Our appointment was at 5:00 PM, which was the earliest slot we could get. Forbidding him from jumping and walking anymore was all I knew to do, and of course, to get the treatment done ASAP. I had to send Wangcai alone to the appointment as my husband had an emcee gig that couldn't be pushed off. I had to manage everything alone.
Upon reaching the clinic, after a quick assessment, the doctor said it was IVDD and had to refer us to the nearest hospital to get treatment. I was lost for words. The doctor called all the hospitals in Singapore, but none could take Wangcai in except for one. When the doctor revealed the estimated fees to me, I collapsed. Just the screening CT scan alone was going to cost $9,000 due to it being a Friday after operation hours. The surgery fee itself would cost another $25,000+, excluding hospitalization fees and medications.
I went completely blank and could only think of what was going to happen to our finances at the back of my head. Well, I still agreed to bring him over and called a cab. And since we were heading straight to the hospital (or so we thought), the clinic didn't dispense any pain meds. By that time, Wangcai's hind legs were already shivering. We got into the cab, and for one moment I was looking at Wangcai, hoping for some answers. Wangcai was terrified, and I didn't know how to react. I didn't know where to get that kind of money on the spot if we went ahead. I had zero reaction time at all. Suddenly, I told the cab driver to turn back home because I did not have a solution for his hospital admission. In my completely blank state of mind, I went home—forgetting entirely about the medication support he needed.
When I reached home, I dug out all the leftover pain relief I could find for Wangcai. I called every single hospital to see if I could schedule an operation for the next morning, hoping to bring the cost down to something we could afford without hesitation. I was crying and begging on the phone, until at last, one surgeon agreed to see him the next day at 9:00 AM. At that point, it was 9:00 PM. Within hours, Wangcai's legs completely gave way, and he was dragging both of his hind legs. I was praying and crying non-stop, giving him everything in my toolbox I could find. When my husband finally knocked off and came home, Wangcai and I were mentally drained and deeply depressed.
A Midnight Crisis & The Hospital Rush
I rushed myself to a 24hr clinic nearby to get treated while hub tried to look after wangcai and self-managed his bleeding hand. Luckily no stitching is required and just some bandage for my ear.. when I got home it was already 4am. And seeing wangcai in fits again, we just gotta rush him to the nearest hospital to see what can be done. We decided to wrap him in a blanket so we can use the blanket for protection if bite were to happen again.. luckily with the blanket wrap, we managed to deliver him to the hospital.
Seeing his condition the nurse also helped me to check on her side if any of their surgeons could operate for wangcai but answers can only come by 8am when their surgeons are awake for the day. The appointment with the other clinic was 9am. I had to weighed to see which place could give us the fastest outcome and it was 9am as that had been scheduled, but I still told the current hospital to still check when their surgeons were awake.
Wangcai's pain is now managed by the emergency and is under control. Hub got another emcee gig to work the whole day so once again I am alone, have to make every decision alone with that blank mind. As much as I don't want to move him as much, when the current hospital said their surgeon could only operate on wangcai at 2pm, and the other appointment was scheduled at 9am, I just blindly thought 9am would be a better choice to get the treatment done faster.
The Surgery & Cruel Realities
This was the 1st time I had an inside view of what goes into the preparation of surgery, the surgery theater as well as the patient. During the preparation, wangcai was on the assessment table in pain but controlled and I was comforting him. There were times I saw wangcai's eyes telling me he was scared and didn't wish to go into surgery. But sitting there, I had no other alternative solutions in my toolbox, I insisted that we listen to the vet this time as I do not have that set of knowledge yet on what else can be done. I kept telling wangcai to believe the vet, be brave and not be afraid. Tears continued to roll down my face and I started to flash back on all the things that she could have done earlier to prevent this episode from happening. I also regretted not staying in the previous hospital to wait for the 2pm surgery, because by the time the surgeon finished his appointments, and with all the necessary surgery preparations, it was already 3+pm. Also, I regret it, because the earlier facility is a hospital-equipped facility with more imaging diagnostics compared to this current clinic which even though has a surgery theater but not well equipped with imaging diagnostics. But all I could do was regret on my decision-making that day with that blank mind.
Soon it was time for me to leave the preparation room while they shifted wangcai into the theater. We had a last kiss and conversation of assurance and off he went into the surgery. However there was a slight delay due to not having enough credits left on my credit card and the clinic insisted that they could start the surgery only upon full deposit payment. I couldn't reach hub in time for the payment, and fortunately, my friend was there with me and helped me out on the remaining outstanding deposit payment before the surgery finally started at 4pm.
That was the reality that I was facing, no money no movement, regardless of life and death. I merely just needed to get hold of hub to make the transfer for the shortfall and the clinic can't even wait for it and get the surgery started first. Even though it was being settled, I got a taste of what money could have saved or damaged. The reality is a cruel bitch. Hub at last finished his work and rushed down. Paid my friend for the shortfall, calmed me down, and waited for the 4-5hrs surgery to end as we also had to send wangcai to their hospital ward facility for hospitalization until the discharge was allowed. You see why I regretted my selection, not knowing so many things about the facility and services available beforehand.
Soon it was time for me to leave the preparation room while they shifted wangcai into the theater. We had a last kiss and conversation of assurance and off he went into the surgery. However there was a slight delay due to not having enough credits left on my credit card and the clinic insisted that they could start the surgery only upon full deposit payment. I couldn't reach hub in time for the payment, and fortunately, my friend was there with me and helped me out on the remaining outstanding deposit payment before the surgery finally started at 4pm.
That was the reality that I was facing, no money no movement, regardless of life and death. I merely just needed to get hold of hub to make the transfer for the shortfall and the clinic can't even wait for it and get the surgery started first. Even though it was being settled, I got a taste of what money could have saved or damaged. The reality is a cruel bitch. Hub at last finished his work and rushed down. Paid my friend for the shortfall, calmed me down, and waited for the 4-5hrs surgery to end as we also had to send wangcai to their hospital ward facility for hospitalization until the discharge was allowed. You see why I regretted my selection, not knowing so many things about the facility and services available beforehand.
The surgery ended and was told it was successful it is now up to wangcai to see if he could walk again or be paralyzed on the hind legs as the surgeon's prognosis was just 50% to walk again. So we carefully transported wangcai over to the hospital facility and admitted him for post-surgery observations. After settling down wangcai, we went home to rest after the whole saga.
The next day hospital called me and advised me to bring food over as wangcai did not wish to eat hospital food. I prepared and quickly rushed down to visit and also passed the food. That was day 1 post-surgery. Everything was ok, wangcai is eating well on my food and is awake from his anesthesia. Every aspect looked optimistic and we were also preparing his resting and recovery area when he gets home. Dr says if everything goes well he could be dischargeed wangcai after 2 days to help with our finances. The surgery was already 20+k, hospitalization is charging 2k+ per night. So doctor wanted to lower our cost and suggested early discharge if everything was fine.
So day 1 was ok, day 2 was even better, wangcai was looking brighter than day 1, he continued to eat what I brought and everything looked pretty good for wangcai, and upon doctor's review wangcai could be discharged the next day. We are so happy to hear that and the only thing we need to do is to continue on our end to feed the medication they have prepared. We just had to learn how to feed the medication on behalf. And so day 3 came and Dr had a last look and I learned from the nurse on the medication procedure, and then wangcai was discharged on day 3 evening.
So Wangcai was home, still paralyzed, with lots of medication on hand. He started wanting to move because he realized he was home and he wanted to be involved; he wanted to be at home and be comfortable. But he couldn't move and eventually gave up moving then. The first night was hard. Mom had to be awake at certain times to feed the medications but all was good. Wangcai just needed to be beside us all the time, and that was just how sticky Wangcai was and how much we were also dependent on him. We needed each other to survive.
We all readjusted ourselves with the new rest area where Wangcai would sleep with us, watching over us doing things without moving. The next day came—the 4th day post-surgery. The morning was still fine with breakfast and all. But when noon came, Wangcai started yelping and I started to panic, trying to figure out what he needed. The yelping was just random and "it should be pain," said the nurse when I called back the hospital regarding his condition. I was told to continue monitoring.
But the yelping became more and more frequent as we moved nearer to the evening at 5:00 PM, and I also realized his front legs had also gotten weak and his eyes were more groggy. I called the hospital again, but the hospital nurse said it was normal as the medication was strong and could make Wangcai more groggy and weaker.
Dinner and meals after that became difficult; Wangcai started to be unable to eat by himself, even with hand-feeding. I knew something was wrong and wanted to send Wangcai back to the hospital at 7:00+ PM, but the hospital said to just monitor as it was normal for them to be in pain and disoriented with the strong medications. So I continued monitoring until hub knocked off and was at home together monitoring too. We were on our toes every time Wangcai made a sound. I continued calling the hospital for hours in the night, but no one was able to tell me what might be going on and they couldn't do anything except for us to continue monitoring. But my monitoring threshold was reaching, and my gut sensed something was not right under my eyes. Even though I am not trained in that manner, I was just using my gut sense.
So Wangcai was home, still paralyzed, with lots of medication on hand. He started wanting to move because he realized he was home and he wanted to be involved; he wanted to be at home and be comfortable. But he couldn't move and eventually gave up moving then. The first night was hard. Mom had to be awake at certain times to feed the medications but all was good. Wangcai just needed to be beside us all the time, and that was just how sticky Wangcai was and how much we were also dependent on him. We needed each other to survive.
We all readjusted ourselves with the new rest area where Wangcai would sleep with us, watching over us doing things without moving. The next day came—the 4th day post-surgery. The morning was still fine with breakfast and all. But when noon came, Wangcai started yelping and I started to panic, trying to figure out what he needed. The yelping was just random and "it should be pain," said the nurse when I called back the hospital regarding his condition. I was told to continue monitoring.
But the yelping became more and more frequent as we moved nearer to the evening at 5:00 PM, and I also realized his front legs had also gotten weak and his eyes were more groggy. I called the hospital again, but the hospital nurse said it was normal as the medication was strong and could make Wangcai more groggy and weaker.
Dinner and meals after that became difficult; Wangcai started to be unable to eat by himself, even with hand-feeding. I knew something was wrong and wanted to send Wangcai back to the hospital at 7:00+ PM, but the hospital said to just monitor as it was normal for them to be in pain and disoriented with the strong medications. So I continued monitoring until hub knocked off and was at home together monitoring too. We were on our toes every time Wangcai made a sound. I continued calling the hospital for hours in the night, but no one was able to tell me what might be going on and they couldn't do anything except for us to continue monitoring. But my monitoring threshold was reaching, and my gut sensed something was not right under my eyes. Even though I am not trained in that manner, I was just using my gut sense.
THE DEATH OF US...
Upon arriving at the hospital, instructions had been given by his operating surgeon, and the nurse took over Wangcai and started to give him a stronger painkiller, and Wangcai started to calm down. We were instructed to come back at noon, where the surgeon would meet us to go over Wangcai's condition.
So we left, as I once again needed to prepare food for the hospital to feed him, and hub also needed to head home to get freshened up for another workday. Never would we have thought that was the last trip we were sending Wangcai to, and that was the last meal I was preparing for him. The appointment with the surgeon was at 2:00 PM. But I wanted to deliver the food earlier so Wangcai could have his medicine on time, so I went back to the hospital at around 12:30 PM. It was a busy day in the hospital with situations happening all around.
I passed the food to the nurse and sat beside Wangcai's cubicle to accompany and watch him. To my shock, Wangcai seemed to be having difficulty breathing. I questioned the nurse and was told just before that the oxygen was faulty, but it was now back up and they were monitoring him. I started crying again, hating myself, and continued to sit there watching Wangcai while the nurses got busy with what they supposedly had to do. But I had a bad feeling. Hub was rushing down after learning that he seemed to be in critical condition.
Wangcai caught a short glimpse of me, and suddenly I saw a seizure episode right in front of my eyes. After 2 seconds, Wangcai stopped breathing, and I went crazy, grabbing nurses and shouting at the top of my lungs asking for help. The nurses carried Wangcai onto the table, and the attending nurse pushed me out and shouted, "Code blue, CPR now!" to the team. The door closed right in front of me. I broke down, falling to the ground, shouting and crying.
OUR WORLD WENT SILENT
After 2-3 minutes or so, the vet came out, held me, and said he was sorry. Wangcai came back for a few seconds, took a look at everyone on the table, and passed on. While hub was rushing down, I was alone—shocked, helpless, and no longer in a clear state of mind. I felt like dying; the entire sky had fallen upon me. I couldn't breathe, a piercing pain stabbed my heart, and I was crying my heart out on the floor, looking at the ICU door that they were forbidding me to enter. I lost everything, even myself. It was the worst day of my life. My asthma attacked as well.
In the meantime, hub was having a mini commotion at the parking space with some unreasonable, uncompassionate non-pet lover. At last, hub arrived beside me, holding me together and bursting into tears. As the man, the only pillar in the family, he had to swallow as much as possible and be as composed as he could, but inside, his world was totally upside down. He was in so much pain, but he needed to be strong for me.
Our world came to an end. The loss of Wangcai shocked us, and we could not believe seeing him motionless when the nurse carried him out to the silent room, where they allowed us to hold him and stay there while we processed the fact that he had left us alone and we needed to make cremation arrangements for him.
Nothing, nothing is going in our heads at all, nothing they say is going give us back our wangcai. Surgeon explained that this is a myelopathy that he has escalated from the surgery. There were a thousand whys in our heads, but at that moment we couldn't process any why, we just wanted to spend time holding him and saying we were sorry.
A Final Night & Last Goodbyes
Close friends and families all turn up at the cremation and it was everyone's last goodbye to wangcai. It was never a goodbye to us, it was a see you at home at a much later time.
We love you Wangcai.
Hard Sacrifices & The Deep Guilt
Our house has since lost the vibrance, and I, especially lost the fighting spirit. I went into guilt mode, I started finding all the reasons for everything that went wrong, what should I and shouldn't have done. I wanted to stop JJ E-Homez because of guilt and just wanted everything to stop. But hub was pillar of my mental health and talked me out on how much our son would love to see me continue helping other animals in his name. I then went into deep research about IVDD, hub on the other hand trying to hold the fort so their love would not crumble. We buried ourselves into work.
I focused on bootstrapping JJ E-Homez and continued my pet nutrition studies and I also started to do home daycare and boarding for dogs whenever I could. Hub continues to focus on his emcee host and be a voice for the animal shelter when he can. Wangcai never left us, his spirit has accompanied and blessed us since then in everything we do.
Selling our flat...
Fast forward 7 months later, we had to do what we had to do to keep us afloat. The financial stress we have faced since COVID-19 on the down in the event scene, bootstrapping trying a new path due to COVID, all the treatments for our son, surgery, and all the after-math.. it was a huge hit and struggle for us as an average income family. Instead of asking for help from friends and family, our best capacity was our flat to go, for us to breathe again.
The Rebirth of JOOF & Our First Office
At the same time, we also decided to evolve from JJ E-Homez to JOOF. JOOF was inspired by the word woof as the communication language of a dog. JOOF was born to remind us of Wangcai's last few noises that he was making but we couldn't find out what is he exactly trying to say, and it was also that voice that has been with us for 4yrs, speaking to us, wanting us to listen and asking us to find out what he wants us to know...
Every bark, every noise, every expression, and every movement he makes, or rather every animal makes is always telling us something, from happiness to pain. So we wanted JOOF to be the alternative voice, aiding support for all the animals that crossed paths with us, by going into deep detective work together with the pet parents on why their animal is having certain symptoms and more, also for some conditions on how JOOF can aid in further support with our range of alternative natural products that assist and promote health on the whole well-being of an animal.
After letting our flat go so we could finally breathe financially, we took another leap of faith. We didn't want to go back to packing boxes from a bedroom, so we moved into a small, humble commercial space that served as our mini office-cum-showroom. It was tiny, but it was ours. It gave us a dedicated space to focus entirely on our pet nutrition research, store our natural products, and occasionally welcome pet parents who needed a physical space to talk to us about their animals. That small showroom was a stepping stone we will never forget; it was where the true spirit of what we wanted to create began to take a real, physical shape while Wangcai’s memory kept driving us forward every single day.
Then one day we saw another adoption post that was by our friend who runs a shelter. We saw BeanBean and somehow there was a strong connection that led us to visit her the very next day at our friend's shelter. We stayed at the shelter for hours just to see how well we connected and to our surprise, she connected with us right away. BeanBean is an ex-breeding mom, very chilled with other dogs, gets curious about cats, very very sweet and gentle lady. And so we decided to adopt her. She also comes along with alot of her own conditions, but we love her at first sight, and love has covered all the flaws she comes with.
But we did learn our lesson on the financial needs of such breeds, and now she has a savings account for herself, which we will contribute monthly for all her required expenses. We will also be looking at possible pet insurance for her, but due to her age it can be quite a challenge, but we see what we can do for her.
But no matter what, here she is, our newly adopted furbaby who is going to continue to give us life lessons and assist in leading JOOF on behalf of Wangcai.
Then one day we saw another adoption post that was by our friend who runs a shelter. We saw BeanBean and somehow there was a strong connection that led us to visit her the very next day at our friend's shelter. We stayed at the shelter for hours just to see how well we connected and to our surprise, she connected with us right away. BeanBean is an ex-breeding mom, very chilled with other dogs, gets curious about cats, very very sweet and gentle lady. And so we decided to adopt her. She also comes along with alot of her own conditions, but we love her at first sight, and love has covered all the flaws she comes with.
But we did learn our lesson on the financial needs of such breeds, and now she has a savings account for herself, which we will contribute monthly for all her required expenses. We will also be looking at possible pet insurance for her, but due to her age it can be quite a challenge, but we see what we can do for her.
But no matter what, here she is, our newly adopted furbaby who is going to continue to give us life lessons and assist in leading JOOF on behalf of Wangcai.
Finding Our Roots with Our Storefront...
Fast forward to today, and we have quietly taken a meaningful step by opening our physical retail storefront! Tucked away at Ang Mo Kio, right directly opposite Bishan Park's dog run, this space is a dream realized in quiet honor of Wangcai. Together with sweet BeanBean by our side as our chief greeting officer, this storefront has become a warm, living sanctuary where we can connect face-to-face with pet parents every single day. We built this physical home simply to be a stronger, alternative voice for your furkids—taking the hard lessons Wangcai taught us about how to look past the surface, and using that deep devotion to understand, listen to, and support every single animal as the unique individual they truly are.
