Wildlife in Singapore

There *is* wildlife in Singapore. From the bus window on my way to work, I saw a pack of gray monkeys cross the playing fields in front of Pierce Secondary School along Upper Thomson Road. The creeping movement of gray on the grass caught my eye and at first I thought they were cats. But in a split second, I realised cats don't move in packs and certainly not in that undulating creep.

The school students were oblivious, thumping basketballs on the edge of the field. But the monkeys weren't unnoticed. The two teenagers sitting behind me got very excited.

What an eventful bus trip. Earlier, as the bus went down Yio Chu Kang Road, I saw a yellow dog in the field by the MRT track. He was concentrating on his business in a hunched-over squat. Then he walked to the edge of the field, lay down and surveyed his territory. I hope he's comfortable. The field looked muddy. It had rained in the morning. And his leg were bi-coloured, from the ankle down, it was the colour of mud.

I remember seeing another dog, another time, also on another trip to work. I looked it up in my journal. October, 2000. Another dog, another field, but the same quiet dignity in calmly surveying its surroundings. And thoughts of another dog, curled up in sleep, waiting for me at home, in another house. It was like time had gone round in a circle.

The transport van took me past the same field on the way home after work. It was pitch dark. The dog may not be there any more. Good night, Yellow Dog. At least it's not raining now.