Interview: Pepper

Pets, they’re your best friend and confidant. Big or small, fluffy or a bit scruffy, it doesn’t matter, we love them all. They’re there for you unconditionally and the feeling is mutual. Our interview series celebrates this special bond between animals and hoomans. Let the awws begin.

Hooman: Joyce Chiang, Calligrapher and Mixed Media Artist

Doggo: Pepper, 3 years 9 months

Home: Hong Kong

We got Pepper (Border Collie) in Hong Kong! I was originally looking for a medium size puppy to surprise my husband, Adrian for his birthday. I was sent a picture of Pepper and couldn’t resist showing Adrian right away. We met her the next day and fell in love immediately. Pepper was so scared and tiny when we first met her, but we knew right away that she’s our little girl.

She’s black and white so we were coming up with names that reflected her coat. After we named her, we found out we knew two other people who had border collies also named Pepper! She’s very snuggly and quite calm for a border collie. She’s very sensitive and alert to sounds and movements, and truly a really smart girl. She doesn’t get bullied because she’s can be feisty if other dogs pounce on her or try to play rough.

Her daily life consists of waking Mommy up at 7am to eat breakfast, then goes back to bed to snuggle with her parents. She keeps Mommy company where she works in her home studio creating artwork, often just sleeping next to her foot. Once in a while, she comes over and whines because she’s bored and Mommy will take her out on a 1 hour hike or walk and in the summer, we go swimming! She’s very in tune with her meal times, and always comes over to remind Mommy or Daddy when it’s time to eat.

Pepper loves to run in the garden and has a knack for finding cat poop, and always rolls in it and come back to us really stinky. She follows up with giving us side glares when we shower her after, because she’s not a fan of showering.

One minor pet peeve is that Pepper loves to eat and is always hungry, so she always sneakily goes steal my two German Shepherd’s food, but she makes up for it with her love for snuggling.

Best thing about Pepper is that she has brought so much joy and warmth into our life, and also a sense of responsibility.

Find Pepper popping up time-to-time on her hooman’s feed on Instagram at @joycechiang_.