Celeb Pawrents: Actor Desmond Tan says being a fur parent prepared him for fatherhood (2025)

SINGAPORE – Singaporean actor Desmond Tan made a huge commitment when he started dating his then girlfriend. In 2009, about a year into their relationship, the couple decided to get a dog – a male cream-coloured English cocker spaniel named Hoshi –and raise it together.

It was a leap of faith, says the 38-year-old star.

“Although I entered the relationship with marriage in mind, we were so young then and didn’t think much about it,” he says.

“I’m so glad our relationship turned out well. Who’s going to get the dog if things don’t go the way you want?”

The couple exchanged wedding vows in 2021 and are now parents to a one-year-old daughter.

Tan announced via Instagram on April 3 that his non-celebrity wife is pregnant with their second child, a boy.

When Tan and Hoshi moved out of his parents’ home to his ground-level condominium in the southern part of Singapore in 2013, the dog experienced separation issues at the new place.

“Not long after I moved in, the condo’s security guard said my neighbours had complained about Hoshi’s howling,” Tan says. It seemed the dog had bayed for six hours when he was out.

“I did not have a helper then,” says Tan, “so Hoshi was alone at home, and I didn’t know he had a hard time with that.”

He decided, for Hoshi’s sake, to make some lifestyle changes and stayed at home more than usual.

Tan says: “The idea of having a second dog crossed our minds. We thought, perhaps Hoshi needed a playmate.”

In 2017, when he was volunteering at animal shelter Voices For Animals, he bonded with a male mixed-breed puppy.

Tan initially suggested fostering the black pooch, but the couple ended up adopting it and named him Udon.

However, Hoshi did not take to the younger dog as well as they had hoped.

“Hoshi was a mature dog then, about eight years old, and then you have a one-year-old puppy – the energy level was very different,” says Tan.

Hoshi was better with humans and did not socialise well with Udon. Having to interact with another dog gave Hoshi added stress, says the Mediacorp artiste, although both canines did get along eventually.

What Tan feels heartened about is that his first fur kid was able to meet his daughter when she was born in March 2024, even if their time together was only for a short while.

Hoshi, then 15, was in poor health due to old age, but Tan’s wish was for him to hang on until she arrived.

“I really wanted my ‘firstborn’ to meet my daughter, his sibling. But I remember telling Hoshi that if he needed to leave, don’t fight it, just go in peace.”

“Perhaps he could sense it, because he spent his days resting in the nursery,” Tan says. Hoshi died of old age on Sept 23, 2024, about six months after Tan’s daughter was born.

Tan says both his dogs were very sweet throughout his wife’s pregnancy.

“I was initially worried that Udon, which does not seem to like kids, might not take to our baby girl,” he says, explaining that Udon would often bark at children walking past their apartment.

“But Udon became so tame and would often nestle with my wife on the couch. He would also rest his chin on her baby bump,” says Tan. He adds that it was Udon’s way of welcoming a new addition to the family.

Udon has been protective of his daughter since she was a baby and is usually the first to hear her crying in the nursery, Tan adds.

Although he sleeps with the couple, when he hears her fussing, he would stand up, perk up his ears, tilt his head and go to the bedroom door.

“Whenever that happens, we will check the baby monitor and, for sure, our girl would be fussing around in her cot,” says Tan.

Udon has been a great playmate for the toddler and they often go on morning walks together with the couple’s helper.

Exposing his child to pets was very natural, as the fur kids came first, says Tan.

“I always feel that kids who grow up with pets have a different kind of love for animals, and they can get rid of the phobia of animals at a very young age,” he adds.

“I wanted them to have a connection, so we taught her how to pet Udon and she was able to do that when she was two to three months old,” says Tan, who will be starring in the upcoming local thriller Devil Behind The Gate, in which he plays twin brothers with different personalities. The 15-episode series will start streaming on mewatch from April 28 and air on Channel 8 from April 30 at 9pm.

Tan also committed to grooming his dogs, having learnt how to shave their fur and trim their nails during the Covid-19 circuit breaker five years ago.

The home grooming sessions were a time for him to unwind and bond with his pets.

“I’d pop a bottle of champagne, pour myself a glass of bubbly and take time to talk to them,” he says, adding that he thinks he has a flair for dog grooming.

With another baby on the way, the Tans have no plans to add another canine to their family.

“We’re always keen to have two dogs, but for now, I want to focus on the two human babies first, before fur babies – perhaps until the children get older,” says Tan.

“I feel that the whole journey with my dogs has prepared me to have kids, because it is the same kind of commitment, love and routine.

“You have to spend time with your dogs or kids so that there is a connection and love.”

• Joanne Soh is a lifestyle correspondent at The Straits Times, with a special interest in entertainment and pop culture.

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