Celeb Pawrents: Actress Chen Xiuhuan goes from being fearful of animals to owning four pets

SINGAPORE – Chen Xiuhuan never dreamt she would become an animal lover as she had a huge fear of four-legged furries growing up.

Blame it on the traumatic experience of being chased by stray dogs when she was in her teens, the 59-year-old local freelance actress tells The Straits Times.

Yet she is now a pawrent to three poodles and a cat – and one who enjoys dressing up her fur kids on festive occasions.

For Christmas 2024, the dogs sported Christmas tree-themed coats.

This Chinese New Year, the star of local Channel 5 series Sunny Side Up (2022 to 2024) will twin again with her pets in pink outfits. In 2024, the quartet were decked out in matching clothes as Chen and her three daughters Shanisse, 26, Shalynn, 23, and Shavinne, 20, whom she shares with her Taiwanese businessman husband Fred Tsai.

Like her children, her fur kids also receive red packets. 

“My mother-in-law will give the animals a hongbao each, usually $10,” says Chen, who will use the money to buy them treats. 

Chen will also prepare Chinese New Year goodies such as bak kwa for dogs. 

Her journey to becoming a pawrent began in 2016 when Shavinne sneaked a stray newborn female kitten into their landed home when Chen was overseas.

“When I returned home, I heard some mewing. Initially, I thought it was coming from outside the house as there were a few stray cats in the neighbourhood,” Chen recalls.

But to her horror, she discovered a kitten in her domestic helper’s room. There was even a cage and a pet bowl.

Her husband sheepishly admitted that Shavinne had brought the animal back and hid it there. “He was the one who bought everything else,” says Chen.

As she could not bear to take the kitten to an animal shelter, the family adopted it and named the white feline Kitty.

“Kitty knew how to push my buttons and was always teasing me. Perhaps she knew I was not fond of her,” says Chen, who is currently taking a break from acting, but will appear in the upcoming CNY web series Mai Jiak Chua: Seven Warriors in the Year of the Snake as former Empress of China Wu Zetian. The show premieres on Jan 29 at 8pm on local e-commerce live-stream channel Star Live’s TikTok account @starlive.mall.

But little did she know the bond between her and Kitty was starting to form. 

“She would come to me in the mornings when I was reading the newspapers. She would also make herself comfortable on my car bonnet,” says Chen. 

Her second pet Pidan (Mandarin for century egg), a black female toy poodle, joined the family in 2020.

As her daughters love animals, Chen would accompany them to local shelter Voices For Animals (VFA), where the girls volunteered.

During one of those visits, Chen was asked to carry a shivering Pidan, who seemingly stopped shaking when she held her. 

“(VFA president) Derrick (Tan) asked me to adopt her since we had this ‘affinity’,” she says.

“I refused, but he and one of my daughters convinced me to try fostering Pidan instead.”

What was meant to be a two-week stay with the Tsai family became a forever home as Chen grew to love the dog – which she never thought was possible because of her animal phobia.

“Kitty was arrogant and proud, so I was a bit afraid of her. But Pidan and I have such a great relationship,” says Chen.

Now 12, Pidan needs more attention as she has cataracts and “walks into glass doors”, and is wearing diapers as she is losing some bowel control.

A year after Pidan’s arrival, Kitty was fatally mauled by a stray dog while outside the house.

“The whole family was so sad. We never expected her death would affect us so much,” Chen says.

“Every time I went to my car, I would think of Kitty sitting on the bonnet. It was an agonising time.”

In 2022, Mr Tan brought a male therapy cat named Merger to Chen’s house. Unlike feisty Kitty, the eight-year-old tricolour munchkin is mild-mannered, gentle and kind.

Again, Chen’s daughters pleaded with their mum to let them keep Merger, and she relented. 

Just when she had set her mind on not having any more pets after Merger, she received another curveball in the same year when she returned home after filming an episode of Sunny Side Up. 

“It was late and I was going to check on Pidan. Then I saw this big dog in the house,” Chen says. “I was so shocked –why is there another dog, what’s happening?”

Like her other pets, the female cream-coloured standard poodle named Elsa was from VFA. 

Chen recalls: “She used to be a breeder dog before she was abandoned. Her previous owner did not look after her at all. When she came to us, her teeth were so rotten.”

After fostering Elsa, now eight, for two weeks, Chen felt she was “fated” to keep her.

“Elsa is so well-behaved. It felt like she really wanted me to adopt her. The animals at the shelter need our care, and I’m glad my family can do our part and help give some of them a better life.

“We had a family meeting and I said two dogs and one cat are more than enough. My helper also said she couldn’t handle any more pets.”

But one fateful phone call in 2023 changed the family dynamic again. This time, it was a desperate plea from her daughters’ violin teacher. 

“She was crying and asking me to adopt a puppy she had bought,” Chen shares. “Her mother was against keeping it so she had to give it away.”

Chen’s first response was a firm “no” – but history repeated itself and it did not take long for the female cream-coloured bichon poodle to win Chen over. 

“She’s so cute. My daughters and I couldn’t resist,” she says, adding that they named her Treble since she originally belonged to a music teacher.

Chen says having the one-year-old puppy in the house was chaotic then as Treble would disturb and bite Pidan, Elsa and Merger.

But the latest addition knows how to entertain her pawrents by dancing, bowing, playing hide and seek and posing for photos.

She was trained by Mr Shawn Tan, a dog owner whom Chen befriended while filming Channel 8 series Furever Yours (2024).

Due to their curly fur, the poodles need regular grooming, which can cost around $500 to $700 in total a month. She also spends about $500 monthly on food and other essentials such as supplements, pet litter and diapers.

But the bond the animals have with the family is immeasurable. 

Chen shares how Pidan missed Shalynn so much when the latter left home to pursue a dentistry degree in Australia in 2021, adding: “Pidan was so sad and refused to eat. I had to spoon-feed her.”

Calling her house a zoo, she laments she is also a “slave” to her fur kids.

“My daughters and husband promised to help take care of them, but I’m the one who cleans, feeds and walks them.”

She adds: “My daughters say I’ve changed so much – from one who did not like animals to one whose Instagram feed is now full of them.”