WEI CHENG PHEE

Happy dog Casper and “grumpy cat” Romeo have a growing following on social media – in an account started for the simple purpose of documenting the great times they have together. Owners Wei Cheng Phee, a laboratory product specialist, 28, and artist Rinsa Li, 30, live with their pets in Wigram, Christchurch.

WEI CHENG PHEE: Casper and omeo have , ollowers now. We only started the nstagram account when we p cked up omeo n . ecause they got along so well, nsa started tak ng v deos and photos. nsa and met at ar n am lton when was at Wa kato n vers ty and she was at W ntec. After we graduated, we moved to Auckland. We thought the g c ty l e was or us, ut t wasn t. After three years, we had the chance to move down to Chr stchurch or my work, a career move really. We l ve n W gram, we ve een here nearly our years. e ore that, d only een to Chr stchurch when was e ore the earth uakes. A lot o r ends were say ng, Why are you mov ng here s noth ng there . ut ve actually come to love t. t s ust e ng close to the outdoors. ou have the ort lls, and t s easy to get to ekapo, Arthur s ass, Castle ll.

We love trekk ng and h k ng not hav ng cellphone recept on and connect ng as people. nsa s rom hen hen n Ch na, and m rom enang, alays a, ut ve een through ntermed ate, h gh school and un vers ty n am lton. nsa was e ther go ng to p ck Canada or ew ealand to attend un vers ty on a partnersh p programme. he reason she chose ew ealand was Lord of the Rings. he loves t here, ma nly the outh sland the outhern Alps that really take your reath away. We got Casper when we first moved up to Auckland. nsa always had pets grow ng up.

Unfortunately, in the culture in Malaysia, dogs are usually just guard dogs.

A samoyed was Rinsa’s choice. I was OK with anything.

She brought me a book to read on how to raise a dog. We have to be responsible, so we read, talked to a lot of people, set up a good environment, and got into a good mindset.

When we rst moved to hristchurch, we were renting. We wanted to be stable before getting a cat.

I was in Melbourne on a work conference and Rinsa said, “Hey, I’m going to see a friend in Timaru (when you get back). Do you want to come?” I said, “You don’t have any friends in Timaru.”

Halfway there, she said, I have to tell you the truth: we’re going to be looking at a cat.

She knew I’d say no. I just didn’t have any experience with cats. I just always like to make sure we’re in the right place, at the right time, set up right.

Rinsa and I match each other because we’re opposite. She’s really down to earth. She’s a gogetter. She has plans, big vision. I’m more the one to execute on them.

We spent the next month making our mind up and making sure we were prepared.

Romeo is o cially a ame point HimalayanPersian cat. We make sure both of them are well maintained and give them the best we can. They’re pretty much like our kids.

We brush and comb every day, 100%. If you don’t, their fur can clog.

At home, we just wear white or light-coloured clothing. We do wear dark-coloured clothing but it’s tucked away in a cabinet: I just put it on before I go out.

Even the curtains are beige, the lounge suite is also beige.

We had to invest in a good vacuum cleaner. If Dyson would like to sponsor us … well, we couldn’t live without one.

We do have sponsorships but very, very limited, and a website too, casperandromeo.com, where we sell some merchandise.

But realistically, we set out to capture their memories. They’ll only be with us for 12-15 years, there will come a point where they will pass away, so capturing those memories is important.

They get on surprisingly well. asper is always just friendly, and Romeo came at a young age so he saw asper as his brother.

Romeo will always do sneak attacks on asper, but not the other way around. It’s brotherly love.

Romeo sticks to asper when he’s outdoors, probably a security thing.

asper always tries to keep an eye on Romeo. He’ll run back and sni him when Romeo gets distracted looking at plants and stu .

In the future, if we get a bigger place, Rinsa wants to get an Alaskan malamute dog. She plans on calling it Batman.

She wants to get alpacas as well. But where we’re living it’s not suitable. It’s a small, twobedroom townhouse with a tiny little lawn.