In the field

We have not been writing about Blackie’s family not because our feeding nor rescue program has stopped. Rather we have been very disheartened lately.

There is one ebony pup left with Blackie and that is Indy. The good news is that Sissy has been adopted and living very happily with her new family. (Sissy is now known as Didi and her story will be out soon together with her sisters). Sissy and Indy were good friends and the younger two of the Blackie's pups. When we attempted to take both the pups a couple of weeks ago, they were confused and ran around in circles. They are perhaps growing up and we probably should have taken them in earlier but because we had no place to put them together, we had thought that it was better to leave them with their mom rather than split them up into foster homes. When we finally secured a place for both of them, somehow the atmosphere shifted from one day to the next. The day of the Ebony Pups Rescue, the pups seemingly sensed the change and that day refused to come to us, no matter how hard we coaxed them.

After four over hours of running around, a lot of sweat and tears and much much frustration, Sissy finally did venture near enough and we could take her to safety but Indy, completely confused and bewildered chose to remain. We have continued our feeding and trying to get near to her but each time, when she looks as if she is about to come to us, she stops, looks at her mom, and runs back. It is most probably Blackie sending her a signal not to do so.

A young Indy. She has grown taller and lost her puppy fat. She still wags her little tail in excitement at us enjoying her game of "Catch me if you can". Indy is around 4 months now.

The day we took Sissy away was a terrible day for us. For one Blackie didn't understand. Sissy was the youngest and stayed close to her. Indy was close to Shadow. The other three older pups were good friends and boisterous and would happily run to visitors, but we always sensed that Sissy was Mommy's favourite. The next day after Sissy was removed, when we came back to feed Blackie, she barked us at us from the time we arrived and did not stop till we drove away in our car.

She had never come near us before although recently her distance seemed less paces and she would have a short wag of her tail. However now, a bigger distance has evolved and we have never heard her barked as us before in all the months we know her. It was sad day for us, because after all these months of building a trust and a sort of love between Blackie towards us, she is now back to square one, back to mistrusting us because she had seen us take away her precious pup.

When we took the other two away, her reaction was one of indifference but now it is different. She didn’t understand that it was for theirs and her own good. Neither does she understand we are trying to do our best for all of them and they are all in good families. It hurts, yes it does, that a little black dog's approval means so much to us. How do we tell her that the plans we have for her will come to fruition one day.

This is reminiscent of the day when we had to take Cara's pups from her one by one, it hurt us too when Cara barked and howled at us, because she missed her pups. Each time we visited it was with a feeling of guilt on our part and accusation on hers. It took a long time for Cara to finally adjust but it has taken us even longer to reassure ourselves that yes, what we are doing is right. What we are doing cannot be wrong as we are trying to save them from a certain death, and we know it is a matter of time. But splitting up families is not easy, not easy at all as most rehomers would admit. How many times we find litters of pups and we try so hard to find homes to take at least two of them together but seldom have we managed to do that, and instead probably made things worse by insisting they do.

Shadow
We have not seen Shadow in a while. Sometimes when our feeders drive past from far away, they see three black dogs but ultimately when they return to leave food, there is only Blackie and Indy. Shadow is never around. Where she runs to, we don’t know. Whether she eats our food, we don’t know too.

Shadow remains our mystery dog, we speculate it is a female but we are not even sure at this point. How we would ever get close to her is something we can’t figure out yet.

Alsie
And then there is Alsie, still hanging around. We note that she does not stay long at the bus stop anymore. Perhaps she has realised that her owners are not coming back. Yes, to our regret, Alsie is female. This means that we also need to catch her and sterilise her otherwise she will be in a lot of trouble.

This is Alsie. Isn't she a beautiful dog? Look at those alert ears and intelligent eyes. Her lovely cream color fur.

She is an extremely lovely dog, very neat, another Milo-kind of classy beautiful specimen. In fact she looks a lot like Buddy except Alsie is more creamy white in color.

Alsie nervously looks around her as she eats her food. This is a typical scene for the strays we feed. They can not have contentment during meals. There is no time to enjoy food, it is grab and run or be grabbed.

Alsie is just as cautious and wary of people. She must have been hit and chased during the days she was out looking for her owners. We ourselves have witnessed her being hit by a man with an umbrella and confused Alsie had ran away whimpering in puzzlement and fear why she was hit for no apparent reason.

Poor Alsie, and all she wanted was to wait for her beloved owners to return. Unfortunately for Alsie, the place we often see her linger around is very near to the workers’ dormitory, the same workers we have always tried to avoid contact with and the same workers who always try to hang around when they see us during our feeds. It is a cat and mouse game with them, when they are near, we stop what we do and both sides pretend as if the other does not exist. So Alsie is in danger if we become friendly with her. If she gets friendly with us, she will get friendly with them but on the other hand, if she doesn’t get friendly with us, how are we to approach her.

The other day, we managed to get pretty close to her, in part we had a very tempting beef steak in our hands. She accepted our food willingly, but with no wag nor smile, with a lot of apprehension but the tempting morsel proved too much for her to resist. She came close to us and even allowed us to put up our hands for her to sniff. We could almost graze her with our fingertips, gingerly over her body but when we tried to hold on to her collar, she turned and snarled. We had to let go. This carried on for serveral minutes, she letting us softly touch her tail and toes but each time we attempt to hold on to her or pat her, she would bare her teeth as if knowing what we were trying to do.

In the end we had to give up, with no proper equipment, no gloves nor backup plans for her, we walked back to the car whereupon she followed. It seemed as if she wanted to go with us, although there was no wag nor smile. Perhaps it was the thought that we might have another beefsteak but alas, all we had were kibbles which she didn’t want. We opened the door and told her “Alsie, you can come in if you like..”, after a moment’s hesitation she turned tail and ran off.

This is a Catch 22 situation. We just need to let this lie for awhile as we have the other situation at hand to deal with. Yes it gets hard, this rescuing and feeding program we are running. There is so few of us and only one of us has a car which makes our resource very limited and slow. We can only deal with one situation at a time and plans for Alsie will have to wait. There is no choice. Our only hope for her is that she can run fast and not linger too long at a spot.

Teardrops now renamed PANDA

Teardrops has been rescued and renamed Panda. We want a positive name for a bright future for her and no more shall tears drop from Panda as she starts her new life. Panda is currently being fostered by Aunty S. and enjoying cuddles and pets as well as friendship from their happy and playful dog. She is slowly discovering the joys of being a puppy all over again instead of being humped and chased by other adult dogs, she now has a kor-kor doggy to share with her toys and chewies. Instead of piteous whining, Panda will now woof and wuff in delight and excitment just as she should, yes, as she rightfully should.

Panda is a lovely pup with beautiful markings, very mild, gentle and quiet. She has already been trained on paper by her fosterers in this short period. She gets along with people and children and is docile. She deserves a chance at love and at a family. Is there anyone out there who can give her that new life? Please contact trlytru@yahoo.com.sg or 98383820

THE RATS PACK FOR ADOPTION

APPEAL TO LOOK OUT FOR LOST DOG

This is an appeal for a lost dog from a co-rescuer.

We are looking for our female Labrador Retriever. She's cream/beige colour and small built. She ran away from home (Kuo Chuan Ave, near Marine Parade) in Nov 2008. We are not even sure if she's still in the eastern part of Singapore anymore. She's microchipped and licensed. We've reported to SPCA, AVA, Petcall, pasted posters, written to the vets, ran around, peeped into neighbour's houses hoping for a sight of her, and so on. We are still searching for her. She may have been kept by someone who doesn't want to return, or sold to someone who ignorantly bought her..

Please, please help keep a lookout. Perhaps your neighbour just got a new but matured dog? Or has someone offered to sell you a similar looking dog? Please, if anyone sees a dog that resembles that in the pictures, please call us immediately. 9389 9896 / 9106 2928. Appreciate any help.

REWARD of S$5000 for information leading to the recovery of the lost dog. No questions asked.

Special Thanks:

We wish to thank Ms. A for her very kind donation of kibbles for feeding of the strays, not just in our area but in other areas.

On behalf of the strays, we really appreciate your joining us in our efforts.