This is a call from a contact who saw the neighbour leaving their dog tied up the whole day in the compound for the last few weeks. Upon enquiring why they treat the dog this way, it was discovered that the family does not want the dog anymore and is leaving him there for someone, anyone to pick him. They don't care who does just as long as the dog leaves. The saddest part, they have recently acquired a young husky. So in comes the new and out goes the old - Shame Shame Shame!The kennels are full and we have been asked to help blog to urgently appeal for a home to foster this 6 to 7 year old Golden Retriever for the time being till more permanent plans can be made.
Please help if you can, if you have a place in your home. This is one last call before the end. We fear if this waits too long, the next call the owner makes will be for it to be picked up and put down. Someone has spoken to them not to call the SPCA but to wait till we can find a fosterer.
Homeless-Not-Just-In-Seletar
When we were first looking for a name for our blogsite and finally decided on Homeless in Seletar, in part it was a catchy name and in part we did love the show Sleepless in Seattle. It did dawn on us that we will receive flack that we are concentrating only on the strays in this area. Well, to be honest, that was our first priority and is still so. Being accidental feeders, we did not go around looking for dogs to feed. The strays we did chance on were the ones right in our doorstep where some of us work and some of us live. We are not part of a big organisation with a fund to support us, neither do we have the expertise to rescue these dogs. We also do not own kennels or live in big landed properties where we can house them. There is just a few of us with only one car for most of the time, how much can we do, surely not enough to save all the dogs.
So yes, this blogsite was set up to create awareness for the poor dogs being dumped in this seemingly idyllic Seletar, and with the current and very speedy development plans, these dogs are facing a very real and imminent danger of being hunted or put down. And again, though our initial purpose was just to feed them first, and hope to sterilise them and return them to the same area, it has not turned out that way and instead because of the precarious position some of them were in, we did rescue some who are now boarding at a Kennel. But there will always be others we try to help and can’t and all we can do is write about them and hope those of you reading can partner with us to help with what and however you can. Just like for the Golden Retriever that is being dumped now or faithful Alsie looking for her home.
Truth be told as many of you know, all over Singapore, dogs are being dumped and contrary to our blog's name, we have not restricted our care to only those in Seletar. We have extended our help, in one or another to others in different locations and Panda is one of them. We chanced upon Panda when one of our friends feeding in the West emailed us about spotting a pup in the midst of her usual pack of adult dogs. She became concerned when she saw the pup was limping, crying and also being attacked by the bigger dogs. A call was made out and with the support of like-minded friends, it was decided for the pup's safety, it should be relocated and a fosterer kindly offered to care of Panda in the interim.
The first time G saw Teardrops, a name W later changed to Panda, she was whining piteously by the road limping, tired and very hungry, dirty and completely covered in ticks and mites.
Panda is named such as the former was her past and the latter would be her future. How seemingly apt it is, as Panda now, no longer sheds tears and her whines are whimpers of love and contentment. She sleeps with her toys in bliss and dreams of a happy tomorrow.
As we are writing this update, we were going to talk a little more about Panda and our looking for a loving home for her but now there is no need. Just today at around 12 noon, March 29, Panda has been viewed by a wonderful family (incidentally a referral from the adopters of Indy), and on Tuesday, she will be going to her new home in a house with a garden for her to socialise with their resident dog. This is a fostering with a view to adoption as their resident dog is old and as rightly should be, first priority must be given to the older dog's feelings and reactions. But knowing how sweet Panda is and how docile she is with people and other dogs, we do not anticipate any major problems.
Panda with some of her foster brothers and sisters. Yes, we will all miss Panda
but we are also glad she finally has a home to call her own.
Panda and KorKor Ode
With Cheh Cheh Cookie
And Aunty Vivi
But since we are at it, let us tell you a little more. Panda is truly an unusual dog not just in her looks but in her behaviour. For one, she is easy to take care of even in a small apartment. Like someone described, she is so quiet and well behaved that it is as if you do not know she is around, despite her big size. She is calm, not jumpy and if she knows you are taking her for a walk, she will hold her pee and poo till she goes down. There are a few things amazing about her, for example when she enters a lift, she sits down and waits for the door to open. She does this without fail. She stays away from other people who may already been in the lift and so nobody ever complains about a big dog sharing the space. She is unobtrusive in the house, has excellent manners and knows how to behave in the right environment or setting.
She has been fostered in several homes and everyone just loves her, for her placidity, her calmness and her good manners. The only regret is that all of us live in public housing and have already at least one dog, we do not want her to live her entire life in secret or illegally. It is not fair to her so we have told ourselves that no matter how much we love her, we want her to go to a home where she can romp, run and play just like any other pup with no fear of authorities coming down on her. She deserves this and we will endeavor to find a home like that, and it has come in the form of Mr. T and his family. If all goes well between their old dog and Panda, it will be smooth sailing and Panda will be their latest family addition. We are very excited about this. Already the family are already making plans for her arrival, bedding etc.
what a ball they had. Indy, incidentally is doing marvelously and adjusting fast.
She is happy, alert, active and when we visited, she had her toys strewn all over the garden.
She is the apple of her Daddy, Mommy and Nanny’s eye, as well as Grandpa.
She showed Panda how to loosen up and have fun. Good job Indy.
Blackie will be so proud of you.
Indy’s story will be contributed by her Daddy soon.
Panda can NOT be a stray dog from the wild. From her behaviour she had to be an abandoned dog. Someone must have taken her when she was a very young pup and as she grew older, they must have decided she was getting too big and didn't look as cute and decided to boot her out - in an industrial estate where heavy vehicles ply the road!! Because when Panda was first discovered, she was whining piteously, completely confused by the traffic around her, not sure where to go or where to hide, afraid of people and dogs. How can a pup this size suddenly appear in an area where there are no pregnant mother dogs.
How cruel people can be. The pup outlived her stay when she lost her puppyish looks and at four and a half months only. The cruelty in humans continue to astound us. We are just glad that with the combined efforts of G, M, A, W, S & K, Panda’s immediate needs were taken of the evening she was rescued. There are others like L who covered for her vet checks and standby fosterers like S and J who took or agreed to take Panda in for whatever periods they could. This was a rescue and rehoming where many individuals were involved but all's well that ends well as now Panda is looking at a bright future.
If it sounded so easy, let us tell you, it was not, it was nail biting in some parts but worth the effort, yes we all nod in agreement, well worth the effort as we see how healthy, big, friendly, confident and happy she has grown.
On the other hand
There are cruel people we agree but there are also good ones. Polo's case is one. Poor Polo. a pet much loved by his owners and yet the plans they made did not turn out the way they had anticipated or had hoped. Who would have known that when a couple marries, instead of a family much longed for, the wife would be struck by a terrible illness, robbing her of the chance for children. But then they thought, well no kids is fine, we will shower our love on our pets instead and so they acquired first one dog and then another a few years later. And they became a loving happy family, Dad Mom, a boy dog and a girl dog. But the illness however came back with a vengeance and poor Mommy had to be hospitalised, now critically ill. Daddy has to shuttle between work and hospital for long periods of time, and the two beloved cherished dogs, now suddenly have no more walks, already no mom and now not even dad is there to play with them, although he still feeds them and tends to their needs, brushing their teeth, cleaning their ears, etc.
Polo, sweet beagle but active and needs to be exercised
Which is how we chanced upon Polo. His owner, not knowing where to turn to and not wanting his dogs to be given to any stranger, started desperately calling up the petshops where he buys food and accessories, asking them if they could help rehome Polo. However his requests for visiting them once in a few months after the rehoming was met with scorn and no one would help him. What you are asking for is ridiculous was the answer he received, but not for us, as one of our team member overheard and stepped in. And in unison as a team we decided we will help him. Help Polo find another loving home so that he would not be neglected and in turn give Polo’s daddy a peace of mind that Polo has gone o a good future. Polo's owner has been feeding them well, a little too well in fact as he tries to compensate his long hours away by leaving more kibble, and thus the two dogs are on the chubby side.
Polo, is given a lot of food to compensate for lack of attention, he has become a little tubby. Polo would give everything in return just to have Dad and Mom back again.
In the face of this sadness, we have been struck by how fortunate we are. We have so much more compared to him. Treasure what you have now, your family, your friends, your pets. Despite the economy and the financial state some of us may be facing now, treasure what you have. They are not the material ones but those closest to your heart. If you had to compare the state you are in, look at Polo’s Dad. He once had everything but now slowly he has to let go his treasured, one by one with no thought of what the future will bring.
Blackie and ShadowThe situation for Blackie and Shadow has not changed. They still refuse to come out. In the past, Blackie will come running out when we call her, no matter how early or how late, she will appear, sometimes taking a longer time but like an old
faithful, she will come out. This was the same even during the days of the rest of the pack, when Patches, MamaBrown and Junior were around. All this did not change too when she had her pups, the exception was during the month when she first birthed them, she disappeared. But when the pups were a about a month old, Blackie came back to us responding to our calls.This time it is different. All this changed after Indy's rescue. Perhaps it is true then, that Indy's cries must have frightened her so much that she now thinks we are the bad people and have come to take her away too. She doesn't heed us anymore and has become like Shadow, mysterious and shadowy, hiding in the thick foliage. Except for that one or two occasion when one of our feeders saw both dogs early in the morning, Blackie seems like a name we used to call.
It is very sad for us. Yes very sad. We do not know if she has become thin or is advancing in her pregnancy or she is even well. The last time we had thought she might be ill as some of us had heard a dog whimpering in the forest but we couldn't be sure which dog it was. Was it a whine or whimper of fear, of hunger, illness or a cry for help. There are days, we do not know if the food we leave faithfully behind every day is being eaten by the dogs. All we do know is the flocks of birds wait greedily for us and we leave even more now, hoping these hungry birds will eat their fill and there will be still some left by the time Blackie and Shadow does appear. Now we have taken to deep freezing the food into a hard rock so that by nightfall, which we suspect that is the time they come out, the food wil be justl nicely thawed and the birds cannot attack a hard block of ice.
Faithful AlsieAlsie has taken to appearing regularly the past few days at our feeder's office early in the morning. However when she comes for her food, she refuses to leave and that poses a problem as not everyone in the office share the same compassion. The last time it happened, our feeder had to shoo Alsie away before her boss arrived or she would get into trouble. Regretfully, the next morning, Alsie did not come for her meal. sigh. It was as if Alsie's feelings were hurt by the rebuffs the day before. The next day Alsie did appear however she seemed afraid to venture near the feeder.
We are still waiting for a someone to open their home to Alsie so that we may be able to proceed to a more permanent plan. We hope someone out there reading this blog can open their home to adopt her as we know she will adapt quickly to a new change since she was a pet dog before. We do have an offer to board her at Noah's Ark in JB but we still need an interim home of some kind for a few weeks as she needs to undergo vet checks and be socialised slowly while her papers to Malaysia get processed. Without the interim time and place to home her, she cannot be sent to Noah's Ark directly. Is there anyone who has a place to house her temporarily? Of course it would be ideal if she gets adopted and rehomed here in Singapore instead but while we think that considering the future that Alsie faces, we must take whatever we are offered. So to those of you reading this, even if you cannot take her permanently if you can allow us to put Alsie in your home for a short couple of weeks, we already have a sponsor who has stepped forward to board her at Noah’s Ark, please call us at 98383830 or anaterry@singnet.com.sg
THE RATS PACK FOR ADOPTION
We have wonderful dogs with great pesonalities for adoption.
We invite you to view the individual dogs and their profile-http://theratspackadoption.blogspot.com/
Devoted Cara - Sterlised Female
http://theratspackadoption.blogspot.com/2009/03/devoted-mia-cara-for-adoption.html
Classy Milo - Neutered Male
http://theratspackadoption.blogspot.com/2009/03/classy-milo-for-adoption.html
Gentle Mama Brown - Sterilised Female
http://theratspackadoption.blogspot.com/2009/03/gentle-mamabrown-for-adoption_18.html
Macho Horlicks - Neutered male
http://theratspackadoption.blogspot.com/2009/03/dog-with-heart-of-gold-macho-horlicks_18.html
Cocoa’s cry for help
A tale of a stray who longs for love and warmth just like any other dog
I am Cocoa. I’m a one year old, local chocolate dog. I’m currently living out on the streets with my mummy, daddy and little sis. Life has been a rollercoaster for me. I was born in a vehicle car park a year ago along with 5 other siblings. Two of my siblings were rescued as puppies and rehomed. Another brother of mine was found dead after being hit by a pole by a terrible man. My sister and I are the remaining of the litter my mummy had. I’ve been living my days out in the cold rain and learning the art of rummaging for food from mummy. Worst still, running from the authorities has not been an easy task. Thankfully, I am now being fed by a kind old lady who comes to feed us every evening.
However, she has not been able to take me in. Recently, I’ve grown pretty handsome and am fully grown. Most importantly, as you can see from my Pictures, I’m pretty small for a local dog! This makes me even more suitable for a family with kids and other dogs as well. I don’t fight for food, I wait my turn and never ask for much. All I ask for is the chance of a lifetime which could turn the dreams of a stray into reality. Please give me the chance to love you and snuggle up to you with my little brown nose.
I long for a home I could call my own. Will you be my guardian angel?
If you think you could look beyond me being a stray, please call Christine @ 97937162
We wish to thank Ms. XX and Ms. J for their very kind donation of kibbles and nice treats 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.
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