Abandoned and aggressive... now my Angel

As I have blogged about before and shared in a similar post here, it's my belief that an aggressive dog is usually not truly aggressive. An seemingly aggressive dog only growls or barks because it it either very frightened and wants to protect itself, or trying to protect something else like the owner or its home. This is particularly true of house pets or strays, which are not trained to attack people. For guard dogs, however, don't play around, coz' they are trained to be really aggressive. Another experience I had recently proves my theory.

One morning a couple of weeks ago which happened to be a weekend, my lovely weekend slumber was disrupted by an early morning phone call from a frantic lady saying stuff in Chinese. Due to the fact that I am a banana who can't speak Chinese to save my life, I only understood that she was having a problem with a dog and needed my help to remove it. I presume she got my number from somewhere I posted online regarding some animals I was trying to rehome and she thought I do this animal rescue stuff on a regular basis (which I don't by the way. I have a full time job that keeps me pretty busy!). So anyway, I asked my mum to call and find out what the story was. And it turns out, the son of the women who called me has brought home a dog that was given to him by his friend who asked him to take care of the dog for a while and later he would take her back. But this guy had no intention of taking the dog back and later told his gullible friend that he could just 'throw away' the dog.

So what happened was that the dog went into one of the rooms of the family and growled at anyone who came in. They got so scared, no one dared to go into that room for fear of her attacking, hence why they called me and disturbed my beauty sleep.

So the evening of that same day, my mum and I went over to their place which was a flat, met the young man and his mother. And my mum spoke to them to find out the whole story, got the contact number of the guy who dumped the dog pon them, and did what she does best, which was call the guy and give him an earful on how irresponsible he was for dumping the dog. In the meantime, I was left with the dirty work of actually having to try and convince the frightened dog that I was of no harm and pick her up without losing a limb or some fingers to her. I found her looking like this.

And yes, she was actually growling when I got closer. So I had to sit down, slowly inch my way closer while talking to her calmly, and sloooowly moved my hand closer to pet her. The closer my hand got, the more her teeth showed, but eventually she let me pet her. After a little while of petting and talking and one attempt of her trying to snap at my hand, I managed to get a collar and chain on her, and also got her to roll over so I could give her a belly rub.

It was at this point when I knew she had trusted me, so I managed to pick her up easily and took her out, much to the joy of the family that called me. We then took her to the vet where we got her spayed and boarded for a few days, after which when I picked her up, I had to go through the whole cycle of getting her relaxed again to pick her up because she was again frightened and growling at me after being stuck a few days at the vet with many noisy and probably equally frightened dogs. When I took her home, she was also aggressive with my dog, who is actually a friendly fella who was just trying to be friends with her.

Initially, I wanted to put her up for adoption, but after a few days, I noticed her getting very attached to me. When around other new people, she'd be agitated, but with me, she was happy. I treated her like my own dog, let her into my house, and she followed me around everywhere and also likes licking my leg as a sign of affection. The best part is that she doesn't chew stuff and she hardly poops or pees in the house if I take her out regularly (there were a couple of accidents, but that was mostly my fault for not letting her out even though she clearly wanted to go out). She also quickly became very friendly with my dog.I'd feel pretty bad to give her away now, since she's been abandoned once and is now so attached to me and my dog, I don't want her to feel abandoned again. So I've decided to keep her and I named her Angel. 

 
It goes to show that her initial aggressive behaviour was simply due to her fear of being in a new environment, and after some care, she showed that she's actually quite a fantastic and loving dog. I have no idea why her owner decided to dump her, but then again, there are really too many idiotic people in this world who don't know how to recognise or appreciate the good things they have in life. 

And that's why, people, never judge a dog by it's cover or it's seemingly aggressive behaviour. The first time she saw me, she almost tried to snap at me. Now look how we are. :)

  

Abandoned and aggressive... now my Angel

9 pooches and a kitty cat

The past one month has been a busy busy busy month of animal rescues by team M&M (mum and me). Some were just mum, some were me and some were a join effort, but just in case you were wondering, we don't really do this animal rescue thing on a regular basis. I'm perfectly happy not going around looking for animals to rescue, but I usually just help out when I find an animal in need and if necessary, try to get it adopted. It just so happens about a month ago, as explained in my previous post, my mum decided puppy rescuing was going to become her new favourite hobby, and I've suffered a few sleepless nights taking care of noisy puppies because of that. Not that I'm complaining (much), I love them mutties too. :)

Here a run down of the furkids my mum and I have rescued or helped out this past month, and some are looking to be rehomed. So if you're looking a furkid to adopt, hope you'll consider these and if so, please do send me an email at carol.reads.in.red@gmail.com and I will reply to you a.s.a.p!

1) Laila Belle, Tracie and Scotch (1st vaccination only, 2 for adoption)

Scotch: Someone get my sister off my butt...

These puppies were born at a factory area near where my mum's friend's office, and seeing that they were getting older and at risk of being take away by the local council, my mum and her friend decided to try and rescue the puppies. Two got adopted the same day they did the rescue, by another guy who works nearby, so my mum took home the remaining three. Which was a very fortunate thing coz' apparently the day right after that, her friend saw the local council people come to the exact location where the puppies used to hide, which was under an old unused car, and saw they drag the car away with a tow truck in a bid to find the puppies. Apparently her own boss has reported the puppies there to the local council, and if they had been caught, it almost certainly would have been a death sentence for the puppies knowing how the councils treat them here. And the way they dragged the car out, the puppies would probably have been injured or killed if they had still been under there.

Far as I'm concerned, anyone who calls the local councils to catch dogs in Malaysia are either heartless scums of the earth or ignorant buffoons who have no idea what suffering dogs undergo at the hands of dog catchers engaged by local councils. Just watch this video to get an idea. The proper way to reduce strays is by educating people to spay their pets and the TRNM (Trap-Neuter-Release-Manage) method, or a nicer term is CNRM (Care-Neuter-Release-Manage), which I have used for one of my stray furry friends as well as will explain more in a bit.

Anyway, my mum was keeping them in the spare washroom of her condo for a while, and eventually decided to keep one of them, which was the most active one who loves licking people. By 'love', I mean she runs at you and launches herself at your face to try and clean your face off with her tongue. My mum decided to name her Belle, but I prefer to call her Laila, coz' in Chinese, 'lai' can be translated to 'come' or 'lick' which works both ways for her. So now her name is Laila Belle, and she's the pooch at the rear end of the room in the photo above.

The other two are now fostered by my mum's friend, and are up for adoption. Their foster names are Tracie and Scotch. Tracie is female, smaller, less active and little shy compared to her siblings. And she does not try to launch at you with frenzy licks. Which I think is a good thing, coz' I don't really appreciate hyperactive puppies.

Ooh, camera in my face!

Scotch, on the other hand, is a male and pretty active as well. According to the foster mum, he likes to bark at 5am in the morning. And he's also super friendly.

Scotchy boy doing his manly male pose

2) Silky and Satin (Adopted! :D)

 

Look into our sad little puppy eyes and go "Awwww", please!

My mum was informed about two puppies rummaging around the backlane of some resturants located in USJ1, went there and found they were in good looking condition and probably were dumped quite recently by an irresponsible dog owner (who, by the way, are also scums of the earth). So the next day, team M&M (mum and me, in case you didn't catch it the first time), conducted our rescue operation for the puppies, and I kept them for about a week. I named them Silky and Satin coz' their fur was so silky and smooth, they with have made a great shampoo ambassador.

In the first couple of days, they were scared and pooping and puking all sorts of nonsense, thanks to all the rubbish they were eating in the backlane, but after a few days of proper dog food, they got healthy, played with my dog and started trying to take over my home. Sometimes at night they would get whiney because they didn't like being alone at the back room of my house, and I wouldn't allow them in the house coz' I didn't want them pooping or peeing everywhere. So I had to assign my dog to the back for babysitting duty, and then they would keep quiet. But my dog didn't seem too happy about being stuck at the back room instead of being able to enjoy his couch.

These two furkids have been adopted into two different families. I would have loved for them to be together, but I think they'll be happy.


3) Cookies (stray female, spayed and can be adopted)

 Ear scratchies are naaaiiiise...

I just made up the name for this friendly female near my office which my German boss and I feed regularly. She was initially quite scared of people but after regular feeding, she became less afraid and now enjoys my ear scratches. She's so cute, everytime she sees me, she'll run to me then once nearby, she bows her head low like a servant, waiting to be petted. She has several doggy friends in the area who still don't dare let me touch them even though I feed them too. Most of the older dogs in the area are also quite mangy. So for the most part I'm ok to leave her there, the only reason I'd like her adopted is that I'm worried about her getting caught or catching mange from the other dogs.

Cookies is still healthy and I took her to a vet to be spayed, and she was relocated back to my office area and still looking happy and healthy. This is actually the CNRM  method I mentioned earlier, to help reduce the stray population in the area by getting the dogs spayed. This is why I would advocate anyone who knows a friendly stray near your area to try and get them spayed too, so you have less strays animals that may be caught and made to suffer at the hands of the evil local council dog catchers (did I mention they are also heartless scums of the earth?).

 4) Poopy le pooch (1st vaccination, for adoption)
I already dedicated a whole post to Poopy here, and in the past couple of weeks, the little bugger has grown quite a bit and has become one of those cute hyperactive puppies that most people seem to like so much. He's still recovering from his mange and is probably one of the ugliest puppies in Malaysia, but his activeness and adorable behaviour make up for it in so many ways.


Here's how the little le pooch looks like now:

I'M SO HAPPY!

I'M SO DARN HAPPY!

HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY WEEEE!!!

Hehe!

How can one not love that face?

Still, I consider it unlikely that anyone would want to adopt the fugliest mangy puppy in Malaysia, but I'm keeping my hopes up that someone has that big a heart for this little poochy pooch (and his poo doesn't stink anymore, just so you know!). :P

5) Buffy (Can be adopted)

I got the face of a Rottweiler, but deep down, I'm just like a wee lil' puppykins. :)

Just to avoid confusion, Buffy is a MALE, but I thought it was an appropriate name, since he's big and buffy and looks fierce, but is actually really friendly. He's another stray dog near my office whom I don't see often, but everytime I do, he's got plenty of love to share. He is usually friendly with other dogs, but aggressive when it comes to food. Which is how I guess he got this nasty little neck wound a couple of weeks back.

I was so alarmed when I saw it, I wanted to take him to the vet right away, but only could wait til the next day coz' the vet was closing. Before it was cleaned up, it was so full of pus, and the doctor said flies could have laid eggs there and it would have become badly infected then.

Lucky for him, I helped him out and after a few days boarding at the vet and whining like a baby everytime I visited coz' he wanted to be let out, he's now back in my office area.

He's also the only dog I've even brought in my car that was completely not scared at being driven around. On the other hand, he was so excited, he climbed from the back seat into the front seat, which was the driver's seat and insisted on sitting on my lap and even standing on me to look out the window. And he's big and strong enough that I was unable to stop him, so I'm glad I didn't get into the accident the couple of times I had to drive him around. But like I said, he's a super friendly fellow, even the people at the vet fell in love with him and he gave no trouble at all with the doctor. :-)

6) Kitty with the Einstein hair (In kitty heaven... :( )

 

Not going near a Van der Graaf generator ever again!

I don't discriminate when it comes to animals, I like helping kitties too. So when I found a motherless kitty at the field near my place while walking my dog, looking like it has a bad hair day and meowing away, I couldn't really leave it there to potentially become roadkill.

So I took it back and after trying to feed to it with dog food (it was all I had, ok!), I decided to try and give it to my Malay neighbour across the street who owns many cats, and see if they could help foster it while I looked for an adopter. As it turns out, they were happy to adopt it themselves, apparently coz' they like cats with nice coloured coats and even try to breed them (though I wish they wouldn't since there are enough stray cats available for adoption as it is).

Unfortunately, the next day, they informed me that little frizzy haired kitty died, possibly due to virus infection. It was quite sudden since the night before she was quite healthy and happily running around. 

Oh well, I tried. RIP, little kitty cat. :(

7) Abandoned Angel (Adopted... by ME)

Lookin' good!

Well, of course I'd save the best for last, and the best was this pretty white female who was abandoned by her owner and was so scared initially when I found her, she was growling and wary of everyone who came near her. Fortunately I've had enough experience with dogs to know that a growling dog is not necessarily an aggressive one, and it's turns out she was such a sweetie and we both fell in love with each other so much that now I've decided to keep her.

And the story of the abandoned Angel, I will save for my next post!

9 pooches and a kitty cat

The story of Poopy le Pooch

This is the story of Poopy le Pooch. As you might guess and probably feel a little bit sorry for the rather cute but somewhat gross name, Poopy is a pooch, i.e. a puppy. And he was a very poopy one at that, hence the name. He's a sad looking little fella, really mangy with wrinkly skin, lost a lot of fur except a strip of fur down his back, and he was shivering with fear the first day my mum picked it up and brought him home.

This is Poopy le Pooch on the first day my mum found him.

My mum decided to name him Pooch, but I call the sad looking pup Poopy coz' not only do I enjoy giving dogs unusual names, but it's a cute play on words that he's a puppy and also pooped a lot on the first couple of days we had him. And that poop was no joke. I mean he was literally spraying brown watery poo all over the floor forming little puddles of brown stuff on my parent's condo's floor that probably needs a dozen mopping sessions with Dettol to remove all the germs. And every time he pooped, he let out a little moan. You know that moan you make when you're having a tough time doing the number 2 in the washroom? Yeah, that kind of moan. The vet told my mum that he has mange, so he's been confined to an unused bedroom in my parent's condo which used to be my room. And I can tell you the first day he pooped in there, you practically had to wear an oxygen mask to avoid fainting from the smell. And this is coming from me who has a poor sense of smell!




So the story of how he was found, according to my mum who is these days becoming a puppy rescuing vigilante recently (she was not always like this, and I'm putting it down to some form of empty nest syndrome), was that one night she was at my office area which is also nearby her condo, feeding some adult dogs which I also regularly feed together with my German boss who also loves dogs, when she drove around and heard some yelping noises. So she stopped and looked around for source, and found this little fella stuck in a barrel that was closed at both ends so he couldn't come out. Her deduction was that someone and tossed it in there and left it to die.

The next day, I went to the location where the puppy was picked up, and realized that the barrel wasn't really a barrel but a big concrete cylinder purposely at both ends. 

And there was food and milk in the cylinder.

But the food wasn't exactly the best thing to feed a young pup, considering it was full of fish bones (which can choke an adult dog, let alone a puppy!), rice with sauce (salty food = not good for dogs), and overrun with ants, in addition to what look like curdled HL milk (cow's milk is also bad for dogs, by the way).

In addition to that, of course, the cylinder itself was dirty and stained with Poopy's extremely yucky poo. So while clearly the pup wasn't exactly left there to die, it was being kept under really poor conditions by someone who didn't have a clue about how to take proper care of a puppy, or maybe didn't have the means to take proper care of it.

It's therefore quite fortunate for Poopy that my mum rescued him from that dastardly place, and after a visit to the vet, little Poopy got a round of deworming, mange medication, and diarrhea medicine. Which is great coz' now my former room doesn't stink anymore, and after a few days at my parent's place, Poopy is no longer scared, and is in fact being an extremely playful puppy trying to chew everything in sight, including our fingers. He likes trying to wave or high five us with his tiny paws. And he also really likes sleeping in a little basket he found at home, which turned into his bed. He even tried humping my knee while I was sitting on the floor to play with him. I didn't know they started that fast....

So my mum is only keeping him until he's healed from the mange and looking better, but since she already has two other dogs (one is our psychotic Shih Tzu and another very recently adopted stray pup which will definitely get too big for the condo, so I'm not really quite sure what she's doing), she can't keep him forever.

Therefore we are hoping for someone to book him for adoption once he's all better, and give Poopy le Pooch a lovely place to live in after his rather traumatizing start in life. You could also save him from having a really terrible name, and give him a nicer name. :-)

 Adopt me when I'm healthy please! I need a better name!

The story of Poopy le Pooch