Furry Friends Farm: The happiest place on earth for 500 furkids

Recently I paid a visit Furry Friends Farm, an animal sanctuary for 500 dogs and cats in Kundang, Selangor. I had heard about this place for a long time but only decided to visit now as they recently were in a major predicament that needed urgent funding. I decided to try and help by creating awareness of their plight on my blog. But being someone who doesn't endorse anything I haven't experienced myself and also knowing how some self-proclaimed animal rescuers aren't all they claim to be, I had to check the place out for myself. The good news is that just a day before I visited, the folks running the place got good news that their predicament was pretty much resolved, which they told me when I did my visit. Since they haven't made an official announcement about it yet, I'm not going to steal their thunder by spilling the beans on my blog. However, they still need help in terms of regular funding as their running costs comes up to RM40,000 a month, and hence I'm helping that cause instead.

The residents of Furry Friends Farm (FFF) are primarily made up of 350 dogs and 150 cats that were strays, abandoned or injured, but they also have a goat named Rajoo who thinks he's a dog, FFF is a no-kill shelther, except for severely ill or injured animals where keeping them alive would only prolong their suffering. They also do not harm other animals that run in and out of the place, like the rats and lizards. The farm, which started up in October 2006 by the founder, Sabrina Yeap, is now run full-time by two lovely ladies, Georgie Gisborne (who was originally from England and now permanently here) and Myza Nordin, with the help of 4 workers and occasional volunteers. Legend has it that Sabrina single-handedly ran the entire farm until she passed on in July 2012. The design of the farm was her idea and truly was a special design, as the farm is really unlike most shelters where they keep their animals in cramped cages. Here, all animals are kept in several wide spaced enclosures, usually in packs except for those few that prefer to stay by themselves, and even so they still have ample space to run around and play with each other.

When I arrived, I was welcomed by a single friendly brown and white dog just outside the entrance of the farm, which I thought was a stray that just happened to be there. After I met Georgie and Myza, they told me the dog was one of theirs and they let him run around outside as he didn't like being inside. As I sat down to chat with them and a couple of other dogs there to keep us company, a rat or two scurried by, a testament to their policy that they do not harm any animals there.

The tour around the farm started with the doggy 'hospital' room where they have about 20 dogs that are disabled or were injured and have been treated.

A dog with disabled hind legs

A doggy missing his front left leg which was amputated. Oh what a big mouth you have!

Another disabled but happy furkid

A resident of the hospital room that has conquered the table

Next was a visit to the dog enclosures, of which I'm guessing there were at about 7 or 8 enclosures separated by fencing, each with a pack of dogs well socialized with each other.

Big area for many doggies

One fella resting in the drain. Because he can!

"Look at all that space behind me! WOooHOooOOo!"

"Visitor! Do you have treeaaats?"

This doggy got his own special wooden hut as his home. 

The dog enclosures are all connected to a big garden where at certains times, each pack gets a chance to run around in the garden before heading back and letting the other packs have their turn to run.

Spot the doggies running around the big ol' garden

Lots and lots of greenery for them to pee on :P

As impressive as the whole set up is, the place is almost 10 years old now, so parts of the roof are leaking when it rains and the structure is generally starting to fall apart. They really need funds to get it back in good order and keep the dogs happy, coz wet and cold dogs aren't happy dogs!

Part of the old roofing that needs to be replaced

If you think the dog enclosures are a fantastic place for the dogs, you would even be more amazed with the cat enclosures, which is like a big playground/gym for the cats. There are shelves all along the walls, coffee tables, hanging structures, bookcases, and basically a lot of knick knacks for cats to climb on, curl into, scratch on and basically enjoy doing what cats do...go all over the place and snooze.

Welcome to the cat gym!

"What up?"

Putting her best foot forward

Shelves make great snooze spots

So do shoe stands!

The indoor cat enclosures are even connected to the outdoor enclosures by cat tunnels which they can walk through. There are also separate enclosures for healthy cats and those that were diagnosed with Feline Immunodeficiency Virus (FIV), the kitty version of HIV.

The light at the end of tunnel being blocked by.... kitty butt

Here's a couple more pics of the happy looking, somewhat lazy and occasionally demanding cats. 

"What we gonna do today, guys?"
"Errr...sleep?"
"Sounds like a plan"

"I want my catnip!" says orange middle cat

Wait, didn't I mention there was a goat? Oh yes, here's Rajoo the goat who thinks he's a dog. He was rescued while on the way to a slaughterhouse by the late Sabrina when he was a kid (literally) and now has grown to a happy roly-poly sized goat. He apparently likes to eat dog food (which is really bad for his health so Georgie and Myza don't let him) and his 'wife' is a dog and they both adore each other.

"Beh-ehh! Beh-eh-eh! I mean, woof woof! I mean, woooo, beh-behhhh!"

"That's wifey at the back. Let her know I've been good so I can get a doggy treat. Please?"

How you can help?

1) Sponsor a Furkid/ Make a Donation
If you like what you see going on at Furry Friends Farm and you're like many folks who would love to give a furry friend a loving home but have difficulties doing so because of time, lack of space, etc, help by sponsoring a furkid for only RM120 a month! Every dog and cat here has a story and name. You are welcome to pay a visit and choose a furkid or two to sponsor. You can also of course make one-off donations to assist with shelther repairs, medications and treatment of sick or injured animals, supplies, etc.

Donation Details:
Account name: Furry Friends Farm Society registration no: PPM-027-10-14082012 (14Aug12) Email: treasurer@furryfriendsfarm.org.my.

Donations can be made via:
1) Cash deposit/transfer/intergiro to PUBLIC BANK BERHAD: 3178842626
2) Paypal account: treasurer@furryfriendsfarm.org.my. Transaction fees (charged to FFF): 3.4% + RM2 per donation/transaction
3) Cheques payable to: Furry Friends Farm Foreign cheques bank commission (charged to FFF): 0.1% (min Rm20, max Rm100)

Kindly notify Furry Friends Farm via email (treasurer@furryfriendsfarm.org.my) once you've made your donation.

2) Adopt a furkid
Adopters are also welcome, but be warned that Georgie and Myza will only give away furkids to people who they are convinced will be good and loving adopters. That means no nonsense like keeping pets in cages most of the time. Dogs needs plenty of space to run, and cats needs space to climb around!

3) Volunteer
Taking care of 500 animals isn't a easy feat, so any extra hands are welcome.

If you're interested to adopt or volunteer, please contact Myza (016 371 7692) or Georgie (016 379 3478). Please contact them and make an appointment prior to making any visits.

For more info on Furry Friends farm and updates on their latest fund-raising activities, visit their website or Facebook page.

Furry Friends Farm: The happiest place on earth for 500 furkids

Would you recycle... your organs??!!

I would! And even though I've been wanting to for a long time, after much procrastination (mainly due to not really knowing how to do it), I've finally gone and made my an organ donor! Thanks to this new local radio station, BFM, which I didn't know existed until a friend recommended it to me. They run a lot of talk shows about various topics every day, and one day I heard this talk about organ donation, with a guest speaker from the National Organ Transplant Centre (or something like that), and she explained the process of how to go about becoming an organ donor, as well as debunked some famous myths about organ donation.

Like, a lot of people aren't too keen on donating their organs, some of the main reasons being that they are afraid that the process of organ harvesting will postpone the funeral, that the body will come back looking like crap, or that organ donation is against their religion. The speaker explained that after death, the organ harvesting process is actually very quick, and the staff performing the havesting make every effort to ensure the body is kept in as good condition as possible. As for the religion bit, frankly I've never heard of any religion with any clause along the lines of "Thou shall not giveth thy organs away to anyone else". I would suppose most religions teach the importance of giving... and there are people out there in dire medical conditions who need organs to survive, and once your dead, it doesn't make you any more of a sinner if you're missing a couple of body parts here and there, so why not give already? Yeah well, the speaker didn't quite say it like that, but you know, I'm just...um... paraphrasing. Yeah.

As for me, I'm always into recycling whatever can be recycled, even myself. Waste not, want not, you know. And I was happy to find that the process to apply to be an organ donor was pretty easy. I just visited their website at www.agiftoflife.gov.my, clicked on the section on section on organ donor registration ("Jadilah Penderma"), downloaded, printed out and filled in the application form, and faxed the filled form back to the number provided. I also called their toll free number to make sure I did it right and that they received it. Instead of talking to a real person, I got a voice recording that asked me to key in a few numbers, say my details out loud, and at the end of it, the voice recording said they would send me my donor card within 2 weeks. *Bleep*. I was kinda like "Huh?" after that, wondering if they actually got my info right since I didn't speak to a real person, but I waited a couple of weeks, and lo and behold, I got my donor card in the mail!

It's actually a rather flimsy piece of card which will probably look like 'rojak' within a few months of keeping it in my wallet. But I HAVE to carry it on me at all times, so I don't have a choice. I'm also supposed to tell my family that I'm an organ donor, so that in the event of me passing on, kicking the bucket, biting the dust, and other nice replacements for the word 'die', my family will know my wishes and not object to the organ harvesting. This is a pretty big problem when they try to collect organs, families of the deceased donor have no idea, so they make a big objection against it and give the harvesters a hard time. So people, now you know I'm donating ALL my organs and tissues, so when they come for me, make sure they make the most of my dead body. Haha, that sounds very wrong. :P

While I'm not squeamish about most of my body parts being in someone else (or more than one someone else) after I die, the one thing that is a bit freaky to me is my face being on someone else, like was the case with this lady, Connie Culp , who was shot in the face by her husband, resulting in her looking like...um... really ugly. After a successful face transplant with facial tissues taken from another lady (who was dead by then, of course), she looked a lot more normal.

I suppose if I'm dead, I won't be able to experience the weirdness of having my face on someone else... but wouldn't that just be the weirdest thing for the family and friends of the dead donor? To see the face of someone they knew on another person? I mean, I wouldn't say no to donating my facial tissues (I guess that comes under 'all organs and tissues' on my donor card) coz' it would the best thing ever to someone who's been horribly disfigured like this poor lady.... but doesn't reduce the freaky factor.

So I guess the new question now would be... would you recycle your face??!!

Would you recycle... your organs??!!

The Plight of the Exiled Dogs

Most Malaysians would've read this sad story in the news, but if you haven't, check out it out here for the full story (with photos), updates and info on how you can help the dog rescuers.

If you wanna donate anything, please remember every minute of procrastination is another minute the dogs are marooned there with lack of food and water and eating the carcasses of other dead dogs. And more than half the dogs are dead already. So hurry along to your banks now.

By the way, according to their blog updates, the dog is the photo above has been rescued. Yay! But still got more to go!

The Plight of the Exiled Dogs