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If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you. This is the principal difference between a dog and a man. Mark Twain





Thursday, July 8, 2010

Lady Dawn - A New Beginning

Volunteers went to Mt Pleasant to fetch Dawn and take her home. She did not seem as fierce as when she was first admitted to the clinic. Vet Technicians told us that she was still rather unpredictable but she would not growl or try to attack as long as they did not try to touch her. Somehow they managed to leash her and coax her into the carrier.

Throughout the journey back to her factory, she was banging on the gate of her carrier, trying to get out but when we told her she would be home soon, she somehow seemed to understand and quieten down.

Home. Waiting to be let out.

When we arrived at her factory, all the other dogs on the compound seemed to know she had come home and there was a huge welcoming party for her, about 6 dogs gathered around excitedly. The minute she was let out of her carrier, you could see her joy at being home. She ran round and round in circles – yes, RAN! Then she sniffed all the other dogs that were there and it was obvious she was STILL the Alpha dog. You should see the body language of the other dogs when Dawn sniffed them, all of them cowered in fear and one poor dog peed in fear. Then Dawn ran to the Indian worker and he patted her. After all that excitement, she bolted to the back of the factory where she usually stays. And believe me, she can outrun any four-legged dog. It was interesting to see her running so happily to the back of the factory and when she ran, all dogs in her way just dived under lorries to get out of her way. Survive? Definitely.

Worker letting Dawn out

Getting a pat from the worker

See the dog cowering in fear when Dawn sniffs her

Dawn is rather big and strong (centre)

Trying to befriend them in order to catch the pregnant dog

Dogs living on Dawn's compound

We then told the Indian worker that since we had brought the injured dog back, he should now help us catch the pregnant dog, as previously promised. He then said the Lady Boss said we were not to take any more dogs from her factory. How could it possibly be HER dogs when she neither feeds nor cares for them and they are all not licensed. All she does is allow them to breed endlessly. We got angry with the workers and told them they didn’t keep to their word but they just stood around smiling at us. Then we saw the Thai worker who had helped us catch Dawn and asked if he would help us catch the pregnant dog. He managed to easily catch her and she was too heavily pregnant to even try to run. She just surrendered.

Later the Indian workers told us that this was also Dawn’s puppy from another previous litter- so she had this heavily pregnant dog, who seems about a year old or so, plus the four 4-mths old puppies at the back of the factory. We paid the Thai worker for helping us catch the pregnant dog and quickly left. The Vet closes at 8pm and it was a long drive through peak traffic.

Throughout her journey to the Vet, she was extremely quiet.

When we arrived at the Vet, the staff had no problems carrying her out of the carrier. She was extremely sweet, submissive and fearful – the total opposite of Dawn.


Dawn’s daughter will stay at the clinic till Friday evening before we take her back to the matriarch’s home. We’ll leave you to decide who the matriarch is – Lady Boss or Lady Dawn!

Friday night when we return Daughter home, we will try to catch another pregnant dog from this same factory. This one has a different colouring and marking from Dawn, so we doubt its from her, but she does live there as well. When we are done with the pregnant dogs, we will then start sterilizing Dawn puppies, before moving on to a new area.

It may seem like there is no end to what we do, and believe me, some days we do feel that way too! We usually work our way through various factories and sometimes just when we think we have sterilized all the dogs there, we walk the streets and our hearts sink . . . . .we see more cute tiny puppies running on the roads, sometimes playing and rolling in the middle of the roads, sometimes sniffing garbage bins for food and that’s when we know our work is not yet done.

Note : We apologize for the poor quality of the photographs taken. It was wet and dark.

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"He is your friend, your partner, your defender, your dog. You are his life, his love, his leader. He will be yours, faithful and true, to the last beat of his heart. You owe it to him to be worthy of such devotion."- Unknown