Lucas adopted!

Due to some technical glitches with blogger (and the fact that quite many things happened during this period of absentia), we were unable to update our work on this blog. In any case, we'd like to share with all that LUCAS HAS BEEN ADOPTED!!!

A few weeks ago, we moved Lucas from the shelter where he'd become close pals with a much older female labrador to a foster home where he became fast friends with the resident lab, another six-year-old female. He was well taken care of for one week at a home where the leaves of age-old trees swayed with the tranquil afternoon winds, where he basked belly-up in the sun at sideyard, where he sometimes wrestled with the resident female lab over the toys she buried in the garden -- our Lucas uncovered her toys and was reprimanded by her that her toys were her property.

And a week later, we brought Lucas to his (hopefully) forever home where we were allowed to recce the outdoors -- the semi-landscaped gardens, yards and garages. Lucas has joined a family who'd taken him as a family companion and who'd kindheartedly donated to our cause.

I don't think I'd ever forget the brief but enjoyable moments I'd spent with Lucas -- how he bounded to the gate with what we deemed as a "human face", when we hollered his name from outside, how he naturally snuggled still in the crook of my lap during the car ride on the way to his adoptive parents and how he always seemed to smile with each friendly pat, connecting us with his contentment, his joviality, his happy-go-lucky-ness, a Dogtalk that is, perhaps, what keeps us going in our belief (albeit waning) that there are good families out there, and in our faith in humanity.

With each adoption, we only find ourselves steeped in a dilemma (sometimes, a trilemma) in going ahead with entrusting a dog lifelong in the care of an adoptive home or keeping him as he is -- in the familiar surroundings of street life, shelter life or in the calm embrace of the fosters we meet, the Samaritans who weave in and out of our lives and the lives of our animals.

And it only brings us endless questions on the integrity of humans, on ethical choices, on ultimately, are we doing the best for these animals? If they'd a voice, what would they whisper into our ears, what'd they echo into our consciousness? And what'd they like to tell the world about what they'd been through and... what place do they have in our urban ecology?

With each adoption, we withdraw into a reflective state and ask questions that we can never find answers to. We question our acts that we cannot find labels for, we attempt to categorize things that will never be absolute, and we yearn for more, yearn for so much more for the animals on the streets, behind the grilles, in confinement, bounded by leashes, and the people who, rain or shine, sickness or health, are constantly on the road to look out for those whimpering under the trucks, trembling in the cold or dragging their beat souls across the tarmac of the streets.

We yearn for a better world where humans and animals reconcile to live harmoniously in the delicate yet perfectly connected ecology that had been preordained and mapped out on the face of this earth. A better world where inter-species respect is possible.

Lucas... all the best.

Lucas and his pal at shelter before leaving for domestic life

Lucas all cleaned up and awaiting whatever bone of excitement is thrown in his path