Our Litte Boy is the survivor

of the three or four in the litter. He escaped the death fate of his other siblings, that were all abandoned by their mother, who wasn't, I reckon, quite ready to tend to her newborns. A worker on the farm told us mummy dog literally dropped one infant puppy into the pond, leaving it to drown, while the rest gradually disappeared, apparently chucked somewhere by their mum. Yes, strange as it seems, one female dog we have here lacks motherly instincts -- all part and parcel of the animal kingdom.

We briefly cruised by the farm today. Our Little Boy awoke from a languid late morning snooze and pranced and galloped around, as he caught sight of V's car entering; his stubby little legs and his tail flicking enthusiastically. His tiny mouth opening into a lazy yawn. He's grown a tad since the last I saw him.

Little Boy represents just another figure to the increasing stray dogs' number, another member borned into the communities, with equal potential to naturally mate, reproduce and contribute to the proliferation of strays (if left uncontrolled). V and I drove away from the farm, after a random discussion, that perhaps it's best to surrender him to the SPCA, where he might be put to sleep. I told V that I'd never have the courage to do this, relegating the 'bad guy's' job to the caregiver who faces constant flux of dilemmas everyday she tends to and sees her dogs. Spontaneous decision, but it was a tough one.

Images of our Little Boy carried me through the day, so on a random impulse, I phoned V again to walk through our buoyant decision to deal with the life of Little Boy, to once again play god and ordain the continuance or the snuffing out of his dear life. It's a notion that bothers me and for some time in the afternoon it bothered me much. Both of us, I guess, in our accumulated exasperations derived from the challenges of the animal welfare world, decided to 'include' Little Boy in our inexhaustible list of animals to save/rescue.

Yes, in probably a couple of months' time, we will take him for early-age neutering (accompanied with vaccination), before he becomes subsumed into the human-wariness that will be gradually imparted from the likes of Scruffy to the young ones. As soon as it's safe to his health to sterilize our Little Boy, we will nab him from the streets for a while to go under the knife, so that he won't become the undesired contributor to a burgeoning stray pack. And we will put a collar on him in our bid to distinguish him as an 'owned' dog to possible cullers, increasing his legtimacy as an animal with the right to live on the landscape.

Sterilisation will take place in good time, if you want to be part of the support process of Little Boy's attempt to stake his rightful claim as an inhabitant of the living space of the farm, do email us at projectjkteam@yahoo.com.sg
Be it a good home, monetary support, suggestions/ideas, or even a little collar for him...


Our newcomer, Little Boy, is still very tiny


I believe this black dog showing some affection to Little Boy is his mum who might have selected him as the sole survivor of her litter, compared to his other siblings


Mouth wide-open, Scruffy could be surprised, nonetheless happy that V was early in her daily visit

You can see two tiny puppies curled at the side of the overturned pot. The lighter coloured one is Little Boy. This is taken a few weeks ago, when his other sibling was still around; they were quite well hidden in a remote spot under some canvas