Please...

WALK YOUR DOG

Took a walk along

the streets last week. After months away. Same streets. Different lives.

I do not recognise some of the dogs who greeted me that day. Where they have come from and where their lives will lead them.

Young


Bold


Injured


Wary




All they need is some food, shelter.

And a little bit of kindness and humanity. To allow them to live out a life that was given. A life not for us to take.

Walk with us into a new year we hold with courage and hope. With bigger and bolder dreams for the animals as we claim the promises for a better world.

* Donate to POSB Savings 108-15188-9 and together, we will create miracles for the animals in 2010.

Blessed New Year. The best is yet to come.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Project-JK-Just-Kindness/185453072387?ref=ts

Food donations for Mdm Wong's Shelter

Contact derrickrover@yahoo.com or yee.alycia@gmail.com

Gerry's leg needs funds to heal

Gerry and her brother (whom we have left unnamed for now) live out their existences at a construction site occupied by stockpiles of metal beams, barb wires and other materials, cranes and tractors in motion, landfill piling and dumping in action.

In the darkness provided for by the container quarters of the construction workers, Gerry and her brother find refuge--away from other stray packs in the neighbourhood and strange men who poke their noses into the quarters in the day.

They are friends to the workers but the one they are closest to is a Thai worker who returns in the evening after his work. Sometimes when he's around, our caregiver will pass him food for the dogs and willingly he feeds Gerry and her brother. Other times, we have found that the food passed to a random worker would be left to hang somewhere in the quarters and rot for a few days, unfit for consumption.

Perhaps that's why when we brought Gerry to the vet's with the help of her familiar Thai worker, she was found so underweight and undernourished by the vet. Dehydrated and running a temperature. The Thai worker told us Gerry's right hind leg had been injured and limp since two months ago. A lorry had run her over.

Prior to that, the caregiver and us visited the site in the morning in the absence of the Thai worker and were met with futile attempts to capture her. The moment she saw us, Gerry scampered swiftly away and hid herself from a pile of construction materials. In her limps, she jumped on nails, scratched herself against the rusty edges of old poles and grazed her back more, ducking, climbing and negotiating rough corners.

Until we had to call it a day and give up. A nagging worry on our heads that we needed to bring her leg to medical attention. We feared if her bones had been crushed.


A few days of hospitalisation at the vet's saw marked improvement in her behaviour: Gerry warmed up to all the vet staff and when walked, was able to put weight on her injured leg. Ginger and gentle. She responded happily when we put our hands on her head and patted her with a prayer of encouragement and healing.


The vet gave Gerry medication and various vitamins. Knowing that she's but a puppy actually, she suspects Gerry's case and being unaccustomed to using her right hind is a matter of bone development, aside from the lorry accident.

With our limited animal rescue budget, the best we can do is pump her health back, bypassing any need for any surgery, so that she can still continue her life at the construction site. We have no place at all to board Gerry and allow her to recover ideally.



This is Gerry, checking us out from afar, after our failed attempts to pursue and capture her.

Gerry's brother, the friendlier one -- responded to us lovingly for food and caresses. We target to sterilise him, and Gerry when she's well. At this stage, it's not recommended that Gerry goes through any surgery.

Gerry's brother.

This is a brief story of the initial stage of rescue of Gerry and her brother. As part of the objective to manage stray numbers, both siblings will be sterilised, vaccinated and microchipped--the best that we can do in alignment with what the authorities treat of stray populations.

At the moment, we are concerned with the recovery of Gerry's right hind leg which was run over by a lorry. Being female with an untreated limb, she faces the advances of other male dogs in the wild and could be impregnated in a matter of months. Where immediately possible, we will bring her for spaying.

There will come a day when the construction site is vacated and the workers move elsewhere. After all, this is a temporary dorm. Honestly, I do not know how many years we can continue to tend to Gerry and her brother (they could be displaced when the Thai worker moves), but as far as they are part of our caregiver's feeding route and within our reach, we will continue to provide for them. For as long it takes to keep them alive and well.

If you would like to donate to Gerry and her brother's rescue efforts, please email us at projectjkteam@yahoo.com.sg. No amount is too small and each bit builds into something to help make their existence possible. To keep them alive.

I thank you for your generosity and act of encouragement this Christmas season.

We speak forth

healing and all good things for our animals.

This is Daisy

Gentle, calm, serene and girly.

Regrettably, I haven't got the chance to blog about Daisy's story.

For the past weeks, it was sort of a heart-in-your-mouth experience for us. Daisy came down with a lump on the right side of her neck--two marbles large and hard as stone. What's more, she suffered from severe nose blockage and everytime little Daisy heaved, the discharge snorted and leaked out of her nostril.

We put her at the vet's for 10 days or so and were told that Daisy might not make it, given the condition of her lump. Their first opinion was that Daisy's lump could be cancerous and the procedures of biopsy and chemotherapy entailed thereafter would mean hefty medical costs for us. We were given the option to put Daisy to sleep, otherwise she would, just the same, "waste away".

Aunty S, the 80+ caregiver, and I picked up Daisy, with an uncertainty what her lump would mean to her life. When she was brought out of the ward, both her fore limbs were shaven for injection of glucose drip.

On the exterior, Daisy shrivelled, weakened and her meows became gentler.

Her mother, a dark-haired community cat whom we named Suzy and previously suffered a gaping sore on her back, missed her so much that she loitered in the backyard of the caregiver's to get closer to Daisy. As Daisy rested in the cage we set up for her, quarantined from the rest of the cats--the many the caregiver could take in herself without causing a fuss to her family and neighbours--Suzy held vigil for her daughter.

She hanged around the room where Daisy stayed and never so much as strayed from the place. If policies imply that animals are emotionless, Suzy's demonstrated behaviour for her daughter defy any clinical principle on which the policies stand.

What followed in a few days was the absence of glucose supply for Daisy and her rapid loss of appetite. As the weather got colder with the December rain, Daisy became thinner, weaker and paler. Daisy was literally bony.

Side profile: in the red circle, you can tell her neck is thicker due to the lump

Profusely leaky discharge from left nostril. Just common cat flu, the vet said



Back from her 10 days at the first vets: Daisy explored the room and climbed the window grilles to seek a spot to escape. We let her be for her to settle down

There was an inner prompting to take immediate action: take Daisy for a second opinion.

At the second vet's, Daisy was met with a basic checkup. Results?

Gingivitis judging from her pale gums; dehydration (her skin eased softly down when pulled up; and an unmistakable lump which was not abscess after extraction test.

Daisy was so weak the veins on her limbs collapsed and the vet could not, at all, put her on drip. Except through the back--a slower process though. With her health so poor, it would be life-threatening to operate on her to remove the lump.

After a round of consultation with a senior vet, Dr V. felt it would be best to let Daisy be for the lump was mischievously located at a spot linked to a complicated network of arteries and blood vessels . No-go for surgery for sure.

And in a few days' time, after rounds of prayers for her recovery, Daisy sprang back to life: her appetite revived, water intake normal, flu let up. Just the obstacle of a lump still present.

Daisy was discharged and brought back to her cage quarantine. Suzy was happy to see, even from a distance, her daughter again cozying up in the cage in peaceful recuperation.

Today, I received a call from Aunty S to check on Daisy. I rushed to her place and saw her in the cage where S managed to put her in (Daisy ran away a few days ago!), felt her lump and realised her lump is 90 per cent reduced!!!

Her gums have returned to a healthy state of pink. Aunty S's tip: apply Bonjela.

.........................

Gladness. We await to confirm with the vet if it is still necessary to bring Daisy back for a review.

*********************************************************

Daisy's case has fetched up to a few hundreds for us. If you would be so kind, please contact projectjkteam [at] yahoo.com.sg to help us with her medical bills so that Aunty can continue to do the good work she's doing.

At over 80 years of age and managing, on her own, a few colonies of community cats, Aunty needs all the help she can get. Please, if you could... help us help Daisy.

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

We welcome you

to join us on a more interactive platform over at our FaceBook Page:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Project-JK-Just-Kindness/185453072387?v=wall

For those of you who have already joined in, thank you. We hope to continue our walk together in uplifting the awareness and creating a conscious participation in our animal welfare scene.

And may each encounter with a needy animal make our hearts more tender. Our minds wiser. And our actions kinder.

We look forward to seeing you on Project JK Page.

Watch out for

星期二特写 on 13 Oct at 10.30pm Channel 8.

"The programme is featuring the harsh lives of our street dogs as well as their caregivers"...thanks G for sharing!

Ahhh... and our husky boy takes a breather

Photos of Shin, the rescued Siberian Husky, taking a breather after quite a length of a walk. Had a last minute urge some evenings ago to walk the boy and although I hadn't seen him often enough, he knows when I visit, it means treat and a walk in the park.

After J's effort to bring along ice-cold water for Junior & Ginne on one of their excursions after vet consultation, I've been mindful that in our local tropical climate it is best to bring along water for the dogs however hardy they seem to be. Especially for Shin.

So towards the end of our traipsing the length of the park and back, I poured water over his coat to reduce heating in case his body was overheated beneath the thickness of coat. At least he didn't seem to mind. Water for quenching thirst, for hydration and for reducing body heat.

I've been, mostly, a mongrel person when it comes to dogs. Would you have any tip in caring for or walking an Arctic breed in Singapore (although I'm not exactly supportive of the idea of the presence of such breed in this country) ?

Beautiful walk with Shin.

Remembering some of the strays

whom we've crossed paths with. Much as I hope is not the case, many more are still out there - among farms, in forested areas, construction sites - often out of sight thus out of mind for many urban dwellers.

Thus our efforts to bring to light the reality of the strays living amidst you.

Spare a minute for these lives out there and find a space in your heart to help them, in any little way you can.


Appearing old due to his chronic mange


I named her Frodo

Lovely girl living in the forest with her brother, she has since disappeared.

Born wild

Buttercup - last surviving gal from a first-time mom and later run over and killed by a lorry.

Replying emails

Hi all, it seems that Yahoo mail could be undergoing extreme revisions which has resulted in a number of emails not sent out, be it new compositions or replies. We realise that a few emails assumed to have been sent out remain as half-saved drafts in our Draft folder and even when we clicked 'Send' a few times and a series of success messages appeared, the email was never sent.

For now, I can't even log in to file a feedback to the technical team, hence, if you've sent an email and there are still no replies, after a few days, please resend us.

projectjkteam [at] yahoo dot com dot sg

Adopt a Siberian Husky

THEN... AT POINT OF RESCUE

NOW...

Shin, a 6 year-old male Siberian Husky, was rescued from a HDB home where he was leashed to the kitchen window all day—no walks, no opportunities of socialisation. He slept, ate and defecated within a 1m radius.

When we rescued him in ’08, his legs were found wobbly due to stunted growth and his nails were hooked and long. He was given a mere plate of rice, meshed with an egg a day.

Now after a year of proper foster care, Shin is completely different. He is fattened up, well socialised and lives in a community of other dogs. He is ready to go to a good forever home.

We are looking for an owner who understands the needs of the breed and knows the requirements of keeping a Siberian Husky in Singapore’s humid climate. Importantly, we are looking for a family who is willing and ready to commit to loving and caring for Shin for the rest of his life.

Shin is: 6 yrs old/male/people friendly/loves his walks (cool weather)/castrated/vaccinated/dewormed/groomed regularly/trained of basic commands/a loving companion for life.

We appreciate if you could forward this to your family and friends. Interested parties, do make a careful decision. Contact projectjkteam@yahoo.com.sg

Petshops' profits

Question: can a petshop make money without selling animals?

Or may I rephrase: can a petshop make as much money without selling animals, as a petshop which sells animals?

How moving, how inspiring

From Monty Roberts' The Man Who Listens to Horses

Horses had no answer to the [Genghis] Khan's cruelty, had no voice. But they did have a language. No one saw it, no one tried to see it, but that language has probably existed for 45 million years, virtually unchanged. We should put this into perspective: Humankind has been on this planet for only a few hundred thousand years, and already human language has fragmented into thousands of different tongues.

The absence of communication between human and horse has led to a disastrous history of cruelty and abuse. As a result, we did not gain the willing cooperation of the horse nearly as much as we might have done. Our loss has been considerable--the emotional connection with the horse has been diminished, but so has the performance and work we might have gained.

It is a balance I have tried to redress during a lifetime's work with horses. Happily, that work continues.

Sweetie and pet abandonment

This is Sweetie, presumably 5 yrs old or older. She was abandoned with Shyshy, another much warier dog at a farm. Later, they moved to another farm just a street down and hid themselves away from the street dogs in a storehouse, seeking food from the caretaker. I say 'abandoned' because these 2 mongrels appeared out of nowhere and because they looked/behaved like domesticated dogs.

Sweetie, for one, is lovingly friendly to almost anyone--even to myself, on first occasion; plus, she can do 'paw' and is most willing to offer her paw without one even asking for it. In the first 3 photos above, you may tell it was difficult to take her pictures as she was merrily moving about, her tail swinging in every direction as her caretaker showed me where she was 'hiding'. A few months ago, Shyshy unfortunately went missing and since the afternoon the caretaker discovered her absence, we've never found Shyshy.

Because Sweetie has grown chummy with a patchy-black male dog which we've failed to capture for castration a few times, we sent her for sterilisation upon suspicion that her tummy could be getting bigger. At the vet's, we scanned her for presence of microchip but found none.

I often wonder what part of the Animals & Birds Act actually and practically applies to the act of abandonment. Publicity rhetoric discourages pet abandonment and states that abandonment is a crime. But I've encountered a few major cases in which I was informed my attempts were futile because there were lack of evidences to prove someone abandoned their pets. Several dimensions to this:

• To prove that the pet belongs to alleged owner
• To prove the very act of abandonment
• To prove the owner has intentions to abandon pet

But what happens if a dog is not AVA licensed but is obviously known to belong to the owner and has resided on owner's property for a long time? So how is anyone supposed to be there when the owner releases his dogs from his car? What happens if dog is abandoned by a family friend or relative, not the owner himself, and the former acts on instruction from owner? Is a witness supposed to take a video of it? Even with a photo taking, how credible are images, as the owner can always deny that he was taking the dog out for walk and the images are insufficient to prove this?

Is abandonment an unspoken reality that all of us know about?

There are certainly gaps in how the Act applies to real-life cases and I hope for many of us involved, these questions reinforce the notion that the Act needs to be improved.

For Sweetie's case, we've spent quite a bit on her sterilisation, vaccination, deworming and micro-chipping. If you would like to help chip in, do email us at projectjkteam@yahoo.com.sg. We sincerely appreciate all amount of donation.

Sweetie is a lovely girl.

Coo coo people in animal welfare

I am glad that the majority of animal welfare enthusiasts/activists are genuinely concerned for their animals, but there are persistent pockets of people who choose to expend efforts in assigning blame to others and miss the whole point of, perhaps, why they started out volunteering. So is animal charity truly altruistic? I doubt so.

Or had their cranal network gone haywired?

And this is one big reason why would-be volunteers often withdraw from further commitment, and walk away with the impression that animal welfare people are—no need to hypothesize—coo coo. From complete no-show by club representative to the random volunteer who insinuates and finger-points in email threads: it is no wonder that there is hardly anything such as teamwork, and caregivers often function in silos.

Worse, where blameworthiness is not even in the picture, these individuals may choose to make something out of nothing. And I imagine the female Pomeranian which needs to have the last bark.

Am glad that for the few pals involved in this, we maintain our level headedness and rationally defend what is right for our animals and what ought to be corrected to ensure little impedes our activities.

So we put the noise aside and onward we trudge.

Emailing us

Sorry if you didn't receive any email reply from us. Trawling and filtering through spam mails is a routine and inadvertently, we might have deleted your legitimate email through mass removal. We have too many spams!

Please email us again. Thank you.

Thank you S

for helping me blast your emails to your desired audience. I really need the support, and I sincerely appreciate that you did it out of your horribly busy schedule.

Turning words into REAL actions.

Adopt Chocho - Intelligent, Peace-loving Mongrel

• Name: Cho Cho
• Sex: Female
• Age: 1 yr plus
• Coat: Chocolate-brown, short-haired
• Size: Medium, slim
• Breed: Mixed (Local mongrel)
• Sterilised: Yes
• Vaccinated: Yes
• Dewormed: Yes
• Microchipped: Yes

Brought up at a farm, Chocho was ostracized by the resident male dogs and had to fight for her food. In Feb this year, she became the target of cullers and was unfortunately caught and brought to the pound. Our rescue team redeemed her in the nick of time and brought her to the safety of a boarder.

Since May, Chocho has been relocated to a private home foster and has undergone milestones of transformation--learning from the pack to be a domestic dog, settling into the routine of her walks, baths, makan, playtime and sleep, integrating into urban life and very importantly, getting used to people.

Although cautious of strangers, Chocho has learnt to trust people more. She has no dog-to-dog aggression.

Chocho loves her walks, lunges at squirrels and cats, is an alert dog and is strong for her build. She is adaptable, healthy and fit, and a highly intelligent dog.

We are looking for a reliable adoptive family for Chocho which:

- Is patient and understanding in bonding with and socializing a dog which is naturally shy

- Is aware of and willing to commit to caring for her, i.e., the next 20 yrs

- Is able to commit to feeding, walking, bathing and socializing her, with love and care

What you will receive are:

- An immeasurable experience of love and joy

- A loving, doting family companion for life

Please consider Chocho. Contact projectjkteam@yahoo.com.sg

POMCHI (POMaranian n CHIhuahua) Puppy for adoption

* Born on 19 May 2009

* Colour: Brown

* Father: long-haired Chihuahua

* Mother: Pomeranian

* Vaccination: 2nd vaccination on 16th august 2009 (done), deworming done

* Personality: Active and playful, like all pups

Interested parties, please write to JoyEng1@gmail.com. Thank you.

Been thinking more lately

about what we're doing and the direction(s) our animal welfare work is going.

For one, our caregiver's route has been cut down and she now only plies certain spots and visits the shelter to enjoy interacting with her favourite Mama Rock, and son, Bruno. The tapioca pack resides, eternally joyfully, in the enclosure and enjoys their dip in the pool each occasion we let them out with a supervisory eye for potential scuffles.

Ginne and Junior are still as cheerful and affable, the most hospitable chaperones to all of us. John John looks forward to the chunks of boiled chicken thigh each time I enter his kennel, he loves them just the same.

Then at times, I lapse into thinking, "So what? And then...?" What's next for our animals? Am I acting upon the long-term plan to rehome them or have I lost faith in sourcing for and locating the right owners for mongrels, or are these potentials completely extinct in Singapore?

Some waves of stagnation and some urges of inching forward. Attempting to make progress in things.

Years ago, we already recognised that we could be, well, combating the little bushfires in the whole scheme of animal welfare rescue. Some individuals are good at fighting the mini bushfires, they too have their niche roles to play, and we should let them carry them out the best they can stretch.

And maybe it's because I've been trying to extinguish the little bushfires for too long, too much, that I feel I've become held back in certain areas. It's hard to inch forward or out of the quagmire of mini hotspots fighting when one is strapped.

So, what is it in for me? So what is it in for everyone of us interested to make a change in the current animal welfare status, to better the lives of the animals?

Certainly, we don't want to miss the woods for the trees. We want to do what we're best at, in areas where we can unleash supernatural potential, effect change and impact the welfare world significantly -- and with a satisfaction that tastes so good.

No inhibitions, no reservations. Just go all out to do it.

Followed up with little blackie, now named as

"Schnorkz", an approximate of her full name in German.

Save for a few pictures at the top not in sequence, here's the full chronology of Schnorkz' growth from 'rescue to rehome':



First day into domesticity: this is Schnorkz in the blue basket. Still with fleas crawling all over her tiny body. March 2009.


Playing in her litter pan. Barely a few weeks old. This is the cage she called home for a fortnight, siphoned from my two adult cats


T, her new owner, sent me this MMS of her perched on the cage of another cat at home. By the second day, she was already pally-pallying with other bigger cats


Snoozing on T's bed -- she's given the authority!

When we visited Schnorkz... she was struggling to wring herself free!

Significantly bigger now

Schnorkz now plays constantly with Bluhenzi, another black female a few months her senior

July 2009: beautiful posture. Schnorkz in her forever home.