Visitor

Lucy came visiting one of the days. 

She has gotten a lot more stronger, better built, but somehow still manages to "yoga" her way out of the openings in between the gate. So she needed to be leashed unfortunately. I do not think my arms can survive another of her escape; be it carrying her back to the house or walking her. I think she would be walking me... I made a mental note to get a longer leash chain for her next visit. If I can't walk her, it would be humane to at least allow her to stretch her legs in the car porch. 

Came night fall, Lucy had a visitor. 

A new friend. 

The guard dog in our estate. 

I called her Brown Eyes. She has this lovely pair of brown gentle eyes. Why the h*%^ is she a guard dog? 

She had a good time with Lucy that night, running around the estate. Totally high spirits. 

Perhaps that was why she came back the next day. For her friend. 

No Lucy, only me. Well, she did not seem to be too disappointed because she hung around for a while while I tended to the garden. 

Ears pulling back, and tail down. Totally submissive. I think she likes me :)

I opened the gate, and stroked her for a while. That was when I saw her rashes, and her slightly sore eyes. I tried to bring her in for a shower, but no success. 

Went back to the house, took out the can of tuna that I was preparing for my lunch. I scooped some out for myself, and fed her the rest of it. 

She just gave birth to a litter. Having something other than rubbish would be good for her. The next day, we brought back some of the bones and chicken wings from our meals for Brown Eyes. 

I don't think I mind feeding her whenever I am in KL; I would love to feed her. Just an additional bit of rice with some of our food. Just like how mom fed Jackie, and our kampong dogs. They grew well and strong. 

Hubby still fed her whenever she came by after I left for Singapore. It kind of make me feel good to know she could still find food at our door.

Please help Elmo

I love dogs; every single one of them. 

I had been chased by dogs before and I still love them to bits. The minute, you decide to bring them home, they are family. Our family had dogs when we were young, and we had Jackie for about 13 years before she passed on. I sworn to hubby I would not want a dog anymore after Jackie, because watching them go was too painful. But I, too, told him when we are, so lucky, to have our kids, I want them growing up with dogs. I feel kids who grow up with a dog (or any pet for that matter) cultivate a certain empathy, compassion and responsibility that sometimes could be difficult to find in the digital world of iPhone, iPads, Galaxy etc.; glue to and jabbing constantly on their gadgets - life just passes by so electronically without the need for human communication. The reality of life is a lot more closer when you have to clear the poo, shower the dog, clear its ears, caring for it when it is sick, watch it gets older, slows down and passing on. Life teaches its own lessons at a pace that progresses with the child's pace, and some of these lessons, parents perhaps might not be able to communicate it as appropriately as Mother Nature. Personal opinion. 

And the evil side of me secretly hope to see if it is truly possible to have a toddler riding a dog (like Mastiff, German Shepherd or Labrador) and bringing it out for its walk, haha! 

Hence pictures like below are painful to see...

photo courtesy: http://hopedogrescue.blogspot.com/

This is Elmo. I saw his story in Yahoo, and found out he could have not eaten for weeks when he was found weighing a mere 8kg, only about half the weight of a dog of his age should be. 

photo courtesy: http://hopedogrescue.blogspot.com/

Please read about Elmo's story here, and any donation would be helpful towards Elmo's medical bill until he is better. Please email to hopedogrescue@singnet.com.sg for donation details. 

Dog OVERDOSE!

Papa Dom was finally able to bring Lucy home!

In between his busy schedule and moving, arrangement was made to bring Lucy home from Senmeyih. We were going in hubby's car, and coming back WITH Lucy in the same car! Surprisingly, hubby did not put up too much of a fight. Perhaps two against one, there was nothing much he could do? But I would like to think he went along with it because, he knew I would be very happy on that dog trolling day!  

After about 45 minutes, we reached the legendary farm. Surrounding is relatively peaceful, until we stepped out of the car, and mine, the barking raptured! Tara came trotting with her ears pulled all the way back, and tail wagging furiously. Lucy, chained at the backyard, was already barking madly. And from nowhere came the princess Snow White aka Marley. Another two dogs, Jane and Marey, were chained up. Five dogs, whao… this is a great place!

Tara

Marley

Lucy

And next came Kak Elda. She is an impressive lady, with a commanding presence. She houses the dogs as guard dogs and treats them very well.

Woohoo, check out her self made pool!

Among the three dogs, I rubbed Tara the most because she was always near me. She has this German Shepherd-cum-wolf look, but she was so gentle. Tara loves swimming; if she is missing, Kak Elda just need to look over to the pool and she would see Tara doing her laps happily. Papa Dom always suspects Tara is a fish disguised as dog.

Papa Dom trying to get the dogs into the pool

Tara trying to dry herself with a sand bath

After taking a couple of photos, I turned on the LCD screen viewer to check if I had some good shoots, and bohoo! I didn’t set the mode and settings right, and almost all the photos did not turn out well  :(

Big lesson – I must always remember to do a couple of test shoots in similar environment before I start to shoot. So there is only one presentable farm shoot and it was one which I took from the other side of the pool. With hubby posing  :)

Lucy was all over me, and I hope that was because she still remembered me! Lucy is such a destroyer. Papa Dom said she had chewed through her metal chain, can you believe it… Kak Elda told me Marley is the most timid of all dogs though she is a rat-cum-snakes radar, which is extremely useful in the farm.

My precious...

I did not dare to venture too near to Marey and Jane because they have this killer look, although Papa Dom told me they could be otherwise too. I truly love dog, but I am a scaredy cat too...

Kak Elda invited us to be back in about a month’s time. I am looking forward to another dose of dog soon!

 

PS: Dog lovers, please don’t hunt my hubby. I need to clarify hubby does not hate dog; he just doesn't like a dirty wife :)

Lucy aka 十三妹

To tell our story about the farm where we-excluding-hubby had a fabulous fun patting and hugging dogs, I need to share the story of Lucy first.

I first saw Lucy when we were back in Batu Pahat for 2012's Chinese New Year. 

Hubby brought me to a new "Mee Hoon Kuay" food store and he ran into an old friend. After I finished my noodle, I wandered off to buy juice from a nearby coffeeshop. As I started to walk back, I saw this little brown puppy watching me. I squatted and patted its head for a while, and started to walk away. Puppies are always adorable but... dangerous. There are so many puppies on the street, and what do I do when I fall in love with every one of them? I haven't got my farm yet... So walking away is always the best thing to do as long as the puppy is not in immediate danger. She loitered around a coffee shop, she should not starve. Right?  

And the little brown thing just kept following me. When I reached the food store, I went in and asked hubby for some meat from his bowl to feed her. Of course, hubby wasn't too happy to share his food, haha! After the food, I went back to the car to fetch Lucy some water.

I knew I was in trouble. I wanted to bring her home.

This is truly a DNA defect in all humans; when we fall in love with something, we want to bring it home, we want to possess it. We just could not leave it alone, utterly convince it could not continue to be happy without us.  

Being the hubby that I fell in love, still in love with, he of course said no. 

I begged and cried, and begged again.

I know it would be difficult to keep her, but perhaps Batu-Dad might be able to keep her in the place where he stores his renovation material with the rest of the guard dogs? 

No good...there are snakes there, she is too small to handle snakes. 

Wouldn't the rest of the dogs help her if she is in trouble with the snakes? 

No, they won't. 

I left her in the area with water and went off with teary eyes. I kept trying, and finally hubby told me to check with Papa Dom, who had only one condition. The puppy must be named Lucy. Papa Dom can name her Auntie Lucy for all I care, as long as he was willing to have her! As all fairy tales go, the rest is history.

Lucy puppy napping after we bathed her at Batu home before sending her to Papa Dom.

Turned out it was a good thing that Lucy was adopted by Papa Dom. Less than two weeks after we picked her up, she had a bad infection near her front shoulder. The vet said Lucy could have died since she could not reach to lick the wound to keep the flies away.

The wound was so swollen that the pus literally burst out on the way to the vet. Poor hubby took another hit...

And in a way, that turned out to be a blessing for me! I got to keep Lucy for a couple of days in OUR house because Papa Dom was very caught up with work at that time. He didn't know I was hatching evil plans to have him adopt a puppy; it was difficult for him to re arrange work last minute. Lucy needed to be fed with antibiotic on time and the wound needed to be cleaned several times a day. I was the best person to do that since I am technically half a housewife with me working from home :)

I was never so happy being a part time housewife!

Lucy really loves to be on her stomach!

There she goes again!

It was really nice to have Lucy at home. I used to be really uncomfortable with unknown noises at home, especially if it originated from the upper level. I would bring along a small knife when I go up to check; that was how uncomfortable I was. With Lucy around, and if she did not stir from those noise, I know it was just noise and not someone trying to break in. She followed me everywhere, and that kind of kept me feeling a lot more secure :)

She would laze around when I was working at the backyard.

This is a crop of the top photo, but look at her cute snout, her smooth fur, who would mind a repeat :)

Oh! Why does Lucy have an alias?!

Lucy was at a farm as a guard dog for a period of time. In the farm, there are other guard dogs, and Lucy used to fight them a couple of them all the time. Despite the scars and wounds, she continued to fight to try to claim the alpha spot in the pack. She fought so much and has so many scars, so Papa Dom nicknamed her 十三妹 <simple translation: female hooligan>.

See, I told you - puppies are dangerous.

Shoot Life

This is Marley aka Snow White. She was like a runt when Papa Dom found her flea-infested at the gate of his condo. She is all grown up now, and is extremely good at catching rats and snakes. Marley is still gentle and shy just like when she was a puppy. She is such an apple to love.