Life as Fosters

It all started three months ago when volunteers of Hope Dog Rescue found five mongrel puppies near a construction site. It was late evening and the puppies needed a foster home before the volunteers could figure out what to do with them. Our friend, Lisa, gave us a call and asked if we could foster the puppies for the night and we agreed.

Weren't they the prettiest things on earth! Each barely bigger than an adult's palm, they were very sleepy when they reached Kuan's place. We fed them a little finely meshed canned dog food mixed with water and they gobbled it up, apparently famished and parched. The volunteers took some photos and the puppies soon went to sleep.

They next day the puppies were allocated to other foster homes while waiting for adoption. The deadline for adoption agreed among the volunteers was mid August: if the puppies didn't get adopted by then they will be sent to SPAC (a.k.a. the chamber of no return — purely my opinion as I once sent an injured kitten to them and it was never to be heard of again despite my several attempts at trying to locate the kitten — but that's another story).

Pretty soon the puppies all found new homes except one, Momo.



MOMO

Lisa wanted to give Momo another chance at life so she asked us again if we could foster her while she tried to find a suitable home for Momo. We took Momo in and what a joy she was! Naughty and playful but very intelligent.

I was playing with Momo one evening and left her on a piano bench (warning: never place puppies on an unsecured surface taller then their height) while I turn around to take my camera phone, she got anxious and slipped from the bench and hit her bottom on the concrete ground. Immediately she stiffened up and made a long and painful whining sound. I tried to sooth her by stroking her but I soon noticed her belly had swollen up to twice its original size and she was breathing very hard.

I called Lisa and she suggested I bring Momo to her vet, which we did. On the way to the vet, Momo lied quietly in a cardboard box while Kuan gently stroked her and asked her to be strong. All these happened within a span of 5 - 10 minutes and we were all in panic mode 99999.

Momo was put into an oxygen case once she's at the vet's and after examining her, the vet told us it didn't look good as her gums and tongue were turning pale. No bones were fractured or broken but there might be internal hemorrhaging, according to the vet. However, two needle pricks on the belly didn't see blood gushing out so it might not be internal bleeding. At this point we were all confused as to what was wrong with her but all agreed that she should be put on a drip.

A decision has to be made: to let her suffer through the night and see how she's doing the next day or take away her pain right there and then.

I felt most miserable for putting her on the bench and all of us was overcome by great sadness and the fact that she's fated from the beginning to have such a short life. By eleven that night Momo started to drool and the vet said it's really not a good sign. We all cried and left the clinic and her fate to Lisa, who so badly wanted her to have a full and happy life.

At around midnight Lisa called – Momo had puked, peed and pooped shortly after we left the clinic. Things might be looking up for her after all but she has to be able to last through the night.

I took leave from work the next day as I could hardly think of anything else but Momo. By the time the clinic opened at 1pm she's as good as new! She was running around the clinic and really happy to see me and Lisa. She eventually got tired and her breath was still short and erratic so we decided to leave her at the clinic one more night for good measures.

Momo was discharged afterwards and went on to another foster home, where she roamed and ruled the household like a crazy girl and I'm just glad I didn't become a puppy killer.

A week or two passed and Momo was still not adopted. Her energy and behavior was getting out of control — she growled when people tried to hug her and ran all over the place as soon as you put her down. She'd also make a lot of noise when she's waiting for her food or when she's being left alone in the kitchen.

We knew Momo was a clever puppy and she could be taught to behave properly so we asked to foster Momo one more time, partly to redeem myself. Momo stayed with us for two weeks and she'd soon learn to keep quiet and sit perfectly still with a simple palm down gesture or the command "stay". She also learnt to fetch, with the help of dog treats and Cesar Salad (Casar Millan's Asian counterpart, a.k.a Kuan).

Momo was indeed a very lucky, strong, smart and pretty girl. Throughout the rescue from the construction site, the overdue death row at SPCA, the near death experience and the many foster home stays, she's been given a lot of love and affection. One notable mention would be a lady called Fern, who doted on Momo and albeit only managed to foster her for a mere 48 hours before the security guards went knocking on Fern's door due to complaints of barking, she showered Momo with toys and food and paid for her vaccination.

Momo was successfully adopted in September. We thank you for being part of our lives and we'll always remember and love you.



JOEY

Momo's elder sibling, Nooka, was renamed Joey by her adopted family. She was returned as her adopted family could no longer control her and she's bitten one of the family members. Since we've had very good experience with Momo, we thought we were able to help.

And it turned out we were wrong.

Joey first went to Kuan's house. Her loving licks, wagging tail and craving to be hugged and stroked was decidedly different from the description by the adopted family and the volunteers who's visited her before deciding she should be re-homed. One of the volunteers, Jo, said she's an angel.

A dark angel, perhaps.

After settling in at Kuan's kitchen, she'd growl and bark once you enter the kitchen, as you were invading into her territory. She'd hide under a small table and if you try to reach her, she'd growl even more or snap at your fingers. After much coaxing with treats and open palm, she'd slowly come out and play with you. But once you left her in the kitchen and went about doing your stuff away from her, she'd display the same unfriendly behavior if you enter the kitchen and everything had to start over.

Kuan managed to play fetch with her a little but from my observation she was not enthusiastic about it. She wouldn't dash for the item being thrown and would only slowly retrieved it and brought it back, because there were treats.

And from the way she behaved, she's apparently not been walked during her stay with her adopted family — she didn't know how to walk properly and she'd go left or right as she pleased and she would always resist you by either dragging you along or pulling away from you. And when she wanted to stop, it's not because she wanted to sniff at the grass, pee or poop but simply didn't want to walk. We thought it might take time but she wouldn't even give that to herself.

She bit Kuan the next day and gave Kuan's finger two puncture wounds when Kuan tried to pull a rag from her. Not serious enough for stitches but Kuan's faith in her was gone. She was transferred to my house that night.

A few volunteers, including Fiona, Jo and Patrick came to see her. She was all loving and happy to see Jo, again displaying a very different personality from what we see at Kuan's house. Patrick thought her aggression was rather normal for a puppy and showed me a few ways to subdue her if she becomes too rough during play. One of it was to grab her by the lower jaw. Patrick explained that lower jaw was where a dog used for snapping and the force came from there instead of the upper jaw.

The next day when I played with her I managed to do the jaw grab as advised by Patrick when she turned snappy. She would soon whine after you grabbed her jaw and calmed down quite a fair bit. She made a few barks when she's caged but if she didn't see you after a while she would stop barking. Manageable, I thought.

Wrong, again.

The next morning I went into her cage and placed her food bowl near the entrance. It was a stupid move on my part as one side of her cage faced the wall and the other two were bounded by book shelves. That left me with only one entry and exit point, currently blocked by her food bowl. Of course I was aware that people were bitten to death by attempting to take food away from hungry dogs. But she's just a puppy right?

Wrong, wrong, wrong.

As I moved her bowl a little, she made a very nasty growl and tried to snap at me. I took her lower jaw but this time her force was totally different — it's a fierce and brute force, the kind which would determine if she live or die in a dog fight. As I tried to pin her down while holding her jaw, the growl grew louder instead of turning into a whine, and her teeth were all totally bared because the skin around the mouth has all been pulled up. And the scariest bit was, her eyes turned white. Yes the irises were gone, only left with the whites of the eyes. If you've seen enough exorcism movies, you'd know what I'm talking about.

I let go at once and everything stopped for a few seconds. Her eyes went back to normal, she sat there not eating her food but looking at me. She didn't charged at me. But what I've seen and felt was enough. I could no longer have her in my house.

I texted Lisa and she immediately arranged for another foster to take her away. Maggie, an English lady who'd once fostered Joey when she was still Nooka, came with her maid and picked Joey up in the afternoon. Same loving behavior and a face you couldn't help but to hug and kiss. I warned Maggie about Joey's split personality and she nodded with acknowledgment.

A few days later Lisa was sent a text from Maggie asking Joey to be transferred — she had two unprovoked attacks from Joey which left her with torn clothes and pants. I had a sliced wound on the finger but that wasn't what hurt me. What hurt me was the fact that you don't know what Joey's gone through when she was adopted. Or was it natural born weak nerves which made her a fear biter? That we'll never know.

As of today Joey is with another foster. Let's hope SPCA will not be her final stop.



NINJA!

Ninja came to us in a rather funny (or sad) situation.

Lisa was doing her rounds at one of the animal shelters when she was approached by a middle-aged man asking her if she wanted a dog. She asked in her most unfriendly tone of voice why would he want to give up his dog.

"The way he pees", that's the answer.

Ninja, as described by the person who didn't like the way he peed, is a two year-old male whippet.

We didn't know what a whippet was at all. It sounded like a fish of some sort.

Anyway Google showed us what to expect but it was still unexpected when he arrived — skinny to the point of scrawny and very, very timid. He didn't want to come out of the van at all so I had to lift him into my arms. And boy did he smell bad. And sticky! A light rub on his oily coat left grime on my fingers.

His ears were constantly tucked to the back of his head and the tail was deep between the hind legs. It took us about a week before we could touch his head without him prancing away. Yes prancing because he pranced like a horse and walked like a beautiful show pony. His gait was remarkably elegant.

Ninja is an apt name because Ninja is very stealthy. When Kuan feeds Ninja and Noody (oh I must have forgotten to mention that we have a seven year-old male Golden Lab!) Kuan would feed Ninja first then Noody. Ninja would eat his own food and when Kuan pours Noody his food, Ninja would steal one or two bits from Noody's bowl and return to his own!

And stealthy because for the first week I've only seen Ninja's peeing in action once! He'd half squat and the pee squirts far away instead of streaming like Noody's. I guess the previous owner didn't like it because the way Ninja peed he would have always had pee squirted outside his cage.

Ninja is un-paper-trained — Kuan would try and try to place newspaper at different spots where Ninja has previously peed or pooped but he'd avoid all the newspaper and did his business on the floor! I think if we cover the entire kitchen floor with newspaper we would have successfully paper-train him.

Ninja has never taken a walk we think. It took a few attempts and only with Noody as a guide in front of him before we managed to get him to walk outside. And he'd pee and poop in the kitchen after he got home! We've only manged to get him to pee outside twice for the past one and a half weeks.

Ninja is quite a hot cake when it comes to adoption. The response has been very good and we learned from several potential adopters that Ninja is actually not a whippet but an Italian Greyhound! Ouuu la la we can almost see his market value going up the charts! There's a breeder (not the commercial kind but just breeding for friends, or so he told us) who really liked Ninja for his coat and gait and thought it'd be such a pity if Ninja is neutered. I think no matter how precious or beautiful the offsprings may be breeding will unavoidably increase the chances of more dogs being abandoned, which was what happened to Ninja in the first place, albeit being a pure bred.

We brought Ninja and Noody to the beach last Sunday and Ninja's nose got sunburnt! Very cute with the nose turning red the day after and turning pink then back to normal. But placing him under direct sunlight is rather dangerous as he will dehydrate pretty fast with the very little amount of water that he drinks. So we were under the shades most of the time.

Our two weeks of fostering Ninja has almost come to an end and we will surely miss him when he's gone to a happy home.

It's been fun, sad, happy, crazy and calm all mixed up for the past three months as fosters. Kuan has really done a tremendous amount of work in guiding and loving those little puppies as they are at his place most of the time. But most importantly, it's been rewarding for both of us.

Overheard on Scenic Bus Ride to Work

"Ei, 你有空的时候来我家la, 我给你try我的dealer给我的指甲油, 是血尿的。你看, 几美!"

Never Argue with a Taxi Driver

Me: "Fullerton Hotel please."

Idiot: "Fullerton ah? Maybe got traffic jam lei." (referring to National Parade rehearsal)

Me: "Oh, can you try Kallang Bahru, then Lavender Street , then Beach Road..."

Idiot: "Beach Road maybe got jam also! Bandemmer, CTE maybe got jam also!"

Me: "..."

K: "OK just follow whichever way you prefer."

Me: "Can you let us know what route will you be taking?"

Idiot: "I know my way one! I know my way one!"

Me: "Can you just tell us which route you intend to take if you know your way?"

Idiot: "I know my way la!"

"..."

So I was then looking at my phone. (mistake)

Idiot: "Your GPS not accurate one, I also got GPS what!"

Me: "I'm not checking my GPS you idiot can you just shut up and get us there?!" (mistake)

Idiot stopped the car and said he didn't know how to get to Fullerton and asked us to get out of the cab!

I scanned for the driver's ID which is supposed to be displayed on the windshield but not able to find it and we got off the car.

I slammed the door. (mistake)

Idiot got down of the car.

Idiot: "You slam my door ah? I check my door if damage you have to pay!"

Door in one piece.

I proceeded to try and take a photo of the number plate. (mistake, could've just memorised it)

Idiot: " You take my photo ah? I also can take you photo!"

Idiot took out his phone and snapped my pix.

Then left us with a loud honk.

We managed to get another cab soon after.

Got on and no questions asked and got us to Fullerton in 10 minutes.

NO TRAFFIC JAM.

I'm so complaining this to the I wanna complain department (which I did, but that's another story).

Shih Chung Branch School: Be Strong!

1 June 2011

I emailed Penang Heritage Trust (PHT) hoping to find out more about the fate of Shih Chung building. I got a reply one day later.

According to Sheau Fung from PHT, this building has been sold again to yet another new buyer but they are not able to obtain any information on the latest development plans.

The building is now listed as one of the heritage buildings in the Special Area Plan by MPPP Heritage Department.

I really hope conservation work will happen soon as Penang is heating up from the UNESCO Heritage Site frenzy.

Hang in there!

Some latest photos (dated 11 Aug 2010) can be found at iGeorgetown Penang.

From Vietnam with Love

A gift, a gesture, an imprint of love in red. Thank you.

Toys: Tomy Starcades Shootin' Gallery

Wind up at the base and switch on at the side. No battery required. Love the tiny bottles and cans and the simplicity of the game. 1983.