Oscar, a 9-month-old stray puppy, was spotted wandering
around alone and seeking shelter in a quiet neighbourhood. Sharon, who lived in
the same neighbourhood, had heard about this stray puppy wandering around the
estate and notified us about this homeless puppy.
This stray puppy is believed to have been living within
the Bukit Timah forested area before he decided to make this French household
his home.
This family usually leave their main gate open and one day,
this stray puppy, whom they named Oscar, wandered into their home during a
heavy storm, hiding under their car to seek shelter from the rain. They didn’t
chase him away so Oscar continued to come into the home as and when he pleased.
Eventually he moved into the house and they let him be.
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| Oscar hiding under the table at the French home |
For 2 months, the family has been kindly feeding him and
he has become family to them. Oscar also became good friends with the family
dog, a senior golden retriever. Although he has been living together with them
for a while now and is comfortable playing with the family dog, he is still
extremely wary of human beings. He still shies from the family and refuses to
be touched by them. It took them an hour to corner him when they wanted to put
a collar on him!
After 2 months without much progress with the dog, they
asked their neighbour Sharon for advise, who in turn asked us.
To understand their situation better, volunteers from
Hope went to visit Oscar and the family. He is young and extremely playful. He
roams around the house freely and even takes walks outside the home on his own
before returning again. He also enjoys playing in the garden and digging holes
under the tree. He goes in and out of the house via a hole he dug under the
fence. Such is the intelligence of a stray!
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| The hole that Oscar dug |
The family told us that Oscar could stay till they left
Singapore in a few weeks’ time to return to France but it was not possible to
bring Oscar along as “he is not our family” and hence, they will need to find
him a home before they leave town.
It was agreed on that we would help them catch Oscar,
send him to the vet for a full medical check-up, vaccinate and microchip him,
as well as have him sterilized then return him to the family while they looked
for a family to adopt him permanently. The entire vet bill was to be paid for by
Hope Dog Rescue.
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| This is Oscar in the garden |
We kept our side of the agreement but unfortunately, the
family didn’t.
As soon as we took Oscar to the vet, the family called
and said they no longer wanted Oscar back in their home and if we did return
him, they would call AVA to take him away. Their reason was that Oscar had caused their senior Golden Retriever to have a maggot wound. How on earth did that happen, we don't exactly know. Oscar was clean, there were no flies swarming around him and for a wound to have maggots, it would mean that the dog had an original wound and that it had probably been neglected.
We offered to bathe Oscar so he would be clean. We even advised the family to separate the dogs, to keep Oscar in the garden and their dog inside the house but they said it was not possible. Oscar just had to go.
We were shocked and at a loss! Where would we put him? We
paid for him to stay at the vet an extra day, hopefully to buy time and have
them change their minds about calling the authorities on him but they were
adamant about it and we had nowhere for Oscar to go, so we dropped him off back
outside their home and watched Oscar crawl in from under the fence where he had
dug a hole. The family was extremely angry that we had put Oscar back
without their approval, but we didn’t. Oscar had gone in on his own! Besides,
wasn’t Oscar from their home to start with?
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| Oscar needs you to save his life before the authorities come for him on Wednesday |
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| Oscar's escape route |
They have now told Sharon that Oscar has 3 days to be out
before they call the authorities on him. This means by Wednesday, 26 February
2014, Oscar needs to find a home or else he will be taken away by the
authorities. Time is of the essence.
Sadly, we can’t take Oscar as we already have 19 dogs and
they have yet to be rehomed. We won’t be accepting boarding sponsors either
because sometimes these dogs take years to be rehomed and we definitely can’t
afford to maintain him for that long.
And so Oscar has a deadline on his head. If you can adopt
him right away, please call Sharon at 96513565.
Written By Lim Yunlu
