Farewell Sweet Talia

Talia had lived a life of abuse and neglect, a fate even worse than that a breeding dog.

However, all that changed when Annie and kids, Hilda and Darren, decided to adopt Talia, knowing that she was 13 years old, blind, at risk of suffering a cardiac arrest any time and given 3 months to live.  http://hopedogrescue.blogspot.sg/2013/10/talia-my-incidental-adoption.html

Talia is featured in HOPE's 2014 calendars. (We still have calendars for sale)

What a big heart this family had – and Talia blossomed in their hands. With a new family to love and spoil her, she started looking younger, happier and her health problems seemed to be under control.

Talia had 9 months of happy family life with Annie and the kids, and their other dog, Spike.

Darren and Hilda with Spike and Talia

A few days ago, Talia started getting picky with food and then eventually stopped eating and drinking. She was 15 years old and the vet diagnosed that 90% of her kidneys had failed.

Annie and family decided to bring Talia home.

Although blind and unable to walk, Talia’s final wish was to smell the grass and feel it under her feet. So today, the family took her to the Botanical Gardens and Hilda carried Talia on the grass to sniff and walk abit. Talia had a pleasant day and as they headed home, she crossed the Rainbow Bridge, feeling extremely contented, loved and happy.

Off to the Botanical Gardens

Talia and her best friend, Hilda

From the bottom of my heart, I thank Annie and family for adopting a blind 13-year-old dog with a host of problems, knowing that she didn’t have much time on earth. You have made Talia a very happy dog. What you have given her in these past few months were more than she has ever experienced in her entire life and for that, I am eternally grateful. Thank you.

Farewell sweet Talia

Talia will have a private cremation tomorrow, attended by HOPE volunteers, family and friends.

Rest in peace, Talia. You will be dearly missed.

William. A Solitary Dog

We were informed of an injured stray dog, William, on 18 Dec 2013. He had a huge gaping wound on the back of his neck, possibly the result of a dog fight. Since then, we had been trying our very best to trap him so that we would be able to give him the medical attention he required. Eventually, we engaged the services of a dog catcher to help us.

Shy towards humans, a lonely figure in the dark

William lives on the premises of a golf course and is very wary of humans. Apparently, he had just walked onto the premises about 3 years ago and has lived there since. There are some other dogs on the premises but William prefers the solitary life. He follows the other dogs, but does not interact with them. The other dogs are quite friendly and approachable, but not William. Even the security guards there, who have been feeding him for the past 3 years, can never get close to him. William would wait for the guards to walk far away after leaving the food, before he would start feasting.

There is also a three-legged cat that lives with the guards in the guard room. When it rains, the kindhearted guard will open the door to his guard room and allow all the dogs to enter. They would even huddle together with the cat, but only when it rains! What an interesting sight! It’s as if they know that they have nowhere else to go in the rain and that they must live in harmony if they were to have shelter from the storm. However, this ‘rule’ has never concerned William, who doesn't even dare enter the guard room. He would rather sleep on the pavement outside, trembling and wet in the heavy storm. No matter how many times the guards try to call him in, he wouldn't even budge. They feel very sorry for him and have tried many ways and means to lure him into the shelter, but he is just too afraid of humans. Poor William.

The night guard feeding the dogs

When William was injured, the workers gave him antibiotics in his food for the first 2 weeks but to no avail. His wound worsened and they had no choice but to ask us for help. Unsurprisingly, we were also unable to get close to William. Every time he walked past us, we would be able to smell the rotting flesh lingering in the air. It's such a devastating sight, and so frustrating to not be able to treat his wound immediately. Time was running out because if the wound gets bigger and deeper, he might get septic shock, which may eventually take his life.

Checking on him during the day

Not easy to go near him

Imagine having maggots feasting on his open, untreated wound for more than a month! He must have been enduring a huge amount of pain from such a huge wound. We decided to engage the services of a professional dog catcher to help us. Even so, it took almost 4 weeks before we finally got him. We were present with the dog catcher, and whenever our schedule was free, we would sit in the dark for hours, waiting for William to walk into the trap. We wanted to ensure that William was caught in a humane method, and not hurt further in the process.

Finally caught after 6 weeks

His wound is so deep it's like a crater

Imagine his pain

Fortunately, we got him in time to save him. At the vet’s, over hundreds of maggots were removed from his rotting wound over the next few days. The vet informed us that his wound must have festering for at least 6 weeks. He will be warded there for at least 2-3 weeks for the wound to heal completely, before being returned to his home. We are unable to release him any sooner as the workers would not be able to get close to him to clean his wound. Although we have not much choice but to spend the extra money for William to stay at the vet, at least we're assured that he will get plenty of medical attention there and is in a conducive environment for his wound to recover. He has also been tested positive for Heartworm and Tick Fever.

William is sweet but has fear aggression

Poor William hopes to return to his comfort zone soon. To contribute to his vet bills, please email hopedogrescue@singnet.com.sg.

Written by June Oh

Updates on Little Aziz (2)

Little Aziz's stomach wound was stitched up today at Animal Recovery Centre - 14 stitches in all. 

Earlier we mentioned we were not sure how that wound occurred. During the first emergency vet visit, we asked the vet why her wound was not bloody and there were no blood stains on her. The vet said she could not give an answer. 

Yesterday, we learnt that the wound was, in fact, a few days old. The vet at ARC told us the cells around the wound were already dying, indicating that it was not a new injury. The first vet had not mentioned it was not a fresh wound.

Poor Little Aziz

After surgery, her stomach has 14 stitches

This poor little puppy has gone through even more than we realised. It seems her stomach was sliced open a few days ago and the poor little girl had licked her wound and cleaned herself up - which explains why the wound area was so clean and without blood stains. 

Then, she may have hidden under the forklift in pain and fear, only to get rolled over - breaking her right hind leg and pelvis. 

We’re not sure what other damages there are. For now, we see the stomach wound, broken pelvis and broken right hind leg.

To help with vet bills, please email hopedogrescue@singnet.com.sg

Baby Harper's Sibling - Little Aziz

It was like déjà vu. Mr Aziz, who rescued Harper, contacted us today to tell us that another puppy, just three months old, had been tragically injured at Jurong Island.

Mr Aziz arriving at the Vet with Little Aziz in the box

Paint stains from the work site

The little puppy – one of Harper’s siblings from a new litter – was hiding under the chassis of a forklift and when the workers started the engine and drove off, the forklift rolled over the little pup.

The accident occurred at about 11am today, and some workers heard the puppy – we named her Little Aziz – crying in pain. They moved her to a safer spot, and informed Mr Aziz as they know he is a kind man who always helps dogs.

Mr Aziz, such a kind man

Taking Little Aziz out for the vet to examine

Poor Little Aziz had to endure the pain the whole day until about 8pm, when Mr Aziz finished work and could bring her to the vet.

There, our volunteers were shocked by the extent of her injuries even though we had already heard about what happened.

When Mr Aziz took Little Aziz out of the box, she was crying and trembling in pain. Our volunteers thought it was just a broken leg, but when the vet flipped her legs open to check for bruises and abrasions, everyone present saw a long sliced wound on her stomach.

Nothing prepared us for this. Everyone present broke down when they saw her wound

Mr Aziz and Lisa assuring Little Aziz

Poor little puppy, barely 3 months old

It was about 5cm long, right up to her private parts. Our volunteers and Mr Aziz started crying. The pain this little pup must have endured the entire day must have been unimaginable. How horrible for this tiny, innocent puppy.  What did she do to deserve this?

Fractures in her right hind leg and her pelvis seems to have been pushed in (arrow)

The vet reckons that Little Aziz will need to have her vulva reconstructed. She also suffered multiple fractures in her right hind leg, and her pelvis seems to have shifted, although the vet could not do a proper x-ray as she was in too much pain.

The x-ray we took tonight, however, showed that Little Aziz’s spine and back are okay. We will do another x-ray a few days later.

Right hind leg is visibly swollen

Blood tests showed that Little Aziz’s white blood cell count was so high that the machine could not even read it. Her red blood cell count was so low that she may need a blood transfusion. She may also need a plasma transfusion.

Little Aziz was very dirty with grime and paint stains, so the vet had to shave off the paint on her fur and then give her a quick shower as they were concerned the dirt would increase her risk of infection.

The vet suspects that Little Aziz, who was flea-infested when she arrived, was probably sick before the accident as the accident alone probably could not have caused the high white blood cell count and low red blood cell count.  It could be tick fever so the vet has drawn blood to test for it. We tested for parvovirus and distemper – both negative results, thankfully.

Lisa giving Little Aziz some Reiki energy

There is a chance we may lose Little Aziz tonight. She is very young, and septic shock may kick in. Her organs may fail. We need to be prepared for the eventuality.

But if Little Aziz pulls through, she will have a very very long road to recovery. She’ll need surgery to put steel plates in her broken leg – and as she grows, she’ll need more surgeries with each operation carrying risk of infection.  We may have to reconstruct her entire vulva.

We are so pained and so sad to keep hearing of such cases of dogs injured at worksites. We would love to sterilise the dogs at Jurong Island so that there will be less dogs on the island – and less suffering.

We have approached the authorities a number of times, but they keep insisting that dogs that leave the island to be sterilised will not be allowed back in. We had two vets willing to go to Jurong Island to do sterilisation but we could not get approval to go in.

Bandage to cover up her stomach wound. Do you think she looks like baby Harper?

Help us to help the Jurong Island dogs. Write to the authorities in charge (AVA), and ask them to allow us to sterilise the dogs there. Hopefully with enough voices, we can see some changes to the rules. 

What do you think the paint mark on her back resembles?

In the meanwhile, please keep Little Aziz in your prayers. To donate to Little Aziz, email hopedogrescue@singnet.com.sg.

Mammi Cat In Danger

Recently, we received an urgent call from Sharma, caregiver of Babu, a stray dog that we helped last year. Sharma alerted us to the plight of an injured cat who had just recently given birth to a litter of kittens. Knowing how precarious the situation could be from our previous rescues, we immediately sent volunteers down to check and find out what could be done. 

The injured cat, named Mammi, and her kittens lived on a construction site. They had to endure unsanitary and harsh living conditions, such as attacks from other cats. Mammi had given birth to 3 kittens but sadly, one kitten passed away, Thankfully we managed to rescue the other two kittens in time and they have been successfully adopted together.

Mammi's two kittens have been adopted

Due to the gentle and docile nature of Mammi, she was often bullied by other cats in the vicinity. Recently a tomcat attacked her kittens and Mammi, in an attempt to protect them, injured her left leg that subsequently became badly infected. 

On the way to the Vet

Poor Mammi's leg was badly infected

We brought her to the vet for treatment and she is currently recovering from her wound. However the fosterer is unable to keep her for much longer so we need to find her a new home. The vet estimated her to be no more than 2 years old, and she has been vaccinated and sterilised. She is easy to care for and remains docile during the cleaning of her wound, offering little or no resistance. She is extremely sweet and lovable, enjoys the company of humans, and loves being patted. She is also litter box trained. 

Sweet Mammi cat, friendly and docile

Isn't she a beauty?

Mammi's wound is drying up and healing well

Irresistibly cute!

Mammi desperately needs a home to finally call her own just like her two kittens. If you can give Mammi a home, please email hopedogrescue@singnet.com.sg 

Cotton – The Fabric Of Our Lives

It was in mid-August 2013, when my only sister left for Norway on scholarship did my mum and I start to seriously contemplate the adoption of a dog, as a companion for our family.  We browsed through the pets’ adoption board on PetsChannel, but none of them truly caught our eyes, until we chanced upon Cotton, a 2 year old, once-abandoned Female Maltese. We realized after reading her write-up that she suffers from seizures lasting more than three minutes each time, and her potential adopter could not leave her alone for more than 4 hours. After thorough discussion, my mum, a full-time homemaker, decided that we could give it a try at adopting her, since we met her requirements, and she seemed, from the information provided, the dog for us, ailments and all.

This was Cotton when she was found

And thus, through email exchanges with Elaine, a volunteer with Hope Dog Rescue, a visit with Cotton at our home was arranged. The visit was inspirational and informative, as volunteers Fiona, Val and Nancy shared their experiences with their dogs with us. We were extremely impressed with how much their dedication for the dogs shone through, in such a short two-hour time span. Cotton was such an angel throughout the visit, allowing our inexperienced selves to carry her without a single struggle. It could be said perhaps, at that moment, we fell in love with her.

 After the visit, we received an email that we would foster Cotton for a 2-week period, to see if we are able to handle her and her seizures since we were first time dog owners. The 2-week period subsequently became a 4-week fostering period due to Cotton’s spaying. On the 4th week, 30 November (incidentally my mum’s birthday), we received an email that the adoption was confirmed! We were ecstatic and it was a wonderful birthday present to my mother.

It is difficult to comprehend how a fellow human being could throw away such a lovable, living, breathing creature as though she had meant nothing to them at all. With those shiny black mesmerizing eyes, that vivacious personality, and her insane love to please others, she can be said to be the perfect dog.

She never chose to be sick, she never chose to have seizures, and she takes her medicine without a fuss. She follows my mum and me everywhere, she seldom barks, and she allows us to carry her around whenever and wherever. If anyone were to ask if we would ever regret adopting Cotton, as down the road there is bound to be hefty medical bills, our answer would be a resounding no. Just as one with conscience would not abandon a loved one to sickness, we would never regret our decision, as she is now a part of our family.

Jamie and Cotton

I have never felt such unadulterated bliss as I have felt with Cotton, and her greetings when we return home are to die for. At this point, I would like to say a big thank you to the lady who noticed Cotton roaming about in Ang Mo Kio, to Hope Dog Rescue for taking Cotton’s case in, and for her past 4 big-hearted fosterers who took such great care of her.

Thank you so much, for giving my family a chance to love Cotton.

Written by Cotton's new owner, Jamie Tan, 19 yrs old.

HOPE Dog Rescue would like to thank Jamie and family for being the best mommy that dear Cotton has ever had.