Last weekend, I adopted another abandoned animal, but this time from a animal shelter (CAF), not through friends. Her name is Lily, a 10 year old mutt.
I have been helping as a volunteer at CAF for around 3 years. CAF stands for Companion Animal Federation. It's a small local animal charity not as well known as the SPCA. I support this particular one because unlike SPCA who will kill puppies and kittens and not very keen on having mix breed ones in the kennel, CAF will take in puppies and kittens, and they don't just keep the pedigree ones, in fact, half of the abandoned dogs there are mongrels, and I absolutely share this believe that all lives are equal, be it human, animals, adults or babies.
About once a week, I go to the kennel to bath and walk the dogs, just to give them that little bit of TLC. I've seen many sad stories as well as happy ones where the animals are rehomed, of course some not-so-lucky ones just die in the kennel.
Lily came to reside in CAF about 2 years ago, her owner had to move abroad and couldn't (wouldn't) take Lily along with her, that was the beginning of Lily's nightmare. She was already quite an old dog, and overweight too. Within a short period of arriving CAF, she got very depressed and wouldn't leave her cage or do any exercises. Also, she developed a skin problem which caused her skin to produce some sort of grease all over. On the contrary to the other dogs at the kennel who loose weight after being abandoned, Lily just kept ballooning until she couldn't walk. The staff there put her on a strict diet and I would walk her as often as I could. She was very stubborn, once out of the cage, she used to sit on the side of the road, determined not to move, like saying "see what you're gonna do about it". But I just couldn't give in to this big fat sausage, I would pull her, drag her, till she realised I was just as determined as her.
To begin with, I would drag her about 2 streets up the road and then go back, and even so every few steps she would have to have a sit down and catch her breath. Then every day we went a little further, a little further, after a few weeks, we started going out for at least half an hour for each walk. Amazingly, after several months, she seemed to start enjoy her walkies and every time I opened her cage, she would rush to the front gate, eager to go for a walk!
Needless to say, under this regime, she became a nice trimmed dog, and now she doesn't mind how long she goes for her walks and doesn't need to rest at all, she can't get enough of the outside world!
Lily has a very sweet character and she is very clever and takes commands very well. She is one of the dogs who like to keep the cage clean and would only do her business when she's released from her cage twice daily. I've always taken a very special liking to her from the start, and I promised myself that as soon as I got my own place, I would take Lily home with me. 2 years on, I have kept my promise, now that I have my own place.
It's a bit more difficult looking after two dogs, (Lily & Smug) but I look forward to life with these two monsters very much, I know they will enrich my life rather than being a burden.
