Sometimes we have to (shave)

Am browsing the SPCA website and I see a silky terrier that does not look like the real mccoy due to its lack of silky hair. They do that sometimes. They shave the dogs or cats when they come in.

I find it funny when they shave the dogs at SPCA. People turn up at the cages and go 'Shih Tzu?' Then they look at the dog and go 'nah'.

It also reminds me of what my secretary Pauline did. She shaved her sister's dog & her 2 year old nephew refused to acknowledge it. He kept asking "Where's Teddy?". She pointed to the newly bald Teddy and said "this is Teddy", but the little boy took a good look and said "No. Not Teddy".

The funniest thing was - she said she decided to shave the silly dog because it had not the sense to run away from the toddler, who took great delight in pulling its hair. It would only lie there and growl softly; and when she tried to remove him from the toddler's grasp it would move itself back again. It loved the attention, despite the pain.

Good things come in pairs

It's not very often that dogs who turn up in SPCA end up being caged with another. But we've had 2 pairs in the last month I've been there.


Bubbles and Baby

These 2 GR boys were adopted not long after I saw them on the 20th of April. Hopefully (and I think they did, see below) they were adopted together and are happy in their new home.


Sherry the Golden Retriever and Yao Yao the Chihuahua

This funny pair attracted lots of attention today at SPCA, with Sherry being so big and Yao Yao so tiny. I heard that the SPCA would prefer both dogs being adopted together, as, in the Pet Counselor's own words, separating them would make them pine for each other, and develop into post-adoption depression.

It's great that the SPCA takes such things into consideration when evaluating the suitability of families wanting to adopt dogs. Of course, adopting a dog is difficult enough, let alone two, and I wish both pairs all the best of luck in their new homes. Because the saddest thing is seeing a dog returned after having been rejected by their new home.

***

I just got back from Vietnam. The Vietnamese really love their small dogs, and I've seen a few hundred Chihuahuas in the one week I was there.

The mystery: where did all the cats go?

After almost 5 days, I finally saw my very first cat in Hanoi - a white long haired cat with blue eyes, tied on a string to the back door in an alley. The next cat I saw was another white long-haired cat tied to the entrance of a guesthouse. Most bizarre. But somebody suggested that it might be some kind of good luck charm.

I then learnt that Vietnamese eat dogs; then actually saw for myself dog meat being sold on the roadside on my way to Halong Bay (there was a Vietnamese sign advertising sale of dog meat, and a dog cage with 3 medium size dogs locked underneath); and heard speculation that the Vietnamese eat stray cats.

Chihuahua as pets made sense now: they ate relatively little, making it an economical choice for most Vietnamese who did not have the means to support a larger dog. Plus, little skinny Chihuahuas would not tempt your neighbour into stealing and killing it for dinner. But I couldn't fathom eating stray cats as most of them would seldom grow substantially larger than a Chihuahua. Stray cats are not totally extinct in Vietnam though. I finally did hear some feral cats running about rooftops at night in Hanoi, and visited 2 shops which kept local cats as pets.

An American volunteer at the animal shelter who I see every fortnight at SPCA made me laugh when she told me this morning that she had previously rejected a posting to Vietnam because she felt that her 2 huge 10kg cats would not be safe in Vietnam and could end up as her (prospective) Vietnamese cleaning lady's dinner one fine day.

Zwei

Cleaning dog poo has a greater fear factor than cat poo, though climbing into rabbit cages might be just as bad (thank goodness I was not on small animal duty last Saturday, there was a whole new wall of rabbits to deal with).

I thought I saw 4 volunteers rostered for dogs duty on Saturday, but only 2 of us turned up. And me, the obvious rookie was naturally adopted by one of the full time SPCA staff to deal with 11 (approx.) dog kennels, while my other brave volunteer counterpart dealt with the 6 back cages alone.

Steps to cleaning the dog kennels:

1. Enter kennel, leash excited dog(s)
   
2. Tie dog away from kennels to facilitate cleaning. Puppies and small dogs are to be kept in the small cages or enclosure.
   
3. Use doggy poo metal scoop to remove dog poo from cage (takes skill. see note 1)
   
4. Move doggy poo to the cesspit SPCA has on its premises (icky. see note 2)
   
5. Splash copious amounts of disinfecting detergent into kennel
   
6. Thoroughly hose the kennel enclosure. At the same time, change the waters in the water bowl.
   
7. Use huge squeegee to push water into the drains. Take cloth to wipe dog crate dry.
   
8. Drag reluctant dog back into kennel again.
   
9. Feed hungry dog.
   
10. Remove empty food bowl; or remove partially empty food bowl after 10 minutes. (tricky. see note 3)
    
11. Wash the food bowls

• Note 1: Smearing doggy poo the wrong way increases the amount of surface area to clean.
  
• Note 2: My guess is a special truck comes to drain the cesspit on a weekly basis. After half an hour, the pit turns into the hottest leisure zones in town for all kinds of pests, especially cockroaches and flies. Highest fear factor of all.
  
• Note 3: Some dogs are food aggressive. I've been warned that some dogs may bite.

My duty involved mainly scooping dog poo, depositing it into the pit; squeegee-ing the water and wiping the crates; feeding the dogs and washing up afterwards.

After cleaning was done I stayed behind to mingle with the dogs, and horrors - Nice dogs play rough too. But lucky me, the largest dog there, a German Shepherd has not turned rough on me yet, though the neutered fellow did have a rather perturbing habit of flashing me his privates whenever I was near. Other than that, he happily stayed still to let me pet him.

However, the yellow lab retriever I previously loved has fallen from grace because he treats me like I am his largest walking chew toy and I have bruises on my arm for it. Since he did not draw blood, I assume the wrestling game was without ill intention. I hope. I don't like being treated as merely a chew object.