Warning: Long post ahead! I seem to have a knack of finding ways to keep myself extremely busy. Here’s what has been keeping away from the blog the last couple of days...
I first heard a little pup cry for the first time last Friday. At first I thought one of my neighbor’s must’ve gotten a new puppy so I didn’t think much of it & then the weekend rolled in with the string of bazaars & I forgot all about the pup.
However, on Sunday after coming home from my last bazaar for the week at KLPac, I heard the cry again. This time the cry was incessant, at a very high, desperate pitch & being a sucker for animals, I decided to find out where the cry was coming from. So at around 6 in the evening, I took a walk around my condo & identified that the cry was coming from the jungle behind my condo, right up a steep embankment & behind the property fencing. I know there’s a pack of stray dogs that call the jungle home so I figured the pup was probably left alone by its mum to go scavenging for food.
After awhile, the cries subsided so I left some food at the foot of the embankment for the mother & her pack & hoped for the best. The fiancé & I went out for dinner with his family but I still had a nagging feeling that something was not quite right so I posted a tweet about it hoping that someone might know what to do. When we reached home, I didn’t hear the puppy crying again so I went to sleep with a happy heart thinking the pup was safe with its mother. Turns out while I was fast asleep, exhausted from my back-to-back bazaars, the pup started crying again, keeping some of my neighbors up.
I woke up with a start at 10 in the morning to the sound of the pup crying. Without really thinking it through, I grabbed some kibble, put on my hiking shoes, some mosquito repellant & hiked up the embankment, following the cries. Lo & behold, I found a wee little brown pup with a droopy face & large sad blue eyes right behind the property fencing! He wriggled excitedly & gobbled up the kibble I offered while making these adorable grunting sounds & nuzzling my hand every now & then as if to make sure I was still there. By then, my heart was a puddle of goo. Here are two (rather awful) videos I took while trying to balance on a precariously situated ledge of the embankment.
After taking the videos above, I was torn up on what to do with this pup. He looked quite well taken care of, clean & plump, albeit scared & lonely. I hated the thought of taking the puppy away from its mother but if I left it there & if it survived (this is the jungle mind you), it’ll grow up to be a stray like the rest of the pack. But if I do take it, I personally can not care for it with two dogs & a cat of my own. 3 dogs together in an apartment would be madness. What to do, what to do?
While holding on for dear life on the embankment, I first called my vet, Dr. Jonathan of Ara Animal Center & then Edea, a fellow animal lover & friend. Both speculated that the pup could possibly be abandoned as it’s all alone & it’s weird that the mother would leave it for such long extended hours. Dr Jonathan especially impressed on me that it’d be shame that the pup should grow up to be a stray if left there. After a bit of thought while watching the pup fall asleep, I decided to leave it there for the time being while I figured out what to do.
And so I scooted down the embankment & started tweeting like crazy about the pup, hoping to garner some interest. Before long, word about the pup had spread thanks to all the awesome animal lovers who follow me. It gave me heart that a good, loving home could be found with such an outpouring of support. Around the same time, I heard it start crying again, pulling on my heartstrings. So once again, I hiked up the embankment. This time, I brought my backpack with me & after wriggling the tiny pup through the fencing, I gave him his first cuddle & kiss then gently placed him in my backpack so that I’d have my hands free to climb down the embankment. The pup didn’t even make a sound & once I reached the bottom, I found him sleeping soundly with his little butt in the plastic bowl I had brought with me for his food! After taking a minute to gush over his cuteness, I took him to Dr Jonathan the vet.
Happily, Dr Jonathan gave the pup a clean bill of health. As he’s too small for a vaccination, he was given a dose of deworming medicine, then I took him home, fed him some puppy formula, cuddled him some more (couldn’t stop cuddling him actually) & he fell asleep in my arms. Sigh, as if my heart wasn’t already a puddle of goo! By this time I settled on a name for him too; Mowgli after the boy in The Jungle Book. Thought it was a perfect name for a jungle pup.
The rest of the day & night was spent keeping the pup comfortable & well fed while tweeting & frantically looking for a home for him. Little did I know that my tweets were being read & spread across Twitter & Facebook, and thanks to all the kind souls who took interest, Mowgli had a home by the following day. Here’s Peng (the lovely lady on the right) with her sister & adorable neighbor who’s holding Mowgli.
Happily, Peng lives in my neighborhood & has a comfortable home with a large compound & 2 sweet-tempered dogs of her own so Mowgli will never be lonely. I’ve also been made God Mum to Mowgli & given the privilege to visit him anytime. After dropping off the last of Mowgli’s things, I had a good cry & moped around. I really didn’t know I would be so attached to the little guy. Even now when I type this, I feel like tearing up till I remember that Mowgli is just around the corner being cuddled, cared for & loved. What more could I ask? Thank you Peng for opening up your heart & home to a little jungle pup.
P/S: A big THANK YOU to everyone who retweeted & made Facebook posts about Mowgli & also to Ilani of Tongue In Chic who told Peng about Mowgli in the first place. It makes me so happy to know that there are folks out there who care.
Clouds from up above
Man-made 2-storeys high rainbow with Michael Jones McKean’s machine