A Small Contribution to Causes

Just last Thursday, we finally delivered our donations to CAS (Causes for Animals - Singapore). It had been delayed for a week due to the heavy rain that always happens in the afternoon. This contribution was in line with SMU PAW's Howl-o-ween Photo Contest. The contest had an overwhelming response, and thus we donated the pledged amount of $250 worth of merchandises. A total of 8 cartons of cat food were donated.

Off we drove in the heavy rain towards Seletar Farmway. We had never visited that part of Singapore even though we are about a 20 minutes drive away. Many turns we made before arriving at the shelter, thanks to our unintelligent GPS.

We met up with the volunteers of CAS and were about to leave when they graciously offered us into the shelter to give us a short tour. We were introduced to the dogs there, and they welcomed us with lots of licks. Each kennel was surprisingly clean. Travis was practically in awe with the cleanliness. So in awe was he that he totally forgot to take pictures of the shelter *slap*. The volunteers really did a good job maintaining the area.

What does CAS do?

Basically, they receive either food or monetary donations from public, and distributes them to the various shelters in Singapore. Some of their beneficiaries include Oasis 2nd Chance Animal Shelter, Gentle Paws and Exclusively Mongrels. For kind donors who do not know which shelter should they help out with, they can approach CAS. All donations will then be divided equally among the various shelters.



If you are keen on donating food to CAS, you can always approach us at PawMart . We already have a donation system in place for Oasis Shelter and Mdm Wong Shelter. You can read more about CAS at https://www.facebook.com/causesforanimalsSG

We liked the CAS mission statement, " Helping the Helpless, Loving the Unloved." Strays depend much on human feeding or at their best, forage for food in our trash. They are not like wild monkeys or wild boars that have the innate ability to feed off nature. They are gradually endangered by us due to the growing developments in our small city state. Recently we heard a case of an injured stray mongrel, Piglet (click to know more about her). One of her hind legs had to be amputated due to a road accident. Luckily for her, she was rescued and brought the vet in time. We heard from the rescuers that she's doing better now, currently still staying at the vet's clinic.

I'm not trying to be preachy here, but I really like and believe this verse in the Bible, quote

Genesis 1:26 - Then God said, 'Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.'

Though we can't save them all, let us try our best and make a difference for them, one at a time.


Signing off,
The Team
PawMart

Baby Steps, Once Again..

*Bop* ..... *Bop*..... *Bop*......

I was still at my desk finishing up some paperwork when I heard a thumping in the living room. Popped my head slowly out of the room, hoping that its not some paranormal activity that's going on. 

To my surprise, Mdm Bear was standing on her two hind legs, trying to move from one end of the living room to another. 

Her front legs were struggling to straighten up, and for more support, she used her snout to balance her whole body. I let her do what she wanted for awhile until it was real painful to watch how hard she was trying. She was fighting so hard for herself. All she wanted was to stand up. She ain't giving up yet.

My heart was squeezing me from the inside. I had to do something for her, right now! The muzzle was put on for her and I scooped her up in my arms. "Maybe some grass would do her good", I thought. Kelly was awoken when I was scrambling to wear some pants. Off we went to the grass patch downstairs, 3 A.M in the morning. 

Strangely, Mdm Bear didn't even growl when I lifted her up. She could certainly sense what was going on, wagging her tail slightly while in the lift. 

Onto the grass she went. No hesitation at all on what had to be done. She balanced herself steadily, as if trying to remember what it was like to walk again. Then, a miracle happened.

Kelly managed to capture some of the magical moments. 

With the grass and soil aiding her, she had more grip to lift her body up. She still tumbled around though. After each try she would lay down on the grass, panting with enthusiasm. A total of 10 times she tried, each lasting merely seconds. She must have missed laying down on grass patches, after so many weeks on a mattress to recover.

That first 30 secs of her walking had sparked hopes in us again. We shared the good news with the rescuers at around 4 A.M. Replies came instantly. Don't these people ever sleep? Now we want you guys to have the good news too. 

Thank you all who had been concerned with a dog like Mdm Bear. I believed your well wishes and prayers have reached her.

I guess all of it are coming true, little by little.

The Team

PawMart

PS: Do visit Mdm Bear's FaceBook Page to know more about her. 

If you had left me there...

As I'm laying on this bed

Watching the day go by

Raw wounds are hounding me

So painful, I'd rather die



It was on that fateful night

Thunders roaring, lightning strike

Running blind, panicked with fright

Got caught by the gates, I struggled with my might


My paws were then torn

My cheeks were bruised

My skin were then worn

My hair, was gone



In time I was rescued

but the damage was done

I thought my time was nigh

To this life, I can finally be unbind

My mind then went dark as night

So could this be how Heaven is?

I felt cool floorings, I sense warming lights

Is this where I alas, rest in peace?


Nope, I wasn't let in

Into Heaven's gate I mean

Instead I was sent down here

Could this be where Heaven is on Earth?


My body has recovered

And the wounds are healed

But I can no longer stand

Without a kind helping hand





God works in mysterious ways they say

And I can never understand why

There are many questions in my mind today

Things I wanted to know, before we said good bye


Why did you bring me home that day?

Why did you raise me up?

Could things be better off in a way

If you had left me there, when I was just a little pup?





Mdm Bear may be recovering from her wounds, but earlier on, there were times I looked at her and couldn't see any sparkle of life within her eyes. Is she still fighting on or is it an effect of the medicines given? Does she look forward to the day when she can walk again? I wonder if all these were instead, us forcing our hopes and dreams onto her. Yes, of course we all want to see her eat, walk and live the remainder of her life happily on Earth .

Is it what she really wants?

The vet had suggested that she be PTS (put to sleep). Don't hate her. The reasons she gave us were logical ones that we can't deny. When is the right time to let go? This is the dilemma  that all pet owners have to go through one day. Peanut and Sasha are still young and healthy, thus we had never thought of anything like that. Who are we to decide when to end their lives anyway?

Maybe its true that God works in mysterious ways. This whole encounter with Mdm Bear, the rescuers and her ex - owner may be a lesson that He wants us to learn, and pass it on.

Her wounds are about 80% healed, appetite has been good and her mood has been improving. Nowadays she would turn her head to greet us whenever we come home. She was going to another foster home yesterday. An unfortunate accident left the foster-er with a bad knee and she can't take care of Mdm Bear now.

Nevertheless, everyone involved are not giving up anytime soon. We will continue to do our best for her. Never give up, never surrender (to circumstances) !

The Team
Pawmart

Update on 6 A's and a little Bear

Hey everyone,

Just some good news to share. I posted this in the comments column but I'm not sure anyone saw it.

One of the Shih tzus was adopted by a kind family on Monday when I went down again to touch up their grooming. Hope more will come forward to help with the re-homing. They really deserve better.

Today we are having a dog named Mdm Bear over at our place. She's an old white terrier crossbreed, around 10 years old. She's got arthritis like conditions and has difficulties standing up. You can read more about this poor girl at Mdm Bear Facebook Page . It was lucky enough for her to be rescued from the streets. Now she needs to find a forever home.

She's been through several unsuccessful fostering due to accidental nips on the foster-ers and unintentional aggression towards other dogs, mostly over food. ( well, who likes their food to be touched anyway? ). We've only been with her for about 10 hours and what we seen here is unlike what we've heard from the previous foster-er.


Except for the fact that we need to help her get up from the floor to start her walking, she strolled fine along us during the walk. She's just a good old car that needs a little warm up before moving off.

Looking at her eat last night was really heart breaking. She looked weak and needs to lie on her front and eat from an elevated bowl. Her back must be in real pain. She finished her food and we wiped her mouth before she went happily off to bed.





She slept soundly throughout the night. We went to check her again around 3 AM and she was sleeping on her sides like a baby. Even when the newspaper guy came this morning she did not bark at all.

I took her for a walk again this morning to let her relieve herself. Her rescuers had mentioned that she is grass trained. She saw the green grass patches and walked over excitedly, even doing a small leap over the drain covers which she avoided last night. I felt a little sense of accomplishment seeing her improve.

I really do hope that good news come soon for this lady to be re-homed. The kind residents who found her tied her to a side gate with a leash just in case she wondered off and got into accidents. So what if she's not a normal dog anymore? Bear's quality of life may have suffered due to her joint problems but all she needs is a helping hand from humans to lift her up from the ground. It's not even about having to carry her around (she's medium sized). She really like walks and grass to a point that she will drag me towards it despite of her painful back.



So please, if anyone knows anyone who wants to give this girl a home, feel free to contact us via PawMart Facebook Page or contact the rescuers at Mdm Bear Facebook Page. Do note that she needs experienced dog owners as she would require some handling when getting her up. If you can't foster her, do consider donating via PawMart with food merchandises or giving cash donations to the rescuers.

She's leaving on Sunday to another home. Let us pray for her that all goes well.

Signing off,
Travis
www.pawmart.com.sg

Grooming The 6 A's

Responding to a S.O.S posting on Facebook, we went over to Uncle Khoe's K9 Shelter  today and did grooming for the 6 Shih Tzus which were rescued on Monday.

Click to see the actual Facebook post

You can read about the story of the 6 doggies at the link above. To summarize it all, they were conceived in an "accident", owners were ill equipped with knowledge or didn't bother to even try to take care of them and finally the owners got complaints from their neighbors and had to give them up before AVA comes "hot on their heels". O M G ain't that classic. Just by looking at the heart wrenching pictures of the doggies you could have imagined how bad their lives were. 

Kennel 1

Kennel 2

They are now housed in window kennels at Ericsson pet farm. This two pictures were taken on the day of the rescue. Still filthy and untidy, only one of them was bathed. The rest of them had to wait for the grooming to happen before the bathing as the mats( hair tangles ) were too terrible. Bathing a dog with mats only worsens the state of the tangle, and may even be harder to take them out during grooming.

It was already Day 3 at the shelter when we managed to go over. Hilda and Irene were there to greet us. Greetings exchanged and no time was wasted. I set up shop to start the grooming. 

The first boy, Astro, arrives... Thought I've seen it all. Not so now. Smell was pungent, and the worst was I couldn't make out where the eyes were. Turned out that they were behind this thick layer of eye goo with hair. 

An hour later, Astro saw the world clearly for the first time. Too bad the first thing he saw was my ugly face. Hah. Nothing like a walk in the sun after bathing. I thought I saw a smile on his face from the picture above.

Then came the next boy, Austin. For a moment I thought that the Flintstones were in the house.

WHAT IS THAT?! He really looked like a caveman. Or cave dog. Never mind, I'll fix that bad hairdo for you buddy. An hour elapsed and he came out nice and clean. Looked way handsome now.

If I featured all of them this blog post will have spanned 2 pages. I would just show you guys the ones that really swept me off my feet, with their bad hairdo.

This boy here was the last one I tidied up. He had the worst mats I've seen thus far, in my time as a groomer. Picture a reggae hairstyle on a dog's face. That's what you will see.

This boy here didn't like grooming at all. And he's the strongest of the siblings. Struggled like a fish out of water. He was also especially terrified of the buzzing sound from the shaver. It took three of us to pin him down and a whole lot of coaxing to finally remove that bad hairdo. 

An hour later, a runway success is born. Looking all cool, macho and hairless. Managed to keep a bit of manly hair on his face, minus the bad reggae mats. 

After a good five hours of hard work, a happy ending for the 6 A's, for now. Look at the before and after photos.

Average time taken was 1 hour per dog. They were unfamiliar to grooming and thus very hard to control. Luckily I had Irene and Hilda taking turns to hold them in place to speed things up. They also did the bathing for the doggies. Kudos to the two of them. I believe not everyone would be brave enough to touch them. A pity that my hands were too busy to take photos of the two heroines of the day. 

Due to the time constraints I could only give each of them a rough shave down to ease their discomforts. I would be going again this Friday to do a final touch up for them. 

Personally, today was a wonderful experience as I had always wanted to participate in social work for animals. Thank you Uncle Khoe's K9 Shelter for this opportunity to use the skills I've learnt for a good cause. Meanwhile, the Team at PawMart would be praying for the 6 A's , Amos, Archie, Austin, Astro, Ariel and Abby, that they will finally have a real happy ending. 

That is to have a place for each of them to call "Home".

Signing off,
Travis
www.pawmart.com.sg

To know more about Uncle Khoe's K9 Shelter, please visit https://www.facebook.com/johnny.khoe.5
and their blog at http://www.unclekhoe.blogspot.sg/