whoa today was great.
i'm dog tired man.
been walking dogs in the mornings then going over to clean the shelter for two days in a row.
wonder how the staff at shelters can take it man.
thank the God of Dogs that i only have afternoon platime duty tomorrow.
which means that i can wake up at eleven.




damn funny!!! especially the part where the war song is being played. HAHAHA


i just spoke to the owner of the lost dog.
aww man he sounded so happy.
so i'm really glad that the dog has a family that cares for him.(or so it seems HAHA)

tomorrow i may get to join some acquaintances on their daily stray-feeding rounds.
kinda anxious about it because i don't know how i will react to what is before my eyes.


holy shit man, i just saw one of my OGL's album.
think it's some photographer's outing overseas.
and the pictures are (here comes the mighty vulgarity:) fking awesome.
the scenery was breathtaking man.
and some of of the photos taken are really amazing.

but for a noob like me, i think of photography as immortalising every moment.
that's why i take so many photos at the shelters, because in month's time, i won't be able to go down as often as i do now.
sigh.
i wish it were January or February now.


someone needs to teach me to treat my family members better.
really, i treat outsiders much better.


someone needs to teach me to treat my family members better.
really, i treat the outsiders much better.


doggie training postponed to next saturday haha.

today dhiya came over to collect her notes.
i had a fun time showing her my collection of pictures HAHA especially the cat ones.

anyway, yesterday morning it was raining heavily at mount vernon so instead of dog-walking, we cleaned up the shelter instead.
much easier than cleaning up the shelter at pasir ris though.
and i was so late in realising that jack can do the paw paw!!!
ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhkjdljasdljsdljsa
i nearly teared when i did it with him.
he is such a lovely boy who deserves so much more. sigh.

after that i headed over to pasir ris, but on my way there, i saw this fella wandering around.
there was actually quite a lot of people around but i'm surprised that people just shot glances at the dog and did nothing. sigh.

initially i was a little irritated because i promised the popo that i would be there at eleven plus and i asked her to wait for me to clean the dog area. (damn evil of me to feel this way...)
but i picked up the dog and carried him because he had no collar on.
then i asked a kind young boy to help me buy a collar and leash from the supermarket at the mrt.
it's damn coincidental that before i found the dog i was in the supermarket buying chips(i feel like eating it again) and i happened to stumble upon a small corner which sells a small variety of dog food, leashes and collars.
if not i would not have known that that supermarket sells collars and leashes. haha how noob.
so the boy and i split the cost of the collar and the leash.
thank you, really.
and then i walked around the area where i found the dog to try to spot any frantic panicking owner running around searching for his/her lost dog.
unfortunately, ...
so i went to hail a cab to bring him to the spca.
(popo said i should have brought it to her because she would find a space or him no matter what. she just didn't want him to be at the risk of being euthanised. i was really touched when i heard that.)
thankfully, a passerby started stroking him and i told him that he was actually a lost dog.
he offered to take him in until the owner was found.
i told him that i would do whatever i can on the internet.
i stomped the article last night and contacted the spca today.
but in any case, if no one claims him, i told him that popo would gladly take him in.
and i'm pretty sure he would be adopted fairly quickly.

i reached the shelter at around 12 and apologised for being late.
kristy was happy to see me haha

thankfully another volunteer already cleaned up the dog area.
so kristy and i went around to clean the catteries since there was no supply from 1.30-5.00. zz
anyway this bunch of humans came over to bring the cats over to another shelter because they were infected with some disease.
suddenly there was a commotion because one of the cats escaped from the cattery and climbed to the top of the cattery.
which looks like this:

i didn't really bother about it.
partly because i was occupied with cleaning the cattery and i thought that the cat would be safe since there were like eight people there?
(damn evil again haha but that's me.)
later, they called kristy over to help.
ok then something stirred in me.
suddenly remembered my conversation with her on wednesday when she said that she had a three year-old kid in indonesia.
so i went out. i couldn't find her but i went to the back where there were people gathering around.
the owner of the mischievous cat who refused to be caught was standing on top of the washing machine and wailing. obviously very attached to her cat even though she has dozens of them in the shelter.
i will never forget that look on her face when she asked, "can you help me get my cat please..."
so i acted macho and climbed to the top of the cattery. (my heart was pounding because i kept thinking that i would lose my grip and fall off haha)
the first obstacle to oversome was the short and not so sharp spokes because being a paranoid my mind flashed back to this accident which happened a long time ago when a metal spike pierced through a boy's leg when he was climbing a gate.
good thing it was short lol so i got up anyway.
and goodness i saw kristy on top too...
sounds lesbo, but i was more worried about kristy than the cat.
(which makes me feel ashamed because i should treat both beings equally in this situation)
so basically both of us where crawling on unstable metal bars and through cob webs.
throughout the time we were crawling after the cat, i could hear the owner's cries for help.
i guess that was what made me forget my fear of heights and paranoid imaginations of the metal giving way and thereby resulting in me falling into the cattery below.(lol i'm a paranoid)
kristy was about to get hold of the cat when it turned back and ran in my direction and then back to where i climbed up from.
so i crawled after the cat and caught hold of it under it's armpits(lots of armpit hair, or rather fur) and kristy crawled damn fast so she grabbed the skin on his neck to prevent him from escaping.
as we were remained in that position while waiting for them to pass us the cat container, the owner was right there on the washing machine pleading with us, "please don't let go of him, don't let go... he will die..."
yup so mission accomplished.
apart from the fact that a cat's life was involved, i thought it was really exciting.
as in, at least now i know that i can do things that i didn't think i would do.
nonetheless if the cat or my best friend was in a burning building, i will NEVER ENTER.
sorry but my fear of fire is whoa.
i dream of burning and exploding stoves and i have no guts to turn them off even if it means i can save my family. then i cry in my sleep.
ok back to the cat rescue.
i hi-fived kristy after that HAHA. (but she didn't know what it meant so she checked a palms after that HAHA)
then i wondered about what she was thinking when they called her over to help.
could she have declined to help?
as a domestic helper, was this part of her duty?
it kinda killed me when i realised that there were two able men(excluding the uncle with a pot belly because i think he is rather old) who witnessed the incident but yet kristy was the one who was asked to climb up. (sorry for stereotyping, but thankfully the friends who read this blog are not guys HAHA)
ok then again, maybe it was because she is really thin and small-sized and they assumed that the metal bars would definitely be able to withstand her weight.
arh nevermind, we all have our own justifiable reasons for doing the things that we do.
anyway we went back to cleaning the catteries as though nothing ever happened while popo and quarreled with the cat owner for causing such a commotion at her place.
well, i'm not involved.

kristy asked me again whether i do all the household chores at home because in her opinion, i am damn good at cleaning.
and i told her that i don't do anything at home because i am damn lazy and my mum always scolds me for doing nothing.
she constantly praises me for doing so much at the shelter and she tells me that i am diferent from other people.
it makes me feel very appreciated and i love it when i am being useful.
my arm muscles ache when i rotate my shoulder now.
and that's just after one day of intensive surface wiping.
i can't imagine how kristy does so much more every single day and yet does not complain about it.

i will definitely miss this place and the people and dogs there when i start school man.



today i found a lost dog.
i also rescued a cat.


sometimes i think i am a fucking lucky bastard who doesn't deserve a place in ME.


ever since i got myself a new camera, i have been diligently taking pictures whenever i'm out.
so basically you can find out what i did in a day from my facebook profile hahaha.


as promised, i went down to the shelter again today. but this time, i spent 8.5 hours there instead of just one like yesterday.
it's like non-stop cleaning. lol
to the point that i feel like a domestic helper.



(side track: i thought that my friend was a lesbian because her boyfriend looks so much like a tomboy! i realised that i made a mistake after i saw a picture of her boyfriend when HE was young. )

ok anyway i thoroughly enjoyed myself there even though i was doing chores like scrubbing the floors and picking up poo(which i am sadly, very used to)
for 8.5 hours i was in an unfamiliar part of Singapore, with a couple of dogs, a lot of cats, mdm wong and her helper, kristy.
and i kind of think i was a domestic helper in my previous life.
man, i always enjoy chatting with domestic helpers.
when my grandparents were still around, i stuck to the two helpers at their house like super glue.
i watched them cook, clean and waited for them while they took a dump in the loo. (jk about the last part)
it just impresses me how some helpers like kristy in this case, can be so loyal to their owners.
anyway yep, back to my point; for eight hours i felt like i was in my own world.
i didnt have to bother about anything else except the dogsduring the brief few minutes that i gave heli a belly rub, it felt like it was just me and her.(ok now i sound like a dogophile)



for that few minutes, she didn't have to bother about not having found her forever home yet and i didn't have to bother about having to go home early to complete homework.
it kind of reminded me of why i love soccer, especially when i dribble with the ball.
it would be just me and the ball, everything revolved around us.
ok that was a very bad link.





continue tomorrow.
gotta sleep early because i have to wake up at six thirty tomorrow YIKESSSSSSSSSS


hmmm today i went down to the shelter at pasir ris but i felt damn out of place because there was a group of students taking vet science there.
i spent most of my time at the back with the dogs and feeding them the snacks i got.

today was my second time there.
i still don't know the dogs well and i have yet to warm up to them.
it's very different from being at the spca because as lame as it sounds, i secretly fear that one of the dogs may turn aggressive anytime.
building a relationship takes time and effort and it is no different from building one with a dog.
the first time i went into roy's cage, i got my left butt cheek bitten and i went out immediately.
there was this element of fear when he started nibbling around.
but now, after a little more than 4 months, i believe that i can live with him LOL.
when i look him in the eye, he knows that i trust him and that i care for him.(a little more than the rest)
as time passes, it becomes something like, "hey buddy, it's me again" whenever i unlatch the gate to his cage.
as for razzy, i don't spend a lot of time in his cage because his play bites are damn painful.
however, i love to take him out on walks even though some think he is a difficult dog to walk because he jumps and nibs when you don't give him treats.
in the beginning i was really scared of walking him but it took him a few licks on my cheek to get to my heart. hahaha
sidetrack a little, i once scolded an ant, "you f**ker" because it was crawling on razzy's limb and it stinged so much he had to stop and get it off.(but obviously he couldn't.)
whatever razzy does, i know that he means no harm. and i'll still love him.
yep.
that bond and that trust is what i will cherish and keep close to my heart man.
just like how humans treasure the ones they love (or maybe not).

i am very grateful towards ellen for giving me such valuable opportunities.
i was fortunate enough to join in the afternoon playtime sessions and also witnessed a pet therapy session at a school for children with special needs.
and today she gave me the opportunity to go for doggie training on saturday.(ok this sounds like i'm a bitch)
yep.
i'm just thankful for the past five months at the spca;
the people i've met, or more importantly, the dogs i've met
the shit i've picked up.(warm and mushy. some are semi-liquid) JKJK
the hugs and kisses i've given.
the licks(and bites) i've received.
the tug-o-war sessions.

i got a lot out of this.
i learned a lot from them.
sigh.


i am going to attend the dog training session this saturday!
YIPPEEEEEEEEEEEE


sigh am i really that good at controlling my temper and tolerating shit?
or rather, am i that good at being a god damn hypocrite?


BLOG TMR. DAMN TIRED.


today i went down to a shelter a pasir ris.
made me think a whole lot more.
as the man showed us around, we passed by rows and rows of dogs.
he said that these were also shelters but with little or no manpower to maintain.
people just rescued the dogs and rented the place to house the dogs.
i have never seen so many strays in one place.
as i walked along the aisle, the dogs who bothered to say hi would bark and wag their tails.
and those who said 'fuck out of my(and twenty others') territory would growl.
when we got to the enclosure where mdm wong's dogs were housed, i felt relieved.
partly because being a paranoid, i was damn scared that the dogs in the other 'shelters' would be able to leap over the fencing successfully and eat me up.
the man said that their dogs are all very friendly.
which is true HAHA.
however, like the first time i went to the spca, i was quite wary of them.
dogs are like us. they all have different personalities.
for me, it is similar to meeting new people and making new friends; it will take me some time to warm up to them.
i was fortunate enough to witness this lab being taken home by the woman who adopted her.
when she saw her new owner she wagged her tail furiously.
she wags her tail when she meets strangers too, but this time, you can see happiness oozing out of her.
it's like "i'm going to a real home now. YIPPEEEEEEEEEEE".
HAHA

i felt worst when i saw the dogs in the other shelters.
twenty or thirty of them in an area the size of a tennis court.
most were just lying around.
you can see their nonchalance, but yet you feel their misery.
you feel like shit because when you look at all of them from behind those metal bars, your heart sinks because you know that this is going to be their forever home.
and yet if they are released to roam as strays, they face the risk of culling.
if i were a dog,
would i rather live as a stray with the possibility of meeting death at every corner i turn into
or would i want to live in a shelter all my life ?

i also crossed the boundary that separates light from dark.
the very first row of the second area was filled with pedigree puppies in glass cages.
they belonged to a pet shop and would be bought eventually.
then, right behind them were the rows and rows of enclosures filled with mongrels.
they consisted of those who would wait till the day they die and those who gave up waiting.

went back to the first area where i spent my remaining three hours helping the owner to prepare dinner, playing football with the show dawg and cleaning the place.

yup that's all, ok not all of it.




meet roy!


and... razz to the m-a-t-a-z-z



today rachel told me about the law of attraction.
i shall keep that in mind man.


lol today razz m was tugging away at the leash.
now that i think of it, it's damn funny la because we seem to be playing tug of war.
and when he bites and pulls at the leash and shakes his head because he is using so much strength, my whole lower body shakes along as well.
and sometimes i feel the sides of my tummy wobble ]:


today was rather eventful.

four parts to it;

1. dogwalking.
nothing much happened in the morning, just that i walked 7 dogs because there was lesser people today and we took shorter walks.
so now i frequent roy's cage because he is my favourite buddy.
we will either chill out or i will give him a massage.
and then lunchtime comes and everyone starts barking.
i chanced upon some semi-liquid poo in razzy's cage, so i took the mop and scoop and went it.
big mistake man.
walao i should've known. he started wagging his tail and biting my left hand.
he thinks it's not painful but it IS.

hi razzy, if you happen to read this, please understand that it hurts like hell and if you do it again, you will struck off my favourite buddies list in time to come.

thanks to razz, i have a bruise at the base of my thumb.

ok i still love you.

today i saw the best-looking man i have ever seen off the screen.
but he looks like the kind who has a model as a girlfriend.

2. lunch
at my favourite chicken rice and chatted with the aunty sitting at the same table.
see, i am friendly!
(towards everyone except men within the age range 0f 17-25)

3. afternoon playtime
this time i did it with someone who was relatively new to it as well.
as usual, delilah didn't want to come out, even if the dog was swung wide open. the cage is like her safe haven. she even has a different expression when the gate is open and when it is closed.
a hadnful of voulunteers were there trying to coax her into coming out. but after a good 7 minutes, she still refused to come out.
so i gave up.
even though i had a valid reason to because we had limited time to get the other dogs out, the truth is that i gave up on getting her out.
later on, a staff member got her out by walking into her cage. lol so cute.
but when i saw her, i felt really disappointed with myself.
when echo's turn came, i went into her cage.
she started biting the leash and collar and i couldn't get her out.
after a few minutes, i sought help from a more experienced volunteer who happened to be around(phew).
then again, the fact that i was incapable and inexperienced dawned upon me.
more importantly, me giving up(in a way) on echo hit me hard .
when montana's turn came, i did not even bother to try.
ok maybe it's because i am inexperienced.
how can a 3 months be comparable to 3 years?
argh nevermind.

4. this is the exciting part.
on my way home, i saw 2 dogs with metal collars on them.
no leash, no owner
i have no bloody idea how they got to a HDB forest.
my first intinct was to approach them.
and so i did. i let one of them sniff my hand before petting it.
when i reached over to pet the other one, i realised it had a deep and raw slash wound on its neck. from the back of the ear leading down to the neck.
my heartbeat kinda increased, it was like back in TTSH when prof chan tells the patient she has cancer.
this time it was worse, because the patient is right under my nose and right from the moment i made contact with him, i was responsible and i had to do whatever i can.
i called roy's home of course.
and was told to keep them in sight. so i followed them closely.
we were walking along the the side of the field when they turned and i strokes them.
the injured one started growling, so i instinctively backed off.
i wonder why, but they started biting one anothers' necks.
i don't know if they are fighting, but it seemed like it.
i walked further away because there was nothing i could do.
i do not know their personalities.
i may risk getting attacked if i made a wrong move.
they were at it for a few minutes, but i watched them from a distance.

The first thing that came to my mind was that the wound on the injured dog was caused by the other dog.

That was when I first felt fear.

After they stopped, I continued following them, closely, but not as closely as before.

Now there was an invisible barrier between us.

I was worried that they might just turn aggressive any moment, but I followed them nonetheless.

They stopped to rest near the church so I sat on the seat next to them.

i waited for what seemed like eternity because I desperately need to use the toilet.

I actually thought that I might actually have to resort to peeing in the drain in broad daylight.

For simplicity’s sake, I shall name the injured dog Bruce since he is bruised.

The other one shall be Scorchio.

I know it’s stupid to name them after neopets but I can’t seem to think of any nice names.

Bruce was always walking around but still stuck close to scorchio.

Scorchio seemed to like lying on the ground, but he is always in this position with his hind legs bent as though he is ready to pounce at the sign of danger.

I waited, with a full bladder.

They walked to a more sheltered and concealed place.

Bruce still walking around while scorchio laid on the ground.

I couldn’t see them from where I was sitting so I found myself a seat with a good view of them about 40m away.

If I stood any longer I think I would’ve just urinated on the ground.

I tried to push away thoughts of going to the toilet.

I waited for about half an hour.

Bruce and scorchio came trotting over to the area I was sitting at.

As scorchio laid on the ground,

Bruce started walking towards me.

He did it twice but I avoided making eye contact with him and prepared to walk away when he was about 3m away.

I had the impression that if I petted him again he would growl and they would fight.

So I waited and finally, the van came. But they walked away.

I told the officer most of what I have recounted here.

He said he would not be able to bring them back as they seem to be on the move all the while and he would not be able to bring both of them back at once too.

He also mentioned that he would have to bring the matter up to the management to decide what to do with them.

As he hopped onto the van to see where they were heading to, I realised that the boys had gone across the road to another block of flats.

I don’t know why the hell I didn’t feel like peeing that much, but I followed them anyway.

I waved to the man in the van from across the road and signalled to him that he had to turn in to other block of flats.(sounds like a traffic police eh?)

We sat next to them as they rested under the block of flats.

The man took pictures of bruce and scorchio and he said that the wounds didn’t seem like they were caused by the other dog.

He said it was unlikely that they would fight and be aggressive towards each other as they looked like they were buddies.

He called out to them to see if they were responsive.

They walked towards me after awhile. (Oops.)

He told me to call out to them.

So I did and bruce started to growl a little.

He told me to stop because bruce’s tail wasn’t wagging.

Thankfully nothing happened man.

Scorchio actually sat in front of me, kinda surprising.

The officer tried to get them to follow him and they did!!

For about 15m.

Nearer to the van however, they walked away again, this time it was really goodbye because they walked away from us and didn’t stop.

The officer said that they may have to lay a trap for bruce if they receive a call again.

Bruce’s open wound will get worse though.

After that I walked home, and I was thinking that there was a possibility that scorchio might have saved my limbs the first time bruce growled at me since the officer said that it was highly unlikely that they would have fought with each other.

Looking back on how bruce approached me twice and me thinking he was merely trying to be nice scares the shit out of me.

The fact that I was in danger and yet not realise it kills the brave knight in me.

It’s funny how I get goosebumps now instead of then when I think of the encounter and how closely I followed them.

I think I took away quite a bit from this experience.

I learnt to appreciate the dogs at roy’s home more.

Compared to earlier in the morning when razz had half my hand in his mouth, the feeling I had with bruce and scorchio was entirely different even when I made no contact with them.

Thinking back, had I not done what I did, I could have gotten hurt.

The most upsetting thing is when you watch them walk away, knowing there is nothing you can do.