Walking with a wagging tail!

There is so much happening, we seem to be always chasing our wagging tails! I certainly have to brush up my reporting skills, and keep you informed!

Heather continues to help us move forward in leaps and bounds. With her guidance, we have shifted our schedule, so that all the 'dog care' activities - feeding, cleaning yards, water, grooming, generally making sure everything is in order, dogs are well - happen first thing in the morning. The late afternoon/evening sessions (following a break in the searing midday heat, when neither dogs nor people want to do anything!), are for walking and training. It makes such simple sense, to delineate the activities in this way. It helps streamline the process, and mentally dogs and people alike 'get' what is going on.

At the workstation. Heather (in cap) talks with volunteers Claire, Chodron and me.

In the same way, the re-arrangement of the dogs on the field is complete. For the most part, the dogs in training for adoption (called 'the walkers'!) are grouped together, and the ferals and 'lifers' are together. Especially for the walkers, their behaviours are more easily reinforced when they are surrounded by buddies also needing to listen to commands.

Volunteer Kamil convinces our fearful feral Hailey, that he really is an O.K guy!!

The 10 Taiwanese babies are in their own larger enclosures, on the upper field. We always quarantine new arrivals at a distance from the main group, any way, to ensure no sickness is introduced. We have three large luxurious runs, one with the three older, quieter dogs - Bai, Kiki and Lucky. The next has the playful youngsters Baby and Bobo, who get along famously. Then there is the fearless five - a super-playful bunch of Tiger, a gorgeous brindle, and two of the cutest black sister-sets you could imagine - Pong Pong and NuNu and PiPi and RuRu. Except in the heat of the day, they run and cavort together happily.

We are ready to play now!! Won't you come inside?!!

We have begun walking them. The more sedate ones are excellent. Some of the youngsters are OK. But for a coupe whose energy exceeds ours, a jog would be a better option! This is Pipi and RuRu, whom I featured a few posts ago. It does not surprise me Ms Wu called them the flying leapers, who loved to get over the fence and run and play! No escape attempts have been made here, but they are joyfully charged to head into the world and explore!

I went on-line and explored a bit about conditions for dogs in Taiwan - it will make you weep. I look at these lovely, happy dogs and cannot imagine the alternative fate.

Here is an excerpt of Ms Wu's most recent letter to me:

In Taiwan, few people care about dogs’ lives. Most campus stray dogs will end up being sent to detention center, waiting to be killed, or being left wander everywhere, giving birth to even more babies, which will be in the same shadow of fate. Schools should be places teaching people how to respect life, but obviously they don’t take chance to set good examples for society; therefore we can easily imagine how the street homeless animals will be treated.After I retired, I intend to transform my local association into a national organization to educate people and promote the concept of animal protection. Since I can’t adopt dogs anymore, that’s the only thing I can do. Hopefully in the rest of my life, I can witness Taiwan people change their attitude towards animals.

I found that in 1994 an investigation by the World SPCA cited Taiwan as the worst country in the world for dogs; evidence that in GOVERNMENT CONTROLLED animal facilities dogs were clubbed, buried alive, boiled alive to be killed. Things may have changed some, but there is a long way to go. This site of another rescue shows some heartbreaking stories www.savedogs.org/english/

Finding homes for these beautiful dogs and the 20 more still on death row at Ms Wu's school, and maybe even more after that, is a goal we hope to accomplish.

RuRu, still a little shy.