Dogs by Nature

All’s well that ends well

It is with bitter-sweet emotions that I'm writing about Sally and her pup Penny’s adoptions – both found wonderful forever homes in a record time of only eight weeks! And suddenly everything seems so quiet and “normal” again!

Having never had a litter of kittens or puppies around (only lots and lots of hamsters!), I immensely enjoyed this mom/baby foster combo! Litters consisting of a single pup are quite rare and I realized that I would probably not get such a chance gagain soon, so I jumped at the opportunity. As I’m working on my thesis from home most of the time, this opportunity also presented itself at a very convenient time. As always it was an absolute joy to experience Sally’s transformation from a nervous and scared rescue to a trusting and lovable companion. As time progressed and Sally could leave Penny alone for longer, she would run upstairs to my study for a cuddle, every half-hour on the dot; you could almost time her! 

Two weeks after her arrival we introduced the whippets and although the first few encounters involved lots of growling, snarling and hackle rising from Sally’s side, she eventually realized they meant her no harm. Soon she completely accepted them – as long as they would not come near Penny. We saw an interesting pack dynamic unfolding as soon as we integrated all four of them into one house. The spot under the stairs proved the most suitable for Sally and Penny’s bed since it’s out of the general walkway. It did however create a challenge for Lilly, Stitch and the cat to get upstairs, as Sally would mock charge every time they approached the stairs. This resulted in Lilly having to be constantly carried up, Stitch gracefully mastering a leap from the bottom to the 6th step and the cat entering the house exclusively from the top floor. I still don’t know how. But it took only a few more weeks for the complex intra-pack dynamics to evolve from tense to… absolutely chaotic! As the three dogs came to really like each other, they invaded my study space with such playful and boisterous vigor, that I had to finally ban them all from the room. The situation was worsened by Penny that was finally also able to climb all the stairs to the top. More often than not the four of them would end up in a blurry ball of wrestling dogs with the acoustic equivalent of a pack of epileptic hyenas.

Much too soon (but maybe to the advantage of my thesis writing progress), an offer came for Sally’s adoption. The applicants passed the home check with flying colors and as I dropped Sally off at Riverside vet in JHB to be vaccinated, sterilized and chipped, I thought back to the terrified and painfully thin girl sitting there in the flower bed in Witbank, with her two-day old puppy. How easily things could have taken a turn for the worse for these two girlies… Out of experience I can tell you that the survival rate of puppies in shelters is very low. Far too often distemper and parvo claim their stake before pups can be vaccinated. And much too often mothers are deemed ‘unadoptable’ as a result of their aggressive attitude for the sake of their pups. This year also saw the most March rains for the past 20 years and many parts of SA were flooded. Raising a pup under such excruciating weather conditions would surely have been impossible for Sally that was already displaying the start of mange. 

Sally (now named Nika) was adopted by a lovely couple from Kempton Park. From all the pictures I’ve been sent I can see that she is utterly spoilt! Two weeks later, Penny was also adopted by a couple from Krugersdorp.

 Lucky Penny landed her bum on a huge horse farm and has the cutest pitbull/GSD cross sister exactly her age and size! In the meantime we’ve decided that Penny must have some Boerboel or Chow genes from her father’s side… she will definitely grow to be big and strong, and I can’t wait to see the result! In the meantime… life on a horse farm is exhausting:

I always find fostering is an immensely rewarding experience, and would definitely do so again as soon as I’ve got fewer commitments. So far we’ve fostered a few ‘Free to a good home” Gumtree doggies as well as PETS dogs. PETS (Pet Empowerment in Townships) is an NPO animal welfare org that strives to better the lives of dogs and cats in townships by educating their owners and providing necessities for basic animal care. Every now and then they do take badly neglected/ unwanted animals into their care. They operate on a non-shelter, purely foster home system. The more foster homes they have available the more animals they can take in. The advantage of fostering for PETS is that they are responsible for all the medical expenses that should arise for the foster animals and the foster parents simply provide a temporary home and food. They operate in JHB, Pta, Cape Town and Witbank. To adopt any PETS animal, adoption forms need to be filled in and sent back to them. They require all the obvious things like a secure, enclosed yard but also that all the animals in your household are sterilized. Then they do a quick home check at your property just to ensure everything is fine. It might seem intrusive but it's just to check for example the given address exists etc. PETS charge an adoption fee of R450 which covers the vaccination, de-worming, sterilization and microchip. In the case of puppies, if you've paid the adoption fee, you can simply take the puppy to any of the PETS vets in JHB by the time its 6 months old and they perform the sterilization for free!


Contact PETS JHB:
Nicole Badenhorst
jhb@pets.org.za



PETS Cape Town:
Anoux Massey
anoux@pets.org.za
0768727071 (sms only please)



PETS Witbank:
Michelle lock

michelle.petswitbank@gmail.com
0724896037