DOG IN A BOX

WE WILL GET HIM.

We apologize for the late updates but all of us had been overwhelmed with the recent influx of puppies. Now, coming back to our caged dog in Pulau Ketam – we went there as planned a few weeks ago armed with a cage, a carrier, a loop and even sedatives to get the poor dog. We had also hired a boat to take us to the ‘scene of the crime’ as well as to bring back with the dog to the mainland. When we arrived at the place, we were shocked to see that the owner had broken open the cage and the dog was missing. When we confronted him – he told us that the dog had died. We did not believe him. So we hung around and soon spotted the dog taking refuge under the man’s stilted house. Apparently they had caught wind of our plan and had released the dog because they did not want us to take him. We argued with the owner a bit and he made some calls asking people to come over because ‘some people were trying to forcibly remove his dog.’ We refused to move away and stood our ground and in no time the man realized that no one was coming to his aid given the very bad publicity the islanders had been receiving due to their cruel treatment of dogs. The dog also came from hiding and we fed him but could not get him to come near us. He (the dog) looked a little better but had wounds and scars on his body. Some Indonesians told us that the dog was boarded-up because the owner wanted it stationed there 24 hours to ‘protect’ his boat’s engine. After a short quarrel with the incorrigible man – we managed to get him to promise to give the dog sufficient food. However, we are now concerned that it may have joined the ranks of the many strays on the island even though the dog does not wander far from its earlier prison. We left but not without making plans to go get the dog soon – since we have been visiting the island quite a bit in recent months.