On 24th November 2022, a young lady from a town in Perak wrote 4 emails to me seeking help to rescue and treat a free-roaming female dog with visible TVT (TVT is a cancer but totally treatable with chemo injections). The young lady felt that the dog has the will to live and from her email, she appeared to be concerned and she sent many photos too.
Updates on 25th Aug 2023: The dog, named Kinta Dog, was rescued, treated and is now living at a shelter. The lady never followed up at all.
The TVT growth is very visible. It’s huge!
This is one of her 4 emails:
Hi, I’m a college student. There’s a dog near my house that I assume has TVT.
At first I thought she would not last long but it has been a very long time. She’s active and eats well.
She also gave birth to several puppies a few months back. None of them survived.
Please help her. She’s a survivor and I really believe she wants to live this life she has.
I really want to help her but I am staying alone and have nothing much for me to do. I can only feed her.
I just need support to help this poor soul.
Please consider and I hope to get a good response soon.
Thank you for your time.
For rescue cases, we normally have to say that we are very sorry that we cannot help because AnimalCare does not have a rescue team. Furthermore, this is in Perak. But we don’t stop at “sorry”, we will try to find contacts who might be able to help.
I did also advise her to try to catch the dog (since she feeds the dog), send for treatment (which almost always includes spaying) and she is welcome to apply for our neutering aid.
Then, I contacted a friend. This friend has a policy, though, if it is just a shout for help, he will not be keen to help, but if the caller is willing to take responsibility for the animal after the rescue, he will do his best (fair enough). So he called the young lady and he was satisfied that she was willing to take responsibility.
So my friend contacted another friend who has contacts in this town in Perak.
The power of networking, right?
Finally, a group in this town was contacted. And rescue efforts were made. Yesterday, they failed to rescue the dog.
It took 3 days, and a few minutes ago, my friend informed me that finally, the dog has been caught. I was sent a photo too (which I will not publish here to keep all identities confidential). Confidentiality is paramount because of our laws which aren’t friendly to street animals.
Now, this group will take full responsibility for the dog’s treatment and subsequent care. Thank you so very much.
I sent messages of thanks to the first friend, the second friend (who is also my friend) and to the leader of the group. I have also informed the young lady about the rescue (she probably already knows, but we always do proper closures to every case).
One precious life saved! Thanks to the power of networking and the power of caring!
Never doubt that a small group of like-minded humans can make a difference. Or at least, try to.