In March of 2010 I was invited to give a little of my time to the RAK Animal Welfare Centre. I was happy to do so. I have been a supporter of Animal Rights and Prevention of Cruelty to Animals for years. Not an extremist, I do believe that animal adoptions should only be through the local pound or shelter and not through breeders, as we just don't need a surplus. I am also big on the "spay or neuter your pet" method of animal control. To me these are things that just make sense.
So when I was invited to give a little of my time to this fledgling enterprise I was happy to say a resounding yes. And then I started walking dogs. Every Wednesday I would go to the animal shelter and walk the dogs there. That was March of 2010. In June I got a frantic request asking me to also cover Mondays for a few months because half of the volunteers had gone on vacation and were not able to walk dogs on those days. On days when the volunteers couldn't come the dogs would not be walked, so of course I said yes. And I took my family with me. So all five of us would walk between 5-7 dogs each twice a week.
Come september, the volunteers were back and we were able to go back to the Wednesday schedule but I continued to bring my family. And we met a little dog (about 2 years old now) named Lady.
Lady was born some kind of Collie/Sheltie type breed and was small, even for her breed. She was not well fed, in order to keep her mean and biting. Her owner cut off her ears so she would not be quickly overcome in the dog fights that she was being trained for. But Lady was a bit of a runt and her owner soon realized that she would be useless in the pits (as would most collies, they are herders not fighters... what an idiot that guy was). So she was dumped in a bag at the side of the road near a mosque. This is not a safe place to be for a dog, as the saliva of a dog is considered Haram/forbidden and dogs are seen as dirty by many of the locals.
One fine point. Dogs themselves are not Haram. A working dog is even permitted in the tent accourding to Islamic tradition, but their saliva is still considered dirty. A collie is a breed of working dog, as are most of the breeds. You just need to know what their work is meant to be. A collie is a herder, perfect for this location because we have goats, cows, sheep, and camels. I wouldn't recommend trying to herd camels with a collie, but I bet it could be done.
Anyway, Lady was found and brought to the RAKAWC where she was walked every week by Rae, Zeb, or William. I noticed that Zeb is particularly nervous around dogs. After the loss of Rufus, who was like Zeb's best friend for a time, I was really worried about his interaction with animals and wanted to see his animal empathy grow. I noticed that with Lady, Zeb could be at ease. So eventually we started fostering Lady. We took her home and let her meet the cats (yes we have a dog cage, so Lady and the cats were safe) and began to work with her on house training and behavior.
And she is easy to train. She sits, she lays down, she is working on staying. She "goes to bed" every night. She usually goes to the bathroom at her "times" accourding to our schedule. Yes there are accidents, especially when she is annoyed with us or if we are late home, but she is working beautifully. So we adopted her. Now she is a part of the family. And Zeb loves his little Lady.
She walks the neighborhood full of kids and none of the children are frightened or run away because she never barks or lunges, is always on her best behaviour, and acts like an angel. With me, she walks off the lead/leash. She heals and stays at my side. If I say "go home" she runs for the gate and then waits there for my return. If I am within the yard and open up the gates so she can see out, she looks but she never crosses the gate line unless I say so, or go out with her. She doesn't chase cats (though she does herd them around the house if we let her).
Lady is a perfect little lady, and she is all ours. I will (hopefully) post some photos of her and the cats later.
We have three cats and one dog now, and all of them are doing very well.
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