:: Animals Taiwan Diary ::

Frankie was spotted as a thin-looking stray in the HsinHai/ShiDa area, but it wasn’t until a few days later that a large wound became visible on his head. A call was made to Animals Taiwan, and rescue-centre manager Brandy responded as she was in the area.

Not having any equipment in her car, Brandy couldn’t catch Frankie with a pole, net, or trap, and instead had to work on winning the nervous young dog’s trust - something that Brandy is particularly gifted at, and which was aided by the fact that Frankie was hungry and Brandy had a tin of dog food with which to entice him.

Frankie soon came to get the food, albeit cautiously, and Brandy was able to stroke him gently and eventually get a hold of his collar. But Frankie was still very tense, and, when Brandy tried to lift him into her car, the scared little guy pulled out of her grip and ran to the security of the lane where he had been living.

Luckily for Brandy, Animals Taiwan supporter Alex and her husband David were in the area, and David helped Brandy look for Frankie, who clearly needed urgent medical attention. A pet-store owner who had seen Frankie around also joined in the hunt while Brandy went back to the rescue centre to pick up a net and crate.

But it wasn’t needed. Frankie was found hanging out in his usual spot, and again succumbed to his overwhelming desire to eat; Brandy was able to coax him to within reach even more easily than last time. She picked him up, got a much better grip on him, gently put Frankie in her car, and drove him straight to the Animals Taiwan vet, Dr Yang at YangMing Veterinary Clinic in Tienmu.

Dr Yang and Brandy were both quite shocked to discover that Frankie’s injury was much worse than anyone had thought. Somehow, the blow to his head was so hard that it had actually split open his skull. He was also missing half his tail, had a neck injury that showed he had been chained up for some time, and what appeared to be burnt skin. It seems Frankie had been the victim of some extremely cruel abuse. Thankfully there are good people out there, and he was lucky that so many of them had worked so hard to get him the medical help he so urgently needed.

Frankie is recovering well from his injuries. He loves people and is a very outgoing young dog despite the abuse he endured. He’s putting on good, healthy weight, and his fur is growing back. And he is loved. Alex and David made a generous donation to sponsor his care, and the staff and volunteers at Animals Taiwan are working hard to get Frankie adopted into the kind of home he deserves so that he never has to suffer such abuse again.

If you would like to give Frankie a home, please contact Brandy today, at brandy@animalstaiwan.org or Tuesday to Saturday on 0966 876 829 (at reasonable times only, please); you can also call the Animals Taiwan rescue centre on 02 2833 8820.

This post was submitted by Sean.

It’s been a long while since ‘THE FLIGHT to Safety in Europe’ we undertook with 10 rescued dogs and 5 rescued cats. I’m sorry that the official update took so much time. I’ve had to concentrate on our move from Taiwan to France, finding a place to live and finding a job to pay for it all!!! Our new home was only hooked up to internet and telephone last week! That’s not an excuse, just an explanation…

THE FLIGHT of course was a huge success. For those of you in Taiwan, you may have seen the media coverage. Lisa, Marc, Ruey Hua, Paula, and Faustina got us to the airport and they and volunteers for SaveDogs helped us to put together the 15 crates, take all the animals through their final health and paper work check, walk the dogs one last time in Taiwan, and get them checked in, paid for, and on their way.

All of us arrived in Amsterdam safely. Customs did not even stop us to check the animals!!!!!! On the downside they did not help us to walk our 8 carts - 15 crates through the exit (because it’s not in their job description) and instead looked on amused when we, by having to go back and forth, set off the alarms and blocked the exit for at least 15 minutes with fellow passengers annoyed at us. Welcome back in the land of overly spoiled people.

Anyway, the dogadoptions NL foundation was there to meet Bliksem and although she was extremely reluctant to leave our side (which of course had us in tears), she is now with the fantastic family that she will spend the rest of her life with. She has lots of space to roam and run and a fellow dog and goats to chase. We’re still to receive some analog pictures as her new owners have no digital camera, but we are in regular contact with them and Bliksem is doing great, 3 legs and all! An intense bond has already grown between Bliksem and her owners, who find her intelligent and eager to hunt, which is exactly how we had come to know her.

The Red een Hond foundation met us at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport also, to pick up Grace and Coco. The pictures they sent us the very next day of Grace and Coco with their foster family (actually the founder’s family!) speak a thousand words. Here’s but one:

I am yet to be updated on their current adopted (!) whereabouts, and will relay any news right here.

Joffi and Laifu went on their way to Belgium with the very friendly people of SOS Strays. Here’s Laifoo in his Belgian foster home:

Check out his smile! Explore the other pics and flicks on him here:
http://s151.photobucket.com:80/albums/s149/kimmeke007/SOS/?action=view&current=laifo-1.flv You’ll understand why he’s smiling!

Laifoo today is still with this foster family, as SOS Strays is very very thorough in screening potential definitive homes. Joffi was a different story. We have no recent pictures of her, but we are in touch with the woman who adopted her only days after her arrival in Belgium. She is a behavioral therapist (for dogs) and works with SOS Strays a lot. In addition she has spent time in Taiwan and fell for Joffi very hard, reminding her of the many dogs she had met in her days there. They are doing very well together!

The 2 puppies we brought for SaveDogs were also picked up, so we could save my parents, where we spent our first nights back in the Netherlands a lot of indoor peeing, for which Sugar made up splendidly within a minute of arrival, by having a long pee on the one and only Persian rug in my parents’ livingroom. Hello!

On that same day of arrival we took Pavlov, Sibbel, and Sugar to the beach, and they had a grand old time, running and playing until they just couldn’t run anymore.

Pavlov, Sibbel, Sugar, and the 5 cats TaiTai, Jopie, Chuan Chuan, Gou Le, and Donut remain with us today. I can assure you we are all happy as can be.

If you look at this picture long enough you’ll see 5 cats!

Thank you so much for your part in seeing these animals off to Europe. Return to this space for news on a second flight to be organized, focusing on Animals Taiwan’s three-legged and wheelchair bound doggies!

Marloes & Marjan (MO)

This post was submitted by onrust66.

Lately we’ve been doing a lot of minor repairs around the Holding Center. This has resulted in an ever growing ‘To Do’ list and a lot of trips to B&Q. It may have been the recent installation of the properly built doors that has inspired everyone to further greatness.

Most staff & volunteers are not professional fix-it types, so some projects have got off to an uncertain start. One example is the cat house. It’s been agreed that more shelves are needed with perhaps more ‘escape routes’ in the event of another dog raid. This job has fallen to Aaron, who has no prior background in doing stuff. Currently the cat house has ladders, brackets, tools, and boards lying around where he last left off. We hope he can complete this soon.

It seems advisable that if a caravan of volunteers comes on March 15th as it is rumored, we have something prepared for them to do. We might share our ‘To Do’ list with them and gather such supplies as are needed in advance.

This post was submitted by aaron@animalstaiwan.org.

I’d like to thank all the volunteers that came and helped during the Chinese New Year Holiday. Everyone did an outstanding job.

this puppy doesnt have a name , but he says thankyou too.

these guys say, where the chicken at ?

also if anyone wants to donate some items, we could use some new leashes for dog walking,

This post was submitted by Ryan.

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