How I fell in love… with shelter dogs

With feelings of trepidation, I followed a friend to one of the many dog shelters at Pasir Ris Farmway. I could remember the sights, smells and sounds that accompanied me as I made my way to the place which would eventually opened my eyes to the world of shelter dogs.

I was nervous and unsure as all the dogs were barking at me and I felt like an intruder, waiting to be attacked. My friend reassured me and as we entered the cage, I was introduced to the dogs at Paw Perfect Love: Tiger, Coco, Mini, Eddie and Emma. They had quietened down after some time when they noticed that I was not there to hurt them.

I began to clean the area and proceeded to bathe them when it had actually hit me that the dogs were more afraid of me that I was, of them. I felt protective of the dogs and had felt sad that these dogs were under the mercy of their human owners... some of which might have been subjected to inhumane treatment.

I headed over to Uncle Khoe’s K9 on a separate occasion to see if any further assistance was needed. As I had built up courage from my previous experience, I was less nervous to enter Uncle Khoe’s shelter and was ready for whatever that came.

Uncle Khoe’s dogs were more rambunctious and also differed in numbers. This had amazed me as I was not prepared for the number of dogs that were in the shelter. I got to know many dogs over there and had developed soft spots for them, especially with Big Bobby, Max and Faith. These dogs were especially loving and endearing- making them seem unlike the stereotype that I had of shelter dogs.

It was also from the various occasions of volunteering and spring cleaning that I had made acquaintance with Uncle Khoe. Uncle Khoe has dedicated his life to save abandoned dogs and despite suffering from various chronic health conditions, he never missed a visit to the shelter. This man is one of whom I deeply respected and looked up upon. Uncle Khoe often insisted on doing the necessary tasks himself, despite others offering to help. I remembered that there was once when he had wanted to climb up a ladder in order to tie the roof tighter, and all of the volunteers present had rushed to offer their assistance but Uncle Khoe was adamant that he perform this task himself, despite just recovering from a minor stroke recently.

My visits to the shelter have dwindled down over the past 2-3 years due to work and school commitments. But this does not affect nor lessen my love for the dogs at the shelter as it has instead, inspired me to work even harder to attain my goal of being an animal rescuer myself. My experience with the world of shelter dogs has humbled me and taught me on various important life lessons.

Of course, the most important one is that we are actually all capable of giving a little more than we think we can.