A Bundle of Trouble.

It’s justifiably very easy to react emotionally when the theoretical practice of a thrown puppy becomes a real event and even more so when your attention is blatantly drawn to it on an early morning street walk.  However it’s always good to take a few moments, more than a few deep breaths and remember where you are and what you can do with what you know to be an unfortunate reality. 

“Permisi, permisi, anak anjing”. “Excuse me, excuse me, puppy”.

Early morning street walks are always the best time, a period when the traffic is light, the air is cool and it is usually quiet.  However it’s also when scents are fresh, scraps of food are possible, competition is probable and puppies get thrown.  The term thrown is not to be taken literally, although it’s certainly not a completely unusual action, rather it’s the act of placing unwanted puppies, or a single puppy on this morning, somewhere else other than their birth place.  In the majority, thrown puppies average eighty five percent female; no one wants more puppies from those puppies when they are no longer puppies.  Another reason for throwing is the misconception that only male dogs can be good at guarding the compound.  Thankfully it is becoming clearer and somewhat accepted that female dogs are as good if not better than their male counterparts.

“Anda membantu, ya”.  “You help, yes”.  It wasn’t a question and wasn’t a demand, just a simple matter of fact direct statement made to and at “dua orang asing dan tiga Bali anjing jalan”, “two foreigners and three Bali street dogs“. 

Bali Street Dogs are born tough; they have been genetically designed to be so.  But as tough as they are, thrown puppies stand very little to no chance of survival in an environment that must be impartial and impersonal. 

But as two foreigners and three Bali Street Dogs viewed a small and trembling puppy huddled in a tiny doorway, a whimpering puppy backed into in a miniscule space, just off a soon to be very busy and very frightening main road, it was impossible to be impartial and impersonal.  It was also inevitable that it would be a she and yet another female puppy, thrown for reasons that are completely avoidable but are reluctantly understandable.      

It is hoped that Juno as she has come to be known will find a home through the adoption services of the Bali Animal Welfare Association.

www.bawabali.com

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