Dumped animal story has a good ending
AMAROSA - Animal rescuer saves the lives of eight dogs after they were allegedly left in the field – abandoned by their owners.
It’s not everyday that one rescues a dog and its litter.
Ruimsig resident and frequent animal rescuer, Annatjie van Niekerk called Northsider with an interesting story.
Van Niekerk said she had received a call from a woman who informed her about a stray dog that was wandering around Amarosa in Flora Haase Road.
“The thing that concerned me was that according to the woman who informed me, the dog had been roaming around in the streets for the last couple of weeks.”
Van Niekerk said she packed in a cage that she uses to trap cats in, and she then releases them at a later stage.
“As I arrived in the last known location where the animal was spotted, I saw the dog which was a Jack Russell. I tried to catch her but it was extremely difficult, as she seemed scared and kept on running away.”
She said that as she was running around after the dog, she noticed a box in a open field next to the road that the animal kept on looking at.
“The most amazing thing happened next. As I approached the box and peeked to look inside, I noticed that there were seven beautiful little puppy faces looking back at me.”
Van Niekerk further explained that she immediately took the puppies out of the stinking box. “It shocked me to think that anyone will dump an animal and her puppies. Why would they rather not go and drop them off a their nearest SPCA or Friends of Rescued Animals (Fora), an organisation that takes care of abandoned animals and helps to find them homes?”
“The next challenge was to try and catch the mother, which seemed to be a difficult task to manage on my own. I could not use the rabbit cage as the Jack Russell was too big to fit into it, so I had to use a leash to catch the animal but it kept on running away. Luckily, a good Samaritan stopped and helped me to catch the animal which was in a bad state.”
Van Niekerk said that she dropped the mother and her pups off at Fora.
“I work quite closely with the organisation and I regularly drop off animals rescued from the streets. The mother and her pups are currently receiving help at FORA and I want to thank an anonymous person that donated R5000 to help the mother and her pups.”
