‘Puppy’ leaves for KL  after treatment
NST, 14 Oct 2005

TAIPING, Thurs. It was a touching scene: The two women bidding farewell to the mongrel whose claim to fame was being shot at by the Taiping municipal council’s dog-shooting team a month ago.

Taiping Animal Clinic staff K. Premalatha, 23, and M. Rubini, 19, unashamedly showered the dog, whom they called "Puppy", with hugs and kisses moments before it was led onto a waiting van and driven off to Kuala Lumpur about 1pm today.

Earlier, while waiting for the van, Premalatha was seen spraying the two-year-old male mongrel with perfume while whispering a few words of advice in Tamil to Puppy.

Despite their affection for the dog, which was placed under their care for almost two weeks, they are unable to adopt it as they already own dogs.

The attending veterinarian, Dr S.R. Rajan, said the animal had almost completely recovered from its injury.

The stray dog was shot on Sept 3 by the dog-shooting team. Normally, team members would chase a wounded dog and kill it. But in this case, the dog escaped.

The dog’s plight was highlighted by a reader in the New Straits Times Letters page on Sept 27, prompting several animal lovers to embark on a "search and rescue" mission.

A couple found the animal in a secondary jungle near Taman Tupai Emas here at 10.30pm on Sept 28 and it was sent to Dr Rajan’s clinic the following day.

A caring citizen, Ros Diana Yassin of Shah Alam, paid RM520 to cover the cost of the animal’s treatment.

She plans to visit the dog which has been temporarily placed in the clinic of Dr Jon S. Satyamoorthy in Cheras. He is the pro-tem president of the Malaysian Pet Owners Association.