Khan isn't "our" four-legged friend but he is our four-legged friend in that I mean we haven't adopted/rescued him but we do go out of our way to visit him, buy him things, and are trying to build a bond with him. I guess in a sense we kind of have already rescued him because we have visited him twice already this past week and both times we've brought him treats, and other people too for that matter. Today we bought him an extra special treat -- raw meat. He went bonkers at the smell of it as did the other three pups there.
With each visit to Khan comes yet another lengthy discussion with his current owner, his second owner. Snickers pushed him again about how much it'd cost us to take him out of his "job" and situate him at our club. The man dropped his price somewhat but on the bases that we'd let him visit Khan at our club and that we'd take good care of him. I think the owner does in fact care for Khan in that he's admitted that he no longer is "good enough" for him because he can't walk him. I appreciated him acknowledging that because Khan does deserve more than he's currently getting. "Even prostitutes need love", I sarcastically said to Snickers. Snickers said that was rude of me to say such a thing, to throw such a label on him, but it's true. He does get paid for sex as do prostitutes, it's as simple and as true to fact as that. So if he were a person you'd call him a prostitute, a hooker, a male gigolo. But he's an animal and so people seem to think it's ok. He's got award-winning genes and is a registered pure breed so the going rate for people to breed their female dog with him is $3,000. I don't really know what I feel about it actually, him being used to breed. I mean, I first met him because we wanted to breed Pyen Chi for few of our friends who wanted Tibetan Mastiffs but didn't know how to go about buying one. You don't exactly see Tibetan Mastiffs at pet stores in Korea and we didn't want them to support the whole pet store market, so we decided to try to breed Pyen Chi. Pyen Chi stayed with Khan for a little over a week, if I remember correctly, and I remember feeling so bad for leaving there but it wasn't nearly as bad as I felt when I returned to get her. She was so dirty but also so miserable looking. I remember waking up to the owner calling us one morning, telling us that some how Pyen Chi had escaped and ran off into the neighbouring rice fields. Leave it to my girl to do such a thing. Sounds like something I would most definitely do. When we arrived to go fetch Pyen Chi, she ran to us as soon as we called her. She thought we were taking her home and I felt terrible that we weren't.
I know my four-legged friends are dogs, I'm well aware of that, but I'm also well aware of a deeper connection that people have with their pets and how a pet is never just a pet to most. I am no exception here. I love them and talk to them as if they were people, two-legged friends, but I don't think Khan is loved and the more and more I visit him the more and more I feel sorry for him. He eats, sleeps, poops, and pees in a cage no bigger than 5ft x 7ft and that's where he now stays 24/7. When he stands up on his back two legs he is taller than me. He is about 165cm tall, I am 157cm. So though he has just enough room in his cage to stretch his legs, it also means he has to stretch out in what ever poop is laying around and has no room to really be active.
My prediction is that I'm going to be the one to fall in love with Khan and that soon he'll join our growing gang of four-legged friends. Snickers is all about taking Khan and I've been the one stopping it from happening but I know I'm a sucker for a sad story. Just recently I've joined a Facebook event page called "Ulsan City Shelter Foster Buddy Program" and with every big dog posting they post, I show Snickers and tell him "I want this one". He says I want every one and he's right. I love the big dogs.
Here's the event description for the Ulsan City Shelter Foster Buddy Program:
The purpose of this event is to get people together to share resources; some people have money and some people have living space and through a combined effort we can help the animals at Ulsan city shelter to find foster homes where they can be safe and receive medical attention.There are many dogs and cats at the shelter who will be euthanized starting in December. Further information can be found on the EFL FB page, but volunteers are currently working very hard to find homes for about 400 animals who will be euthanized in order to allow the city shelter to remain open. According to information from shelter volunteers the euthanization will start with the larger dogs. To save on time and space only one picture is listed per animal, for additional pictures or videos please see the EFL FB page. https://www.facebook.com/groups/empathy.for.life/
Now after reading that, tell me the strings of your heart weren't pulled and you didn't just give a big sad "awww"...exactly. And with every notification I get for this event, I know I'm going to see another sad beautiful pup that's desperately needing a home. Wish I could just turn our entire Hulk building into a kind of dog sanctuary... that would be pretty awesome.
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