.png)
A couple of days ago, I bought a dog. We were headed to the Beijing Zoo when we went under a tunnel. A peasant was selling puppies. One of the puppies looked identical to a tiger. The fur and face were striped black and orange in perfect unison. I have always had a love for tigers because, to me, they are symbolic for knowledge, power, and beauty.
After the puppy caught my attention, I had to stop and play with it. I examined it thoroughly and it did not appear to be dyed. The fur coat felt smooth and other than being dehydrated, the dog appeared healthy. I wondered if the owner had done something painful to the dog to make it that color. She wanted 80 yuan for the dog. I tried bargaining to 40 since I knew it would be a lot of money to send the dog back to the U.S. I walked away and she ran up to me for 60 yuan, 10 dollars. I agreed and, all of a sudden, I had a tiger-striped dog. She gave me a little pouch to put the dog in. It was the ugliest/cutest puppy I’d ever seen and I hadn’t seen any in America like it (if it was real).
Quickly, I started running into problems. I am in China and do not speak Chinese. I can’t haul the dog around for two more weeks and I’m leaving Beijing in 3 days. The hotel doesn’t allow dogs, so I had to smuggle it in overnight.
I called my mother, and asked her to help find out how to send it back to the U.S. Finally, I found an English speaking veterinarian at the International Center for Veterinary Services. They told me how difficult sending the puppy was going to be. It needed a rabies vaccination, then had to wait 30 days before travel. I wasn’t going to be in China that long.
I finally got a quote from a pet relocator for 20,000 yuan, which is over 3000 dollars to transport the puppy. I couldn’t afford to send the dog that I had bought for 10 dollars back to America for 3000.
The dog stayed with me throughout the night and despite my promise to not name the dog. I quickly caved and named him Diego, after the Tiger in Ice Age. The whole night, the puppy would get up every hour and make sure I was still there. Finally, I made a bed beside my own and hung my hand off so that the puppy could sleep better. The puppy was sweet laying there on the blanket that it had claimed as its own upon arrival to the hotel.
The next morning Sean and I took the puppy to the vet. I sat the dog down and the vet started laughing. “Like a Tiger,” he said. He confirmed that the puppy had been dyed that color. He also confirmed that it was not a boy dog, but actually a little girl. Embarrassing for me not to have noticed, after growing up on a farm, but I didn’t really even check. Diego changed to Tiger Lily, from Peter Pan. I had her tested for disease and everything came back negative. The dye would fade in about 2 months and it didn’t appear to have caused severe damage. 400 yuan later, I had a healthy puppy and no place to take her that was safe. A reminder at this point is that in China dog meat is sometimes found on the menu.
In China, they do not have clinics and shelters like in America. This was extremely bad news on my time scale. Finally, the ICVS told me of a guy that fostered and adopted rescued animals. He was an American fluent in Chinese, Chris. I called him and he finally found a new animal hospital that would take Tiger Lily in for adoption. Chris sent a text for the location in Hutong and we met him there.
He runs a site called lingyang.com (which means adoption service in Chinese). It is nice to know that I saved this puppy from the harsh treatment it would have received here in China. Chris showed us around the clinic and we saw one of the 75 brutally mutilated dogs they were housing. The group of 75 came from a rescue mission of 500 dogs that were found on a meat truck. Thankfully, my puppy will never experience this type of animal cruelty.
Chris confirmed that Tiger Lily would find a good home, very soon, because she was a puppy. A beautiful “tiger striped” puppy. A few days later he called me and stated that she had been adopted by a nice family, the hospital almost didn’t want to give her away because they had loved the puppy too.
In a China blog, I am now known as the “Kind-hearted American” for helping the puppy. I only had Tiger Lily for a day, but I already miss her. I miss her not being beside my bed checking on me every hour. China's standard for animal cruelty are very poor.
On a side note, in relation to the mistreatment of dogs, I went to the Beijing Zoo. At the Beijing Zoo, animals lived in small cages with dirt or concrete floors. Sometimes they forced the animals into really small cages so they had to sit up for people to take pictures with them. The people would throw bottles, bananas and anything they could get their hands on to make the animals move. The only animal that was properly taken care of was the precious panda bears. The other animals didn’t even have water in their cages on hot days. Most could be seen as malnourished and laying down almost dead.
I was shocked by the lack of animal rights in China to say the least, I’m glad America is much more humane.
After the puppy caught my attention, I had to stop and play with it. I examined it thoroughly and it did not appear to be dyed. The fur coat felt smooth and other than being dehydrated, the dog appeared healthy. I wondered if the owner had done something painful to the dog to make it that color. She wanted 80 yuan for the dog. I tried bargaining to 40 since I knew it would be a lot of money to send the dog back to the U.S. I walked away and she ran up to me for 60 yuan, 10 dollars. I agreed and, all of a sudden, I had a tiger-striped dog. She gave me a little pouch to put the dog in. It was the ugliest/cutest puppy I’d ever seen and I hadn’t seen any in America like it (if it was real).
Quickly, I started running into problems. I am in China and do not speak Chinese. I can’t haul the dog around for two more weeks and I’m leaving Beijing in 3 days. The hotel doesn’t allow dogs, so I had to smuggle it in overnight.
I called my mother, and asked her to help find out how to send it back to the U.S. Finally, I found an English speaking veterinarian at the International Center for Veterinary Services. They told me how difficult sending the puppy was going to be. It needed a rabies vaccination, then had to wait 30 days before travel. I wasn’t going to be in China that long.
I finally got a quote from a pet relocator for 20,000 yuan, which is over 3000 dollars to transport the puppy. I couldn’t afford to send the dog that I had bought for 10 dollars back to America for 3000.
The dog stayed with me throughout the night and despite my promise to not name the dog. I quickly caved and named him Diego, after the Tiger in Ice Age. The whole night, the puppy would get up every hour and make sure I was still there. Finally, I made a bed beside my own and hung my hand off so that the puppy could sleep better. The puppy was sweet laying there on the blanket that it had claimed as its own upon arrival to the hotel.
The next morning Sean and I took the puppy to the vet. I sat the dog down and the vet started laughing. “Like a Tiger,” he said. He confirmed that the puppy had been dyed that color. He also confirmed that it was not a boy dog, but actually a little girl. Embarrassing for me not to have noticed, after growing up on a farm, but I didn’t really even check. Diego changed to Tiger Lily, from Peter Pan. I had her tested for disease and everything came back negative. The dye would fade in about 2 months and it didn’t appear to have caused severe damage. 400 yuan later, I had a healthy puppy and no place to take her that was safe. A reminder at this point is that in China dog meat is sometimes found on the menu.
In China, they do not have clinics and shelters like in America. This was extremely bad news on my time scale. Finally, the ICVS told me of a guy that fostered and adopted rescued animals. He was an American fluent in Chinese, Chris. I called him and he finally found a new animal hospital that would take Tiger Lily in for adoption. Chris sent a text for the location in Hutong and we met him there.
He runs a site called lingyang.com (which means adoption service in Chinese). It is nice to know that I saved this puppy from the harsh treatment it would have received here in China. Chris showed us around the clinic and we saw one of the 75 brutally mutilated dogs they were housing. The group of 75 came from a rescue mission of 500 dogs that were found on a meat truck. Thankfully, my puppy will never experience this type of animal cruelty.
Chris confirmed that Tiger Lily would find a good home, very soon, because she was a puppy. A beautiful “tiger striped” puppy. A few days later he called me and stated that she had been adopted by a nice family, the hospital almost didn’t want to give her away because they had loved the puppy too.
In a China blog, I am now known as the “Kind-hearted American” for helping the puppy. I only had Tiger Lily for a day, but I already miss her. I miss her not being beside my bed checking on me every hour. China's standard for animal cruelty are very poor.
On a side note, in relation to the mistreatment of dogs, I went to the Beijing Zoo. At the Beijing Zoo, animals lived in small cages with dirt or concrete floors. Sometimes they forced the animals into really small cages so they had to sit up for people to take pictures with them. The people would throw bottles, bananas and anything they could get their hands on to make the animals move. The only animal that was properly taken care of was the precious panda bears. The other animals didn’t even have water in their cages on hot days. Most could be seen as malnourished and laying down almost dead.
I was shocked by the lack of animal rights in China to say the least, I’m glad America is much more humane.