Tiggy’s adventure

ON Monday, September 23, one of our recently-rescued dogs mysteriously went missing from a friend’s fenced premises where she was being held and cared for.

She had been found two weeks earlier, apparently dumped, along Golden Grove Lane, a popular site for abandonment of unwanted dogs.

My two friends who had seen her there picked her up and immediately brought her to our low cost spay/neuter clinic which was in operation at the time, at the Dive Shop of the Magdalena Grand Beach and Golf Resort.

After assessing her condition, Dr Raymond Deonanan, the veterinarian responsible for the 80 surgeries successfully completed that weekend, determined that she was too weak to survive surgery.

She lay in a crate, weak, confused, tick-infested. We gave her tinned dog meat (perhaps her first food in God knows how long), water and a Bravecto tablet to get rid of the myriad of blood-suckers packed in her ears and all over her skeletal body.

One of our “Venus volunteers” named her Goldie (short for Golden Grove Lane).

Returning her to the dumping site was a no-no.  She needed special care. Dr Deonanan had diagnosed her as having tick fever and prescribed a course of daily Doxycicline.

I contacted a friend (Z), living in Lambeau, to ask if she could foster her overnight as an emergency. Sadly, Z had to have her beloved dog Luca, euthanised a mere week earlier. Still grieving, she said she was in no condition to take on another animal – especially one requiring special care.

Despite her reluctance, she eventually gave in and told me to bring Goldie. Once at her new location, the dog moved as if in a daze – lost, confused, timid, but curious.

The following day, a friend and I went to check on Goldie. She he was relaxing on the grass in front of the verandah.

“I’ve renamed her Tiggy,” Z said, in soft, fond tones that hinted at the possibility of her having already decided that she would keep the dog – despite having said the day before that she was “not ready.”

“Tiggy is short for Tigger from Winnie the Pooh,” she explained. “She will get strong again and be like a tough tiger!”

A few days passed, with Z giving Tiggy her daily meds, feeding her small food portions throughout the day and allowing her to do her own thing – ie mainly potter around the garden, moving from one spot to the next or lying down under the house to rest.

One day, Z called me in a panic. Someone had seen Tiggy (clearly not a regular pot-hound, but some kind of “fancy breed”) and asked if he could have her so that he could breed her. What an unthinkable proposition, considering her weak, skeletal state.

A few days later, I got a call from Z, saying that the dog had disappeared. She had been fed in the morning, and about 30 minutes after, was nowhere to be seen.

Two friends and I searched the Lambeau area, high and low, on foot and in vehicles, to no avail.

On Wednesday, September 25, I posted photo of her and contact details on my animal rescue page and also sent information to Liz Williams, whose page has a wide reach.

A woman contacted me; she and her daughter had seen Tiggy on Signal Hill on September 23 (the day of her disappearance).

I went there to search. Two men whom I approached said they had seen her running down a street in front of their house. Going there, I encountered a couple who said she had been in their yard the previous afternoon (Tuesday, September 24).

I returned to that location at 3 pm, searching for over an hour, with no luck.

Just after I left, after 4 pm, two other friends continued searching that area and, fortunately, noticed her sitting calmly near to a wall. Their attempts to get her were futile, as she kept running from them, in and out of bushes.

I returned to the location to assist in the potential capture.

Eventually, when Tiggy disappeared into some dense bushes and did not emerge, we decided to stop for that day. Darkness was falling.

A lovely family living nearby agreed to leave food and water for her every morning and evening, to hopefully keep her in the area. Their dog had died two weeks earlier and they had the extra food to spare.

As I write (on Thursday, September 26), this is where Tiggy’s adventure has reached. We are hoping for a positive outcome!