This is not our playground

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Our mommy gave birth to 10 of us puppies at a construction site. The first thing our bodies touched when we came out to the world, was the cold soil on the ground, strewn with nails and metal scraps. Mommy chose to give birth to us deep behind some metal beams where no one would ever see or find us. Our mommy did not care for us nor give us milk – she spent her days roaming the streets for food, eating stale food left behind by workers and leaving us to fend for ourselves. Mommy went on for days without food. So did we.

The place we called home
We were barely a few weeks old, our eyes had hardly opened but we could smell the scent of leftover food in the distant garbage bins and the sourish smell made us very hungry. At that moment, the smell of stale food was the most delicious scent we had ever known.

Where mommy gave birth to us, there was little shelter from the sun and rain, but we liked the rain because that was the only time we had water to drink and rain water was the only meal we had. To us, it helped fill our little tummies, but it made us bloated too. We also looked forward to the rain soaking into the soil – as the soil was the only solid food we had. No one knew we existed, hidden behind the beams, so it wasn't surprising no one came to feed us.

That first one month of our lives was absolutely miserable, with our days being occupied with thoughts of extreme hunger while we lived in conditions of the extreme heat or wet rain. When it poured, we stuck close together to keep each other warm. Life was pure torture and we could not imagine another 10 years of living life this way.

Puppies eating the soil after the rain

Our nights were terrifying when the rats that scurried around us were twice our size and the noise they made sent shivers down our little spines. All this time, Mommy was nowhere to be seen. During the day, the heat was unbearable and we tried hiding under or inside the metal beams to seek shelter from the sweltering heat. That was how our first sibling was killed. He was trying to hide from the scorching sun and he didn’t see the workers using the forklift to lay down the metal pipes. In an intsant, he was crushed and died immediately. The painful cry he let out pierced the air and we remembered that sound for days.

Puppy crushed to death

Now, there were 9 of us left, and we were barely a month old. One night, we heard people talking beyond the metal beams were we lived. We saw flashes from their torch lights and we cried as loud as our weak little lungs could, in the hope that they would hear us, find us, feed us and save us. We heard them asking the workers where the puppies were, but most of the workers were either unaware we existed or said it was too dark and dangerous to find us. We also heard them saying that mommy was very skittish and wary of humans and thus could not be caught for sterilization. They spoke amongst themselves and we heard them say it was too dark and dangerous to search for us and that they would come back the next night with more light and more pet carriers.

We were hidden deep inside this rubble

After what seemed like eternity, the voices drifted off and our only hopes faded into the night . . . . .

In the evenings, when all the heavy machinery around us stopped working, my siblings and I, would play on the metal beams – it was the only home and it was our playground. Suddenly, without any warning, one beam shifted and instantly crushed two of my siblings. Immediately, they were flattened - gone forever. We cried loudly but no one seemed to hear us.

Another puppy crushed to death

Nightfall came again and we heard the sound of a van pulling up. We also heard the same familiar voices that said that they would come back search for us. Today, we saw who they were. The volunteers were three ladies holding torch lights. Again, we cried as loudly as we could, praying that they would hear and find us hidden behind all the metal beams.

We could hear them telling each other not to slip while standing on the beams. We also heard them commenting about the lingering stench that smelt horrible. While trying to get to where we were, they saw the source of the stench: lots of bloody stools on the surrounding soil. These stools were produced by our poor little bodies.

Bloody stools from the puppies

We tried running away when we first saw them as we were unsure of their intentions. Yet, their voices were soothing and reassuring, telling us they would take us to a much better place. The first to be saved was my brother. This was because he was stuck precariously on a metal beam as his left leg was wedged in between the beams. We could see blood from his leg that was still fresh and dripping.


Beams haphazardly put, resulting in the puppy's fall into a gap

Puppy unable to move as his leg was caught

Trying to extract the puppy without further hurting it

Puppy's leg was stuck and volunteer could not move too much as the wooden planks could shift and hurt the puppy further
They extracted him, washed his leg and placed him into a pet carrier. We heard him squealing, as he wanted to be with us.


Puppy with blood oozing out from his leg wound

Next, these nice people took another two of my siblings, whom they found eating soil that strewn with metal shavings. Soon, all three siblings were put safely in the pet carrier. The volunteers searched deeper and found another of our sibling's hidden inside a metal beam. She too, was taken to safety.

Puppy hiding inside the beam

I heard one of the volunteers shouting in despair when she saw my two siblings, crushed between the metal beams. They wanted to help but it was inaccessible to them and they would have put themselves in danger had they tried to shift the beams. The volunteers had wanted to remove my dead siblings as felt that my two dead siblings deserved a proper burial, bless their souls.

Lifeless bodies of the two crushed puppies

The rest of us were soon caught and brought to the van. At that time, all our bodies were covered with mud, blood and pooh. Eventually, all seven of us were soon in three pet carriers and were brought to a volunteers home. My brother with the bleeding leg was first to be taken out. His wound was a big gaping hole with blood oozing out and it needed immediate medical attention.

Injured puppy being taken out of the carrier

The volunteers washed the wound carefully, gave him a nice warm bath before wrapping him up in a soft towel. Then they applied medication on his leg, cleaned his tick infested ears and put him back into the newly cleaned carrier.

One by one we were taken for a nice warm bath, checked for injuries, had our ears cleaned and wrapped up in towels that felt nice and warm. We never smelt this good nor felt so clean. At this point, we were only 7 weeks old.

After all this, we were put back into the pet carriers and given CLEAN fresh water to drink. To us, it was the sweetest drink we had ever tasted. Altogether, the volunteers took all of four hours to rescue and get us cleaned up. It was past midnight by the time they were done.

They kissed each and everyone of us good night and gave us a cuddle before they left. They also told us they would take us to the vet the next day to have all of us checked out and vaccinated.

We were rescued by humans – nice humans for that matter, and that night, for the first time in 7 weeks, we slept like babies. Nice, clean and warm and not having to worry about a thing in the world. I never thought I would see the bright light at the end of the tunnel, but there it was, shining brightly for all of us.

All cleaned up and smelling goooooood
For all of you reading this story and moved by our plight, please know that we are not the only ones out there. There are MANY MANY more puppies, unsterilized mommies, living out there and no one knows they exist. They only appear during the night because during daylight, their safety and lives are often threatened by humans, heavy vehicles and machinery, due to the surroundings they live in.

Please help Noah’s Ark. Their kindness has helped give us a proper life, a life we all deserve. Help them. Donate to them. Not just to pay for our puppy food, our medical expenses, vaccinations, microchips, but donate generously to them and their Project Industrial Dogs http://noahsarkcares.blogspot.com/2008/09/project-industrial-dogs-importance-of.html so that they may sterilize more stray dogs, and prevent more unwanted and unnecessary births.

No one should live the way we did. No one.