Re-powering Power

 

A couple of days ago I went to office for a work day. It was a very good day at the office and upon completing the train journey home in the evening, Raed asked about my day as I sat in the car.

"Had a great day at the office," I told him. It certainly felt good returning to office for work after two years of work at home arrangement, no thanks to Covid-19. What I missed most was the face to face meetings. A hard core BD person, I missed meeting potential and existing clients. But, going back to office certainly felt good.

After answering Raed, I felt something amiss. "How was your day?" I asked him. Raed took up a job as sports coach in November 2021 and on that day he had a session at an international school at Brickfields. We could have travelled together since his place of work was close to mine but as usual I preferred the public transport. You see, I do a lot in the time that I commute to and fro work when I travel by train - read, manage our online fashion business and write. I take one train from Putrajaya Sentral and then switch to Komuter at KL Sentral, a total of mere 30 minutes travel for a distance of more than 40 kilometres as opposed to the one hour drive by car.

The car was okay, Raed was alright so what was a miss?

He started telling me what happened slowly because he knew that I would get agitated easily if family was affected in anyway, more so if it was our dogs.

"Power was injured," he said. That's surprising. Why would Power be injured. He is a very good, disciplined boy.

"The jungle?" I asked for in my mind that is the only way he could be injured because when we first placed him and his family at the land, at one instance his hind paw was caught in a vine. We presume he was caught for sometime, because by the time Raed realised he was missing and went looking for him in the dense jungle adjacent to the land, a German Sheppard and a Golden Retrievers were keeping Power company.

" No, not the jungle", he said. "Hamouda (Mohammed) sent me a message which I saw right after I finished my coaching class - it was blood all over our farm house. Power's paw was cut by broken glass and he bled a lot."

"Besi buruk?" I asked immediately. Raed nodded. Besi buruk refers to the recycling centre adjacent to the land that we had rented. The owner said that his land had been vacant for a long time because no one wanted to rent land near the recycling centre. In Malaysia, besi buruk refers to recycling centres. These centres are not that bad if managed properly but the fact is they work with pure rubbish does not help. So, at times it became very challenging for us as our dogs, usually Mimi and Mafia, loved to scavenge there and bring back bottles, discarded clothing, plastic bags - you name it, so much so, that we had our own pile of rubbish - transported by the dogs and accumulated at our land!

For records, recycling centres make a lot of money - the owner of this one owns a pick up truck and a BMW - both brand new, mind you! Not to mention the vintage cars that he has accumulated over the years.

So, how did Power got his paw cut there? Raed said there were large pieces of broken glass at the back entrance of the recycling centre. Mocha, one of the puppies, loved to run to the recycling centre every time he hears their dogs bark. He had probably run there and Power would have followed him, to make sure his son did not get into trouble. That was how the injury could have happened.

Mocha loved to pick a fight with the dogs at the recycling centre. Since the day we moved the dogs there, the fight for supremacy of territory has been on going. Our puppies, plus Jodha, would sprint to the recycling centre at lightning speed whenever they hear those dogs at their back entrance. There have been a few fights, too. Unlike us, the owner of the recycling centre does not give two hoots about his dogs. He had about 20 dogs before four puppies died post vaccination and another two were given away to adopters. The remaining are kept in cages all day long, save a few and let out when their business closes for the day. That is also when they close the back entrance.

For us, our dogs are precious. We take those dog fights seriously because dog bite injuries could be bloody. There were occasions where we had found bite marks and bloody injuries on our dogs when Mohammed had gone out for the day. Mimi has had them. For a female, she was very ferocious. Mocha's size is of an adult Labrador; his energy and strength matches. Mafia, though, smaller built than Mocha, is very stealth in fighting. Mohammed told us that when the dog gang fights start, Mafia would move stealthily in the bushes and attack the recycling centre dogs unexpectedly from their back, cutting of all escape route - like a sniper, he was!

It was Mohammed who discovered the bloody trail from the broken glass pieces to the farm house and apparently Power had lost a lot of blood. The gash was deep, had two of them and he was bleeding like an open tap. Raed rushed back from the city, bundled Power and Mohammed up in the car and drove to our vet at Nilai. The doctor had to administer 15 stitches to close both gashes, but only after sedating Power. Though medium built, Power's minor bite could render the arm paralysed. Trust me, we have all been bitten a few times before. Power does not like anyone taking his food away and he, at times, takes his children's bones. When we tried to return the bones to the puppies, he just snapped and the arm went limp. Such was the force of his teeth.

Raed and Mohammed asked the doctor to sedate him first and then stitch up the wound. Apparently Mohammed told the doctor that should Power wake up while he was being stitched, he and Raed would run out, closing the door behind them so that the doctor could have his time with Power! I am sure, though very experienced, the doctor would have been terrified. Mohammed said the stitches were not good, I have yet to see them.

When we reached our home at Cybersouth, Power was lying down at the porch. He recognised me and wagged his tail, limply. I asked Raed to bring the food for dogs to the land with Abby while I sat down beside him. Power, the love of my life, needed me and I decided to keep him company instead of going to the land to see the remaining eleven.

He was still drowsy but tried to stand up. He could not. The effect of the sedative was still strong. I spent the rest of my evening and night with him, stroking his head to make him feel better. For him it was as if his life was back after seeing me. Such was his dedication and love for us. Strangely, I did not miss the rest though I did not see them that day. It felt like with Power with us at our home, our world was complete.

The first thing he needed was food. He needed to eat, so I boiled some chicken gizzard and fed him. He ate but still could not stand up. Later that night we took him out for his toilet matters and left him to sleep off his drowsiness.

The next day Power was a lot better. He ate fried chicken and rested well. He always slept wherever we were. It was so since we adopted him back in February 2020. He had always slept by my bedside or Raed's. As I type this article, there he lies below my work table near my feet.

The next day, that is today, Power and I went for his morning toilet cum exercise walk after his breakfast. He was so happy to see me descent the stairs that despite his bandaged leg, he climbed up to greet me. He could stand up though he supported himself only on his good hind leg while keeping the bandaged one off the ground. We had left the main door open last night. Raed's room is on the ground floor of our home, so should any noise be heard, he could easily run out to check. Leaving our main door open is not new for us. You could leave the safe door open if Power is around! No one would dare come anywhere near. He is very protective of all four of us - Raed, Mohammed, Abby and I.

When the crows came bothering this morning, Power chased them off, on his three good legs! The absence of the use of his fourth leg has not slowed him a bit. His speed was like lightning as usual, and had the crows not been able to fly off, he would have caught them.

We plan to send him off to the land today evening. The place is not the same without him. The puppies were such a nuisance when I went there late evening, yesterday. Had Power been around he would have kept them at bay while I get off the car. But he wasn't and the puppies were jumping up, biting my hand, pulling my clothes, biting my feet - oh, you name it! Dogs, especially puppies, bite our hands to ask for food, bite our legs to ask us to play with them, jump on us and pull our clothing to express their love. Luckily, I had extra soup for them, so I fed them some soup and that settled them down. It was only after that I could join Mohammed at the patio to check on the six newborn puppies. Jodha was feeding Rocky and Elsa. Suddenly, she snapped at Elsa and only God knows why. Jodha used to do that with Mimi; coz she felt Mimi was of a different breed! We expect something similar with Elsa. But had Power been around, she would have probably not snapped at Elsa and the rest of the older puppies would not have crowded at the patio as Power would have kept them at bay, away from the newborns and Jodha.

He is such a lovely boy, a caring partner for Jodha (whenever she gets wet in the rain, he would lick the water off her coat, though he could be soaking wet himself!) and we need him to be re-powered so that everything will be back to normal.

For us, Power getting back to normal is the normalcy that brings stability to our lives. Now that he is back to normal, almost, his power is needed at the land.

(I had informed the owner of the recycling centre of the incident. He was not convinced it was broken glass that had caused the injury; he said it was probably caused by zinc. Zinc does not cut the bottom of the paw. His own dog had experienced a cut by zinc on the side of the leg and he waited till there were maggots on the wound before he summoned the doctor to treat his dog. Nevertheless, diplomatically, I told him that in the future if we find any broken glass or anything that causes injury, we would clean up the place because not only our dogs run there, theirs, too. Had it been his dog that had the injury, believe the dog would have probably bled to death or become limp before he did anything for the dog)