Xiao Bai (Moo) ~ My life story

My Life Story

I was born in Pasir Ris Farm way, in some tall and dense grass. When I was little, I could barely open my eyes. I crawled around with my brothers and we were always waiting at our birth place for our mum to bring us food. Life among the bushes was not easy at all. We had to endure the rain, the sun and sometimes we have to go through the day with an empty stomach. But that's just how it is as a stray.

Accidents do happen to many of us strays and unfortunately I am one who did not escape it. It was around the 2nd week of my life, I got a cut on my back. It was just a minor cut initially. As strays we always leave the healing to itself. The cut was on my back so I could not lick the wound either. Having done nothing to the wound, it slowly worsened, got more infected and uninvited guests came laying eggs on my wound. The eggs hatched and they manifested quickly, feeding on my flesh. It did not take long before the wound grew into a big and wide round hole infested with maggots. The hole was as big as a fifty-cent coin, which is huge compared to my tiny body. I could only yelp in pain as the maggots fed on my flesh and wriggled around in my wound. I feared water most, as each time it rains the raindrops would fall into the wound and everytime I would scream in excruciating pain.

I grew weaker day by day as the hole on my back became increasingly bigger and the maggots had multiplied faster than ever. I grew weak and I could no longer move and I knew my time would be up soon. Just two weeks on earth and I had to leave this world. Why must this happen to me? Like any other dying living things, I prayed for a second chance and for a one in a life time miracle to happen.

I felt like giving up more and more as the pain grew stronger and I almost did. With only the last few breaths of my life, I curdled with my brothers, yelping in pain and started to let go. With each minute, my eyes grew heavier. I could hear the surrounding sound and everything became slower and faint. I was slowly drifting away... As I was about to shut my eyes, I heard voices of humans nearby. Who are they? They must be voices of angels who comes to take me away... I thought. The next thing I know, a bright light pierced through my eyes. Following that, I was being lifted up. I saw two person, one of them was holding me and the other was placing my brothers into a bag. It was just past evening, and it was cold and dark. But the warmth from their hands kept me warm.

"Hold on little fellow, do not give up now. Everything will be alright!"

The person holding me kept repeating these words to me. They ran from farm to farm asking for help. We stopped at a place where a man working at the farm poured some powder on my maggot infested wounds. It hurts greatly at first but the pain seems to die off a little. No one could really help much, so a cab was called and soon I was on my way to the animal hospital. Many times, my eyes kept closing but I was constantly woken up by the two person who kept motivating me to hang on.

Finally, nearing my death bed, someone came to pull me out from the alley of death. Their concerns for me kept me going. I keep telling myself not to give up given such second chance. But at that point of time, I was too weak to even yelp or think. Minutes seems like years, finally we arrived at the animal hospital. I was admitted straight away. The first thing they did was to wash out the maggots in me. Hundreds of maggots came flowing out of my wound as the assistant use some sort of solution to flush the maggots out. The two person who saved me stood there and watched. I could tell from their face how worried they were and at the same time shocked by the amount of maggots flushed out from my wound. After which, I was brought to do some blood test. After the blood test results were out, I saw a female vet went over to them and what she told them saddens me. The vet told them that I was too weak and that the wound was too big for my size and age. She mentioned that most likely, I would not last over the night. She advised them to end my suffering instead by putting me to sleep.

I wanted to shout out NO! but I could not voice out, even when the vet wants to end my life. I did not want to be gone just like that. I fought hard and struggled for so long and I never wanted to give up. Please do not just put any animal to sleep. I might seem to be dying but I still have the will and power to fight on. Fortunately, they immediately rejected the idea of putting me to sleep and insisted that they would try to save me no matter what the outcome is. I felt a glimpse of hope and heaved a sigh of relief.

Then I was left at the hospital to be treated. I was fed through tubes and the needles that was inserted into my tiny feeble hands, it nearly took my life. I stayed at the hospital to have my condition monitored for many days.

The following day, I felt even weaker. Instantly the vet call my saviours and asked for permission to do blood transfusion. The vet said that its a must as my blood count was way too low. If nothing was done, my life would be in grave danger. The next moment, the vet transferred some blood to me. I guessed they had agreed to do the blood transfer readily then.

Everyday the hospital had two visiting periods. Without fail, my saviours came to visit me during every visiting hour. Accompanying me till its times up for visitors. They pet me and gave me words of encouragement. Many times I was in so much pain I actually feel like just giving up, but their love for me pushed me to continue on. They are the reason why I lived on.

Days later I was discharged from the hospital and brought home by my saviours to be nursed. It was not an easy task as I had to be fed milk every 2-3 hours even throughout midnight, fed with my medicine regularly, and they had to change my bandage and flush my wound twice everyday. I could tell they were exhausted but they still care a lot for me. Day by day my wound grew smaller and I felt less pain. I started to crawl, walk and play like any normal puppies. I had never felt any happier.

It is now going to be the second year of my life and here I am, still alive and kicking in my person's house. All thanks to them for saving me and giving me a chance to live on!

I wonder what happens at the moment if they agreed with the vet to put me to sleep.. Where would I be now? All these could not be possible.  I'm so thankful to my owners and I must repay them by loving them back for the rest of my life (=

So to everyone of you pet owners out there, please do not put animals to sleep for the sake of saving cost, convenience or even if you think they are not going to make it. Sometimes we do want to live on but we don't have vocies to say it out. Sometimes miracles do happen.