03/09/2025
Spider & Mowgli P's Story
Two weeks ago, I set out to find the owners of an emaciated little brown mummy dog I’d seen running along the Arcturus Road on a couple of occasions, not far from Caledonia Butchery. Trailing a short length of chain behind her, it was obvious she wasn’t a stray but, equally obviously, she was feeding pups, foraging for food and in need of help, so I set about knocking on doors, offering a small reward to anyone who could find out where she lived, and was absolutely delighted when a call came in a few days later to say she’d been found.
With Tawanda at the vet, I grabbed a bag of dog meal and box of dog biscuits and, co-opting our gardener as chief translator, we set off to collect our caller, who accompanied us to a little homestead in Chishawasha where we found not one, but two little brown dogs – neither of which was the one we were looking for!! Having said that, they were equally in need of help, not because they were hungry, but because they were both chained up - all day, every day - on opposite sides of the homestead; one to an old tyre, and the other to a tree, alongside an upturned wheelbarrow and rusty old bowl.
Apparently they’d nipped a couple of passers-by at some stage and were only allowed off their chains at night, but once we’d explained that the answer was to socialize, rather than segregate them, their owner unshackled them and, emboldened by the biscuits, a very pregnant Spider and slightly younger girlie called Mowgli allowed us to stroke them as we sat down and discussed the way forward. And so, a week later, I took Tawanda back to the homestead, unannounced, with 2 kennels, lots of soft bedding and another box of bikkies, all of which were much appreciated, both by the dogs and their owner.
Unfortunately, Spider wasn’t there, having gone off with the Gogo, but she’d left her 4 newborn pups at home, so we carefully moved them from her tyre to their new kennel and apparently Spider’s hardly left it since!! The pups are all flourishing but as they’ve already got fleas, we’ll pop back to dust them with Ultrum (the only flea powder we use on pups) and give them their first de-wormer (with a quarter of a Zerokrim CH tablet) when they’re 2 weeks old. How grateful I am that we looked for our little brown mummy dog – the word’s still out and we’re still hoping to find her – but, for now, these 2 girls have a new lease of life; Mowgli’s going to be spayed soon, as is Spider when her pups are weaned, and after so many grueling posts, I couldn’t wait to share their story with you!!
