Introducing the Newest Member of our Family…
We’ve been looking & praying for a puppy as we love dogs and our home has felt very empty since we returned to Telefomin. When we lost Ray, our little black maltese terrier-toy poodle cross back in March, that was somewhat traumatic for us and very hard to say goodbye to him. We burried him in our back garden and planted an Avocado tree over his grave. We’ve been grieving his loss during our Home Assignment, but we decided that, despite the pain of loss, we wanted to get a new dog. Nothing could ever take Ray’s place, but we are a dog family!
This is Daisy, our new puppy who joined us on 22 September. She came from a PNG family living in the settlement on the edge of Tabubil, the mining town which Ryan flies to a couple of times a week. She was one of 3 sisters who we think are about 4-6 weeks old, although we were told she was a little older when we decided to adopt her. Shiv flew with Ryan to Tabubil to pick her up and do some shopping in Tabubil. The grocery store there is well supplied from Australia, so we were able to get dog flee shampoo, flee powder, doggy nail clippers and a collar, as well as dog food and yummy treats for when she’s a little bigger.
Because she’s a PNG dog, she came to us riddled with flees, with sores all over her body, conjunctivitis, diarrhea and worms. She had 3 baths and 4 flee treatments in her first 48 hours with us, as well as extensive grooming to make sure we got rid of all the flees and did not bring any into our house. We have some medicine for her conjunctivitis and we’re hoping that a week of that and good food, along with bathing her sores daily, will make her a new puppy in a week or so.
We were so grateful for an old friend of ours, Michael, who used to be the Chief Pilot in PNG and a vet in his former life. He was always available to give advice about Ray and even performed minor surgery on him once. We contacted him and his wife, Nicki, as we were concerned with Daisy’s eyes. He put our minds at ease and prescribed some medicine which we had left over from giving to Ray, so that was super helpful! We’re not sure where our nearest vet is in PNG, we do know there is an RSPCA shelter in Port Moresby with a vet, but that is a very expensive 2 hour commercial flight away, or 2 flights with MAF. We’ll probably have to do that trip in about 5 months’, when it’s time to have Daisy spayed.
Shiv is taking being a puppy mum very seriously, she has downloaded the book “Puppies for Dummies” and a couple of dog training apps to make sure Daisy grows up to be well behaved and not a nuisance to our neighbours. We’d also like to teach her to heel so she can run and walk with us once she’s fully grown. She should grow up to be a mid-sized dog, if she is the same size as her mum, but we don’t know anything about her dad, so we’ll just have to wait and see how big she gets in a year’s time…
We’re so grateful there is some puppy food and supplies available in PNG, but we will be ordering a few things from home to help give Daisy as healthy a start as possible. In just a few days she has warmed very well to us and become a permanent and beloved member of our family.
Please pray for healing for Daisy’s eyes, sores and the worms (we have no puppy de-worming drugs yet).
