Your rewards in life
are the seeds you sow yourself

Bongo the Doberman will attack, unless you happen to be a pussycat!

When he disappointed his owner because he was too nice to the neighbors, he was beaten repeatedly, in the hope that he would serve his purpose and become mean towards intruders on the owner's property. At first he took the beatings, but the more he cringed, the angrier the owner became and the harder he was hit, until one day, he bit his cruel master's hand. This infuriated the man, who then used a piece of wood to beat the dog's hind legs till he collapsed and finally dropped unconscious. Watched by the neighbors, the owner packed his bags and left the house, abandoning the dog tied under the house.

For many days he had no nourishment, until someone took pity on his plight and started to bring him food. But by this time no one could get near him. They had to throw the food to him. But obviously he was also in pain and in need of medical attention and of course a new home. But who would want to take him on, this battered, snarling, angry creature, except perhaps that crazy 'farang' woman, Mrs. DoLittle, who was known to embrace even mangy, smelly street mutts with fleas.

Say no more, the vet was called, the dog was darted, put in a cage and off he went to Love Animal Sanctuary. Mrs. DoLittle had to admit she was faced with a challenge. Although she had wrestled with lions and hugged bears, she was not about to open this cage door with all those big teeth glaring at her. You couldn't even look at the dog without it going into attack mode. What to do? We had to feed it and it couldn't stay in that tiny cage forever.

There was no other option, so Mrs. DoLittle had to use plan D: When all else fails, use reasoning! "Okay, Mr. Doberman, so you don't like people looking at you, well then, I won't! I'll just put on this blindfold here and slowly open the door; just enough to get this food bowl in and please don't eat my hand! There you go...." GROWL munches GROWL munches...

For about ten days I fed the guy blindfolded, until one day there were no growls, just munch, munch, munch. Time for step number two, to get a collar on him, so he could go for a walk. Talk about groping in the dark. I crawled on all four into the cage, blindfolded and lay very still. Then he started sniffing me. I got goose bumps down my spine. Slowly I started stroking his front legs, then his chest and neck, clutching the collar. Without even a snarl he let me put it on him. Then I attached the leash and started backing out the door, hanging on tight. Well let me tell you, as soon as he knew that door was open, he tore out of there on three legs so fast I thought my arm had been pulled out of its socket.

The leash wrapped around my arm, he dragged me up the dirt road. By the time I got the blindfold off, I had two scraped knees, but he was still going. Three kilometers later he stopped and turned to look at me for the first time, a panting mess, heaving for air. At that point I didn't care if he ate me. I looked him straight in the eyes. Then something wonderful happened. He nudged my hand! We were friends. Although my body was in a lot of pain, my heart couldn't have been happier. Tears rolled down my cheeks. I sat down and he licked my face dry.

Now a year later, his body is strong and his leg has healed. But in his mind he is still afraid of men. Only Mrs. DoLittle and two female staff can go into his compound without him attacking. Oh, and I must not forget, Som Tam the pussycat, his best friend.

The morale of this story is: Your rewards in life are the seeds you sow yourself!