Visiting Mr Lee and his dogs

We paid a courtesy call to Mr Lee Mook Lek and his dogs this afternoon in Balakong.

The journey from Subang Jaya took almost an hour but that’s because we got lost a little bit!

Mr Lee’s dogs were all very friendly, clean and definitely healthy-looking!

His home-converted shelter was also very clean and unlike many other dwellings with this many dogs where one would expect and accept that there would be the familiar dog scent, but Mr Lee’s home-cum-shelter did not have the faintest dog scent at all. His dogs too were all very, very clean. And happy!

Mr Lee was also cleaning up the various dog zones in his house at that time. But he had time to introduce each dog to me and tell me their background and rescue stories.

Happy and well-loved dogs are usually very friendly and these are definitely friendly and happy dogs.

Every dog is a rescue. Some were rescued as puppies, some rescued because they were found in an injured state. Every injured or sick dog has been given veterinary treatment.

This dog (above) was rescued with a very critical head injury. The vet said there was no treatment and advised to have the dog euthanised. But Mr Lee refused as he thought the dog stood a chance to heal. He was right. After a few weeks of care, the dog’s head wound healed and here he is today. I could still see the scar of the wound, but the dog is perfectly fine.

Every single dog has a history. Mr Lee pointed out each one and told me their respective stories. There was one who had been rehomed, but fell sick after that. The adopter said he did not want a “sick dog” anymore and returned the dog to Mr Lee. So Mr Lee took the dog to the vet and spent a considerable amount to have the dog treated. The dog recovered and is perfectly healthy now, still living with Mr Lee.

Another dog was captured by the council as he was a bit of an escape-artist. Mr Lee paid the compound and got the dog back.

Quite a number of the dogs have a medical history. They have been treated and have all recovered.

The dogs live in different zones in the small house. Mr Lee separates them in such a way so as to prevent them from fighting with each other. There is a father-and-son pair who live at the side of the house. They peeked at us too.

Mr Lee says if he is at home, he can break up their fights, but whenever he goes out, he will ensure the dogs go back to their respective zones so that no fight will break out when he is away.

Mr Lee offered to take us to see the other shelter in an abandoned factory, but we did not wish to disturb his daily routine, so we made our way home.

I also brought along a personal dogfood donation and a CNY gift for Mr Lee.

Mr Lee is a vegetable seller and dog rescuer. He is currently looking after 43 dogs in two locations – his own home-converted shelter and in an abandoned factory not too far away from his house. We sent a consignment of food aid for his dogs a few days ago and will be fundraising again for him for another consignment in mid-February. According to Mr Lee, the dogs were interested in the canned food but did not eat so much of the kibble. He said they probably need more time to adjust their taste buds to the new taste of the kibble.

He works very hard to ensure his dogs are well cared for. We hope to be able to help him and his dogs as much as we can. He will not be taking in anymore dogs because his vegetable business is not doing too well at the market.

Thank you very much to all donors who have contributed to the food aid for this month.