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Traditionally, dogs have been seen as impure
And Muslims have been advised to avoid contacts with dogs.
In an Islamic country like Malaysia, it is very unusual but plausible to see Muslims walking with their own dogs
Today's story brings us all the way to the outskirt of Alor Setar....
Where an old Muslim couple look after more than 500 stray dogs and cats...
During that time, we bought the soil to fill in the land using our EPF savings as well as the money from freelancing
And it took 4000 lorries to fill up the land with soil
After that, we took in all the stray dogs and cats and Mak Intan and i used the decayed wood...
to build them a temporary kennel
We have been here since then
At that time, Pak Mie wasn't around and i was washing clothes and the floor was slippery
And the place wasn't fenced up. When i stood up, i slipped and fell into the river
I fell straight into the river and I didn't know how to swim
At that time, there were two to three puppies that were waiting for me while i was washing the clothes
One of the puppies started barking and immediately a few of the other dogs came...
There were around ten of them and all of them pulled me up to the river bank
I started to cry and kept on hugging them because they saved my life
Since that time, i love dogs so much
How much does the medication costs for the animals?
The medicine costs a lot, close to 1,000 Ringgit per month
Because they have all kinds of diseases. Some have mange, ringworms, fever and so on.
For the daily expenses, if one dog eats 1 Ringgit (worth of food), 500 dogs will be 500 Ringgit.
And that's only for the dogs, for a day.
As for the cats, we give them 7kg of Friskies each time
In a week, I will give rice and fish. Each time, there will be 10kg of fish
For the rest of the time, it will be Friskies
Dogs are all the same to us no matter what breed they are.
We have to separate the sick dogs from the healthy ones
Sometimes, we even have to sleep with the severely ill animals
Because if they make any noise, it will wake up the rest of the dogs and cats
If we put them in the car, it is much easier that way.
Since we don't have a house
So we just place the dogs and cats at the back seat or in front
Where do we get the money?
Actually, the money is a great blessing from Allah swt
From Chinese, Indian, Malay and it never stops
When we have only 10 Ringgit left in the pocket, people will come and give us some donation
People sponsor food, send us chickens and rice
When we started looking after the cats and dogs, we didn't even know what's SPCA, SOS
We only know how to pick up strays, bring them home and raise them
After that, we receive warnings from the Department of Veterinary Services and Public Complain Bureau...
That they wanted to take away the dogs
So i asked them, What's the benefit of taking in all these stray dogs?
We picked up the dogs which their parents have been killed by the Department of Veterinary Services and City Council
People complained saying the dogs are everywhere in this area. When they come, they will catch the dogs
Inject and put the animals to sleep. From there, we were thinking.. Why did they do that?
The puppies that were not caught were taken back home by me
That's why we have a lot of cats and dogs with us
For me, dogs are the most special creation
And for me, i don't have any taboo towards dogs because for many Malays, dogs are a taboo
They said that the dogs couldn't stay in the house. They have to be chased out
People of our race are not happy with me
What's their action?
When they see me, they would spit (showing their disapproval)
And some of them refused to look at me
I am not surprised
But i don't mind because this is between me and my God
I found out that i am actually interested in this sort of lifestyle
Even though it is tough and for us and it is not comfortable when we sleep
But for the two of us, sleeping in the car is like sleeping in Five Star
But actually it is Four Star since it has four tyres
And we have air condition, we get to enjoy the coolness when we sleep
For some people, they couldn't do this
But for our children, when they see us that way they feel sad
But for us, life like this is happy
We are surrounded by forest and river...
with all these animals waking us up in the morning.