K9 to UAE pet lovers: Bring home a puppy

Dubai: Lola and Lenny found their happy ending on Tuesday. The two-month old siblings found a home in the arms of the Valvona family. The adoption was swift. Within a day, the pups were bonding with Teresa, Adrian and their son Daniel in K9's socialising room.

Teresa Valvona says the puppies, who are her birthday gift, will join her existing family of three other dogs, one of whom was also adopted from K9, the charity dog rescue centre that also homes abandoned dogs.

"Three years ago we adopted Tilly from here, and this time around, when we decided to expand our family, we knew we wanted to come back here to find our next baby."

Not all dogs at K9 are as lucky as Lola and Lenny. "In an ideal world, every single dog will find a home and someone to love. In reality though, dogs are abandoned all the time," says Dorothy Wanless, a committee member at K9.

With 144 dogs in the shelter currently and nearly 40 more on the waiting list, the number of dogs being abandoned far outweighs the number of dogs being homed. "On an average, 10 to 15 of our dogs find new homes every month. But there are many more on the waiting list, just waiting to find a home and food to eat," she says.

Take the case of Leon. The two-year-old male was brought to K9 in April by Dubai Municipality. Extremely docile and friendly, Leon is one of hundreds waiting to find someone to love him. The group of puppies, fondly nicknamed Fairy Puppies, are desert dogs. Brought to K9 when two months old, the puppies are now in their "teenage" years of six months to one year.

But due to their timid nature they rarely find the right home. "Most people want a puppy that still looks like a puppy, which is up to eight to 10 weeks. They want a dog with no temperament problems… What many don't realise is that there is no ‘bad dog'," says Wanless.

Wanless and her team are encouraging people to adopt a dog instead of buying a breed. "We vaccinate our puppies at the ages of eight and 12 weeks, and microchip and neuter them at six months. They are all wormed and treated for fleas and ticks. Although each puppy that goes through our system costs us Dh3,000, people adopting the dogs need only make a contribution of Dh600. The point is to ensure that people understand the responsibility that accompanies being a dog owner, and to find suitable, loving homes for all our little ones," she says.

Dog facts