Adopted by Martin, Crystal & Ruby (senior husky)
Interview with Cactus's Adoptors
What's Cactus history?
Cactus came to us on 17 November 2021. Cactus was a puppy when he came to us, close to 3 months old. He was rescued by Love The Voiceless (LTV) with his other siblings. For us, we are a happy family of three with a 10-year-old husky (Ruby) adopted a year ago. Our wish is to find one more forever fur-friend for Ruby, to play with, to grow up with and grow old together with.
Why did you choose to adopt?
As a couple staying together, we wanted to have an additional family in the house to brighten up our lives. With regards to buying or adopting, we had our choices open for both. 11 years ago, I bought my first dog from one of the pet breeder stores at Pasir Ris Farmway. True enough, my first dog, which was a Maltase, had a lot of health conditions since she was 1 year old. Maybe because of the bad impression I had from purchasing, we are more actively looking out for adoption. And of course, as times change and technology improves, there are a lot of video clips on animals being abandoned or abused posted online. As emotional as we can get, we always believe in second chances and we felt that these fur-kids deserve better lives.
Why Cactus?
We first visited the puppies on 31 October 2021. Almost immediately, Cactus and another puppy caught our eyes, more sparks towards Cactus definitely. His unique colour and puppy eyes attracted us. He was definitely not the most engaging one, while the rest of the puppies were really hyper and excited to see humans. Cactus was just chilling around and playing when he felt like doing so. It was really fated because we already had Ruby sleeps all day and play when she feels like it, we knew we needed a not so active fur-kid. Then Cactus is the best choice for us among all his other siblings.
What are the challenges you've overcome?
Interacting with two dogs for a while is not a problem, if they are unhappy with each other, we will walk away with them. However, housing two dogs from two different family backgrounds, different age groups, being different breeds, having different characters; became a problem. It was difficult to handle Ruby at the start as she had always been a loner her whole life. In addition, Ruby was already 10 years old and she got even more emotional when Cactus entered our lives. Thankfully, Cactus was really cooperative and he did not make a big mess. He knew when to sit silently and wait, while we are handling Ruby’s over-reactions.
What are your key milestones?
We are very proud to say after 3 months of adopting Cactus, right now Ruby and Cactus are like siblings. They will do activities together; going out for walks together, sleeping together, having meals together, playing together, sharing toys together and many more. Ruby has always been a good role model for Cactus and as such, Cactus is also very friendly to humans too. Are Singapore Specials being skittish? I would beg to differ, everyone who comes over to our house loves Cactus.
“Now, we are a happy family of four and we are really glad to have Cactus to accompany Ruby and Ruby to teaching Cactus.” - from Martin & Crystal
What's your adoption experience?
We have been actively looking all over different adoption websites to find a fur-kid to accompany Ruby. We went through interviews, visiting shelters, visiting fosterers' homes, the organisations visiting us; all these took months and we had yet to find a fur-kid we really like. We are really glad we found LTV, on the week we contacted them was also the week we first saw Cactus. We headed to the fosterer’s house on 31 October 2021, Cactus visiting us on 4 November 2021, and eventually, Cactus staying with us since 17 November 2021. As of 23 January 2022, we officially adopted Cactus! The process is seamless, they are very responsive and of course, constantly checking on us to ensure that we are coping well with two fur-kids at home. Within a month we found our love, Cactus, within three months we officially form a happy family of four!
Advice to other adoptors
Be it purchasing or adopting, fur-kids are lifetime commitments. We chose to adopt because we believe these fur-kids deserves a better life ahead, be it just a few more years for Ruby or be it a whole life journey for Cactus. Singapore Specials are always said to be skittish, fearful of humans and may turn aggressive. We personally felt that there are no bad dogs in the world, there are just bad owners. If you want to have a fur-kid, be ready to be a responsible fur-parent. The time spent with them, the love you shower on them, the lessons you teach them; each and every effort determines how they turn out to become. Remember, we can aim for everything, but to them, we are their everything.