People with hearts of gold.

There are people with hearts of gold in our midst. A clear cut example of such people are two ladies I have the fortune to know and befriend. Well, let me tell you what they did recently.

There are two lovely dogs which live up the hill at Taman Semarak. They were lovely creatures, constantly meeting the trekkers with their wagging tails. Even the Muslims who trek up that hill found them not a problem. Of course, now and then when others are not in sight, a few could have thrown stones at them for they seem to understand that Muslims do not like them to go near and run off whenever the Muslims approach them.

Well, nature took its course and soon those beautiful female dogs had a male visitor. The male seem to know when the females were on heat and would come at the right time to impregnate those females. Each time it happened, we got a lot of puppies at the top of the hill. They were such adorable puppies that it was not difficult to have people interested in taking them home as pets. Sometimes, however, some of the puppies died. Certainly, those who have showered their love on those puppies by patting them, playing with them, remove ticks from their bodies and fed them felt sad that those young puppies should have to suffer death so early in life.

These two ladies thought about the fate of future puppies. Those who came to the hill and wanted puppies as pets were few. How long could we find people to adopt them? How many dogs could those wonderful people feed? And if one day the population of dogs were to increase, would someone ask the dog-catchers to come and trap them or shoot them?

With the present two dogs patrolling the hill slopes, the place is so safe from so many things. Snakes for one thing would not slither out into the paths where the dogs could see them. The dogs' presence can deter strangers who are not used to their existence on that hill. And the chances of people using the hill for undesirable purposes could be less with those dogs patrolling it.

To ensure that the situation remains as it is, the two ladies told the others of their plan to sterilise the dogs. For that we gave donations so that there would be sufficient money to pay for sterilisation of the two females by a veterinarian. Sufficient kind folks were in agreement with the project. Thus it was that on the 3rd of April, a Saturday morning, the two ladies came in a car to take the dogs to a veterinarian at Sungai Dua in Penang Island. Then, on the 13th of April, with the dogs safe and recovered from the sterilisation process, I went with one of the ladies to pick up those dogs. It cost the good people six hundred and sixty ringgit but all of them were so happy to see the dogs still healthy and strong back at the hill.

The lady who drove her car to fetch the dogs must love them a lot for she did not complain at all despite one of the dogs defecating onto her back seat. Instead, she was so happy to see them that she hugged and patted them, uttering words of endearment.

We are happy for the dogs to be safely back at the hill, meeting their many human friends who bring them food and water each day. It's wonderful that there are still such loving people in our world. Thank God for that and the beautiful world we live in.