EDITOR- It was the car guards who initially alerted me to puppies at Carrington Primary School – the lower campus, opposite the cemetery. So four years ago I went to investigate and found four pups aged about six weeks living under one of the school buildings – alongside the Induna’s quarters.
While I was there, Jacquie Dewar – who was then the Chief Inspector at SPCA at the time, arrived. We sat quietly and the pups came out to play. As we moved they shot back under the house but I grabbed a white pup and held on to it. Poor little dear squealed like a pig that I wanted to let it go. Jacquie urged me not to let it go but to take it home and find an everlasting home for this pup.
The Induna arrived and I said that I would give him R100 for each pup he caught. Possibly this was a stupid thing to do. That night he called with two black ones. All girls. In the meantime I kept these 3 pups. I did not want them breeding again at that school. During the week, another friend found a tiny brown pup sitting on the pavement outside her house and realising that a pup so small should not be out and about.
I vaccinated my lot and micro chipped them and tried to find them a home. One of my teachers took one black female and I kept the other two along with 3 poodles. Crazy. They have since grown into gorgeous Labrador cross border collie dogs. They are neutered as I did not want to perpetuate the wanton breeding. And they are very calm and love children.
Since then, this mother has had more litters. I can only assume that most of the pups died. I did see her a few times with a black dog the carbon copy of my black girl. And I felt very sorry for them. They seem to use the cemetery as their ‘go to’ home as I have seen them in Fielden Drive. At some time this mother must have been someone’s pet. I still see them. A little foxy has now joined the pack – so he has run away from someone in the area. Dogs run, and once they run you cannot catch them – I once picked up a collie at the sunken gardens on the beach, who had run away from his home in Kensington Drive as a result of Guy Fawkes. She was called Braveheart and had been on the run for 3 weeks. 19 years ago a maltese terrior ran past my home – scared witless. I kept her for 15 years till she died.
I gave up with the dogs at the school. The back fence through which we were all gaining access was wired shut but the dogs have found other ways to get in and out, I certainly did not want more dogs and finding homes is the pits. But if these guys are capturing cats to eat then a stop has to be put to their activities. The City Police say this is not their jurisdiction. They only pick up dead dogs. SPCA only pick up if they are trapped.
There must be some way to trap them. I sympathise with this lady, it must have been heartbreaking for her, but they must be stopped.
Linda Korte
Umbilo
