ROCKY aka Ping Ping
Rocky was a scrawny
little dog hanging around an open supermarket area in Taiwan.
He was only about three months old, skinny, dirty and searching
for scraps of food to try to survive. A rescuer spotted him
and took him home, but unfortunately she didn't have enough
room for him because she had six other adult dogs that she
had rescued. All the dogs were in cages, so Rocky had to spent
all his time in a cage, but at least he was being fed.
About a year later, the
rescuer was killed in a car accident. By the time another
rescuer found out, it was three days later. After all the
dogs were moved to a temporary kennel, they had been in those
cage for three days without food or water. The other rescuer
was in tears when she saw the situation.
The family of the dead rescuer
couldn't care less about the dogs-wouldn't even come up with
one penny to try to help the situation and they took over
the premises.
Rocky is a very kind dog,
he doesn't have a mean bone in his body. There was
a big male dog that didn't like Rocky and constantly harassed
him to the point where Rocky had to be hospitalized when he
was injured by the big dog. That was the reason he was coming
to the United States for adoption. With close to two million
abandoned dogs in Taiwan, finding a good home is almost impossible.

After Rocky was rescued from
Taiwan, he developed a
special relationship with Serena, one of our volunteers.
Rocky was cared for
by me for about two weeks. He bonded with me in a very short
time and I eventually found him a very nice home. He was doing
so well his new mom, Jackie, thought it was ok to let him
go out to the fenced backyard while she was getting his food
ready. It was only about ten minutes but somehow Rocky found
a hole underneath the fence and got out. Jackie was really
worried after she went out to look for him but couldn't find
him.
Jackie spent the next five hours looking
for him, with no luck. Finally she called me. From then on,
we searched for him every day. We did get some phone calls
from people who had spotted him. From the way the area was
described, it seemed that he was heading in my direction.
I cut some clothes into small pieces and attached them to
about fifty street poles hoping he could follow the scent
and come back, but it didn't happen and each day our hope
of finding him became less and less. I was so depressed and
feeling guilty-- wondering if I did the right thing by flying
him all the way from Taiwan to San Francisco only to be lost.
I had many sleepless nights thinking about him, how attentive
he was, always looking into my eyes and ready to please me.
I was heartsick.
Two weeks later, I got a phone call from
Denise of the San Mateo Peninsular Humane Society who realized
the flyer that Jackie and Peter had dropped off matched one
of the dogs they had picked up. When I got the phone call,
I couldn't believe it was true, because San Francisco is 20
miles from San Mateo. When I saw Rocky, I burst into tears,
all my frustration broke down. I felt like I was in a different
world.
Rocky was so happy to see me , he didn't
want to stay in the back of the station wagon and sat on my
lap all the way home. When we got there, he just cuddled with
me and stayed so quiet as if trying to tell me how much he
missed me.
Jackie and Peter felt very happy that we
had found Rocky, but the experience of losing him was so traumatizing,
they decided to adopt another dog from me that had arrived
from Taiwan the day before we found Rocky. The new dog named
Francis worked out perfectly for them and he has settled in
beautifully.
Rocky is now living happily with a new
family. We wish the best for him.