Panda's Rescue
A very long read but always leaves me teary eyed even if it didn't involve my boy. Happy Anniversary Panda and so glad you came into my life. http://forum.oes.org/viewtopic.php?t=764 Marianne and Panda boy |
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HAPPY ANNIVERSARY MARIANNE & PANDA! 
       
I am so happy you two found each other.  |
Awww Happy Anniversary Panda!  |
| Thank you!!!
Oops forgot to mention that Panda was Robin previously just so people don't get confused reading the story. Besides the avatar photo that is always one of my favorite photos of him as it was taken when he gave me his first kiss, this one taken by a visitor from Hong Kong..always makes me chuckle. (Taken 1 year after giving him lots of TLC). Here's my boy who supposedly had "issues" when all he really wanted was a warm lap to snuggle up to. 
Marianne |
:clappurple:  HAPPY ANNIVERSARY MARIANNE AND PANDA |
| Those darn lap dogs.
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| Happy Anniversary Panda and Marianne and many many more to come |
Pepsi's Mommy wrote: HAPPY ANNIVERSARY MARIANNE & PANDA!
I am so happy you two found each other. Could (didn't  ) not say it better myself  |
Pepsi's Mommy wrote: HAPPY ANNIVERSARY MARIANNE & PANDA!
I am so happy you two found each other. DITTO |
| Panda will always be a special sheepie. Happy Anniversary. |
| What a great story! I knew some of Panda's history, but the original events were in my pre-forum days!
Happy anniversary! to Panda and Marianne!! |
| I truly think this is a miracle between Panda and Marianne. A huge one!
I knew Panda was a rescue from Hong Kong but never knew the whole story about it and had been interesting to find out about it. As some of you knew, I am from Hong Kong. When I first heard about Panda's background. I had thought to myself how I wish I knew about this forum back then. I could have been able to offer some help. I moved to California from Hong Kong in 2002. I brought my then 10 years old cat (went over the Rainbow Bridge last July) with me at that time. So I am kind of familiar with all the procedures and stuff. But after reading the whole story, I know my help was not needed. There were already so many nice people involved in this rescue! What a miracle. The fact is Panda had a very slim chance to survive long enough for all these nice people appeared to work together to bring him over to Marianne. Hong Kong is very much like New York. The housing problem is crazy. Most of the people there live in a very small apartment. To give you a better picture, I bought my first apartment back in 1997. I paid about USD 300,000 for it. It was an apartment built in 1983 and in a quite nice but not a best neigborhood....guess how big that apartment was? 295 square feet!!!! I kid you not!!! That is how expensive it is over in Hong Kong. Also, walking the dog is a problem. It is a small city crowded with people and cars, parks are very rare in Hong Kong, unless driving an hour to a rural area. But owning cars are also very expensive in Hong Kong. Heavy taxes for buying cars, getting licenses, insurances and gases. Think about 5-7 times more expensive than in US. Therefore, transporting a big dog is not an easy thing like here in U.S. General speaking, Hong Kong is not a good environment to raise a big size dog. So imagine how hard it was for Panda to find a foster home at that time. Even though there were people who love dogs and wanted to give a hand fostering, most of the time they were not able to or fit to. Knowing the situation over there, I am even more amazed how this story ends. It was a miracle, no less. -Gigi |
| Congratulations on finding your new home, Panda!! And an even bigger congrats on how far you've come since you've been here! |
| Happy anniversary! Enjoy yourselves!! |
Incredible story, Marianne...I knew bits and pieces, but had never gotten the whole story before!  WOW
Happy Anniversary, Panda and Marianne! |
| Happy Anniversary Panda Boy and Marianne, a truly wonderful 3 years of your special boy.
Sending kisses, hugs and woofs from all of us here for pandas anniversary. |
| Hugs fromBarney and Maggie, and Happy Anniversary. |
| Hi Everyone!
>>Marianne here. We had a power outage that occurred during the night and I woke up to computer not working again and using someone's at the moment. Urg! I even have surge protection too...so might be offline for a while until I get it fixed. Thanks for all the comments everyone. Gigi, thanks for the info about Hong Kong, very informative! Marianne and Panda aka Robin |
| Ahhhh computer is working again!
Over the years I've had many visitors from Hong Kong that knew Panda from his previous days and have been able to piece together first hand his life before he came to live with me. What Gigi says is so correct and originally Panda started out his life living in the countryside with his owner and her grandparents, close to the South China Sea. Eventually she was offered a job in Hong Kong and her grandparents encouraged her to go, promising to look after Panda. As time passed and he grew they became ill equipped to look after such a large dog and so Panda went to the city to live with his original owner. Panda spent the first part of his life living on the roof top of an apartment building looking at life down below. I believe this is where he developed his fear of fireworks and his over exuberance at traffic when he first came to live with me. Panda's owner and her b/f broke up and she could not find a place that would allow a large dog. Thus became his hardship over the next several months. He was returned to the "breeder" which was really a puppymill and charged the owner 500 dollars per month just to board him. The kennel was run by three kennel workers, 40 different breeds of dogs and an absentee owner. It is where Panda learned to act aggressively to beatings with sticks and his fear of men carrying them. The owner not giving up trying to find an alternative for him contacted every animal place in the country. Animal shelters are extremely rare there. He went through a series of foster homes but they were temporary as now he was a dog with issues and would react if people tried to grab him or yell at him. The first visitor from Hong Kong I had knew of Panda's story and was trying to establish a animal rescue over there with the help of a Western person. He filled some of the gaps of Panda's story and I found out that for a small portion of time he was actually semi-feral during one of his foster stays as he spent his days roaming the streets. The day I offered to take him his stay of execution was stayed..I found that out later that for a dog deemed a "biter" there was no place that would take him. The day he was flown to Vancouver was the day he was scheduled to be put down. His honey moon period lasted a short time as slowly over the first year some issues did emerge. He would cringe when I put out my hand to pat the top of his head - it took six weeks for him to stop doing this. Not once did he ever try to bit me but I knew enough about dog body language to see when he was stressed and would stop what I was doing. I would often look at his lip and see the quiver and knew to stop immediately. It took over a year for me to be able to touch his ears as they were badly infected and had a large hematoma. It meant touching them for a brief second and then stopping. Increasing the second daily until I could finally flip them up. It took the four complete sedations at the vets office in a 2 year period to shave him down, check his hips, teeth, eyes, and ear cleaning..to do otherwise caused him too much stress. It meant never...I mean NEVER letting my guard down when being out with him in public. Not because I didn't trust him...as he is the most loving dog I've ever met (I've had 8 dogs) but because I wasn't sure if people would unknowing touch him inappropriately. They may grab him by the side of the face of throw a stick for him. I was always close at hand to prevent anything from happening. An example of this would be a weird guy that yelled at me at the dog park once when I was with Merlin..told me to get my dirty disgusting filthy dog away from his. LOL! I stopped going to that park not because I was scared of weird guy, but feared how Panda would react if he started yelling at me when Panda was with me. I never wanted to take a chance as Panda would pay the price. It took months of desensitization to all his fears so that now he doesn't react at all to things that previously caused him stress. The only thing left on the list is the sound of clippers but we are still working on that. Last summer I always cried (or maybe I did) when Panda placed 4th in the Canadian Pet Idol competition in which there were 175 entrants. He caught the judges attention by his gentleness and his amazing calmness with commotion all around him. The judges were those that worked with animals in the movie industry and the top 4 were asked to send their portfolios in for future movie work. Panda impressed them by sitting in the cat tent awaiting his turn..(5 hr wait), walking by horses, parrots, sheep and numerous other animals and not even reacting to any of them. He also recieved a visit by several Hong Kong visitors , relatives of his original owner and it was apparent there was love between Panda and his "grand dad". The old man cried when he saw him and Panda flipped on his belly for some rubs. They were amazed at his transformation. His original owner still contacts me occasionally and ask about him and sends him gifts. Panda visit with his relatives this past summer. 
I don't want to give people the wrong impression regarding rescues as I was fortunate that I had the time to spend rehabilitating him. The cards were all in place so to speak. For the first two years I put my life on hold and the first year was really tough. I slept on a Futon in the computer room with him to slowly introduce him to living in a house, one room at a time. Otherwise he would go in a frenzy and even rip CD's off shelves and destroy them. Nothing was safe. Today I can leave him uncrated in the house with the other two and nothing is touched. Luckily Merlin the alpha knows the rules and thus Panda learned them too. To have other distractions like small children would not have been safe for either Panda nor the children as he still startles easily if in a deep sleep and one of the cats jumps up on the couch. He reacts instantly and then realizes he is safe and becomes sweet Panda once again. Even if I move my foot while he is sitting next to me I always call his name..it's easy to do when it's only me and I don't have to worry about other people. I have never regretted my decision and wherever I am in the house Panda would gaze lovingly at me and even when sitting next to me he always has to have one paw touching me. He knows he is safe. I can even lift up his feet and vaccuum around him or sweep my floors with a broom and he does not react at all. He's come so far and I'm proud of him! In my avatar photo it was the first time my face was close to Panda's when he reached over and gave me a kiss. I sorta stuck out my chin but my hands did not go around his shoulders as some dogs may see this as threatening. He had previously gave me doggie kisses on my arms but I never gave him the opportunity to have my face close to his as this too may be viewed by some dogs as threatening. With rescues it's always better to be extra careful. Roy and Elby have not visited this site for a while but to them I'll always be extremely grateful as they are the ones responsible for saving his life. They stepped up as many people here have. We can't save them all but for the ones we do..it's life changing for them. Marianne and Panda |
| Ahhhhhhhh always nice to hear happy endings - happy anniversary to you both |
| Happy adoption day, Panda Boy! (ok a little late, but sincere never the less!) |
| Happy Anniversary to both of you! How lucky you are to have each other Marianne! |
| Aw, what a wonderful story! Happy Anniversary Pandy and Marianne! |
| Happy anniversary Panda boy and Marianne!! |
| Happy anniversary Panda and Marianne! He couldn't ask for a better mom! |
| He is most definitely where he was meant to be! He's your boy, Marianne. Happy Anniversary to both of you. |
| Happy Anniversary Panda and Marianne, yours is a match made in heaven. |
| Congratulations on your anniversary. I am glad that are people like you in the world that are so giving and loving. Your story is absolutely amazing and I am so happy that Panda has such a wonderful home. |
| Thank Everyone! I really appreciated hearing all the kind comments and well wishes.
While Panda boy may never have the beautiful coat of Merlin, he is affectionately known as Pig Pen, named after the Charlie Brown character. I always have to smile when I see the look of pure joy on his face when we visit the woods, parks and of his fondness for the ocean. I can't help thinking he must have always dreamed of this. His spirit is incredible. Marianne and Panda |
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