Cheonan, Korea Rep.

Contrary to my prior entries which are mostly about food (!) this one is not actually, as the name implies, about noodles.

Since my last entry I have been kept busy by one very energetic little boy who has become known as “Noodle”. Noodle arrived in my care when Hester called me to say she had found him roaming her area and could I possibly look after him for 2 days until we could take him to the nearest animal shelter? I didn’t hesitate. That was 3 weeks ago…

It turns out that Noodle is a shih tzu. I am not familiar with small dog breeds and he is teaching me things all the time. He arrived smelling as though he had indeed been living on the streets for a long time. His eyes were all gummy too, but despite this he was full of energy and affection. The first thing to be done was to give the little man a thorough clean. I put him in the shower and gently hosed him down, expecting all hell to break loose as dogs aren’t supposed to like bathing…however he stood there, good as gold, while I soaped him up and he actually seemed to be enjoying it! When I washed down his short little legs he even picked up the paw I was cleaning and gave it to me. He does this with his hind legs too! As he had clearly been groomed before I thought I would give the hairdryer a go. So off we went to the plugpoint and I sat on the floor and started drying him. Well! He seemed to thoroughly enjoy this too and if I turned it off he looked expectantly at it as if to say “c’mon, I’m not dry yet!” So soon he smelled a whole lot better and (I should think) felt a whole lot better too.

Hester has put posters up of him all over the place but he has yet to be claimed. Unfortunately, in Korea is it fairly common for people to get tired of their pets and just put them out on the street. Sad but true. I have NO idea how anyone could possibly do that to an animal, but then I don’t understand many things in this world. In the meantime, I have taken him to the vet to be checked out. He had fungal dermatitis in his ears, on his skin, between his toes and in his eyes. The vet is lovely and speaks some English so we can communicate well. He took a smear from inside Noodle’s ear and put it under the microscope, which is rigged up to a screen so I could see it. Then he found his diagnostic book and showed me the type of fungus is was – a perfect match according to the slide & the book and luckily not contagious to humans or other animals.

I went home with a fair amount of medicine and the next day Noodle was like a new dog – even MORE energetic and generally much happier. He slept well that night (and so did I!) as he didn’t need to scratch all the time. He has been with me for 3 weeks now and I am trying to teach him some manners in ENGLISH… He is smart but very, very stubborn! I will have to put an adoption page for him on the Animal Rescue Korea website to see if someone will adopt him as he deserves a permanent home, which unfortunately I can’t give him as I don’t know where I’ll be in a year.