Toni/Isaac (Adopted!)

* * * UPDATE * * *

April 2013

Toni (now Isaac) has been adopted by Rebecca and Randall Ashworth of Canada, who provide a safe haven for many needy dogs rescued from around the world. 
Isaac is thriving in his new environment - the farm life suits him! He is a pleasure to play with, love, and look after, and the Ashworths report that Isaac is amazing with the whole family - dog, human, and young grandkids alike!

Isaac's journey was a long one. After being rescued from the illegal southeast Asian dog meat trade, he traveled to the USA in April of 2013 alongside pal Kahlua, to an adoptive home that sadly, did not work out.

Arrangements were hastily made for another international move for this young man - quite the jet setter! - and in May of 2013, Isaac arrived into the arms of his forever family.

Rural life with Ashworths is where it seems Isaac was always destined to be. He settled in beautifully from the first, and is truly enjoying being one of many pampered princes in a loving palace.

Hooray for this happiest of endings!

Thank you to all who made this possible, from Patarin and the Magic 10 Club for pulling, transporting, and vetting Toni/Isaac; to sweet Soot, his foster mommy in Bangkok; to kind-hearted international supporters for helping to cover Toni/Isaac's medical costs and flight funding, to the Ashworth family, for welcoming Isaac into their hearts and home with open arms, and for adoring this deserving little boy.

* * * * *

My name is Toni.

Once upon a time, I was just a tangled mess covering a depressed little guy with a heart devoid of all hope. Who knew that underneath all that shaggy, matted fur, a gorgeous, happy doggie was hiding??

Boy, am I adorable now! 

I've just been to the beauty parlor for the first time in my life, and although the other dogs are teasing me, I think secretly, they're just jealous. 
I know I look dapper now - all 28 pounds of me. Magic 10 Club members often point out my radar ears and big gorgeous eyes, and they call me 'Furby' when they think I'm not listening. Obviously, this Furby fellow is someone very famous.

But don't worry, my new hairdo won't go to my head! 
I am a mellow fellow, longing for some loving people to call my own, who will show me that the big wide world is a wonderful place after all.

I've been doing GREAT with Soot, my new foster mommy, and am enjoying life at her house. I love her so much! And I'm pretty sure she loves me, too...

 I especially love to run and play with all the other doggies. I've never known such fun and freedom - and who knew that in "real life", you don't have to spend 99.9% of your time scrounging for food, driven by hunger, and dreaming of crumbs?? We eat on a regular schedule around here, and it's pretty mind-blowing. 



Life is good - and it's about to get even better. 
Soot and Marjon (a really nice lady who visited me all the way from across an ocean) just whispered in my ear and told me I'm being adopted to the USA. 
I don't know where that is exactly...but if it's got lots more nice people there like Marjon, than although I'll be sad to say goodbye to Soot, I'll be happy to meet my new nation!

I am a victim of the dog meat trade.


I grew up on the streets of Thailand, in a "survival of the fittest" climate, where I had to fend for food and avoid many dangers. 

One day, some men approached me while I slept and tossed a wire lasso over my head. As I awoke, struggling and snapping with fear, they used a long stick with crude pincers attached to the end of it to lift me and then dump me into a truck.

Lots of other terrified dogs were in the truck alongside me. We were driven into a dense jungle-like area, away from main roads and towns. Tropical trees provided cover as the same horrid men used the wire lassos and pincers on us again, this time to grab us and drop us into a pit. We fell through the air for a terrifying moment, then landed on a hard concrete floor. Some of us were injured in the fall; all of us were terrorized.

The pit cover was replaced once we were all inside it, and hardly any light penetrated from above. There was no food or water in our hot, dark, claustrophobic jail, and nowhere to escape. But we didn't fight one another or really do much of anything other than freeze with fear - we were all too traumatized.

Over the next couple of days, the pit cover opened a few times, light blinded us from above, and more dogs were dropped in amongst us until the men apparently decided that had enough of us to satisfy their greed and justify an legal smuggling run across the border.

 There was the sound of the pit cover opening again, and as we all blinked, blinded once again by the light, expecting more dogs to drop down amongst us, the long pincer stick returned instead. We were grabbed around the neck once more, and then shoved into a new form of torture - a compact "crush cage" - with many other dogs. 

The cages were set on end and we were dropped in and shoved and packed like sardines until limbs and tails emerged from between the wire bars and we were nearly suffocating from such close quarters. None of us could move more than literally one inch in any direction. 

Then our crush cages were piled high onto the flatbed of a truck, with more and more cages on top of, and around the sides of, ours. Many of us lost limbs and tails in crushing injuries as the staggering weight stacked higher and higher.

In order to conceal us - live contraband intended for smuggling cross-country and over two border crossings - a heavy, non-breathable tarp was thrown over the entire truck's cargo, cutting off even our access to fresh air - the last resource we had.

We sat on that truck for a long time. I was so dazed and disoriented that it could have been hours or it could have been days - I really can't say for sure. I guess they were waiting for an all clear signal from they boss. They drank water noisily from bottles as they laughed and joked near our truck and we watched them with desperate eyes because of course, during this time, we had been under terrible stress and had not had food or water for a dangerously-long period of time. 

I was certain that the end must be near - I was sure I would suffocate from the heat, from this extreme overcrowding, and from the long stretch of time that slowly ticked by. Indeed, many dogs around me perished.

It was evening, as dusk fell, when our truck finally rumbled to life and attempted to make a run northward for the border. The smugglers were headed for Vietnam, by way of Laos. But near the river's edge which separated Thailand from Laos, where we would have once again been thrown about like so much live garbage - this time into overcrowded smuggling boats - new sounds reached deep into our desolate quarters, inspiring fresh apprehension to those of us still alive and still conscious.

Voices - angry and commanding - fell upon our ears. We were frightened, but not for long. Much to my surprise, we were rescued that day, and I owe my life to the caring individuals and government officials who came together to save us all from yet more suffering in an extended transport, and eventual slow torture and death, to be someone's adrenaline-infused meal (which some cultures consider good for one's health and virility). 

I am forever grateful to our saviors. A few of the Royal Police even cracked open water bottles and tried their best to proffer sips to those of us in cages with access to bars facing them. But there was too little water and too many dogs. And anyway, it would be a long while before we could even be released from our terrifying confines.

We were slowly transported another long distance, still in those horrible crush cages, still packed like sardines - it seemed to take forever. I was in so much pain and filled with claustrophobic terror - what next??

We ended up at the Khemmarat government-run shelter, one of several large livestock centers in the Thai nation. There, our cages were unloaded with the use of cranes, hoists and manpower. One by one, our cage wires were cut and we literally had to be unpacked and unfolded from the positions we had been held prisoner in for so many long and torturous days.

Next, those of us who could stand and move still were herded into a large dog kennel. To be able to move freely again, and to have access to large vats of water and a long trough with food, was nothing short of miraculous, after all I had endured.

But although my life was marginally-improved now that I'd been "saved", we all still suffered - this time from widespread disease and massive overcrowding. Food was scarce; we lived practically one on top of the other; dog fights were frequent and often vicious; and there was little to no medical attention available. Once again, I was surrounded by terrible suffering and watched as many fellow dogs died around me at a rapid rate.

A long, frightening, sad period of my life passed here. I wondered if my whole life would play out behind these bars, and I shivered with fear to imagine such a fate.

But somehow, through some magical stroke of fate, Lady Luck intervened on my behalf. Someone, somewhere, saw my photo, looked into my eyes, and knew that they could not leave me behind.

For the first time in my strife-filled life, I am seeing the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel. In my foster home in Bangkok, I am being shown kindness and affection; I am learning confidence, and polishing my manners; and I am discovering the meaning of family, and the meaning of love. It has been a glimpse into a life I never even knew existed: lives where doggies have homes and families to call their very own, lives where they will never know fear again. 

It's a life I so desperately want now…but one which will be brand-new to me and often confusing. I have so much to learn about life as a pet dog. I know I can do it - I've made it this far already! - but please, won't you gently show me the ropes, and have patience with me when I make missteps sometimes, as I surely will? In return, I will repay you a thousandfold.

I just need a fair chance at a life I could only dream of when I was that terrified dog, crammed into a crate, baking alive in the tropical heat, who had given up all hope.

Thanks for reading my story.

Love, Toni