Hoegi, Seoul - In the Backyard I had a very small narrow apartment in Hoegi ( my kitchen had about 1 foot of walking space) where I was teaching Kindergarten. In my apartment I had 2 cats Sherlock and Phinnaeus and was taking care of my friend's cat Sami. There was...
Another cat comes along.... This is Phinnaeus Crookedtail, so named because his tail in the middle shoots off at a 90 degree angle. I was coming home late one night from teaching Kindergarten, very tired. It was already dark. The Hoegi neighborhood in Seoul that I...
Kitten in distress!!.
Andy, my boyfriend, was due to arrive in Seoul in a few days, we hadn’t been together long (only a few short months) but decided to give it a go and cement our relationship by adopting a dog together. I’d been scrolling the Korean Animal Rescue network and even taught myself to use Paw in hand! I was checking every evening for any dogs that jumped out at me.
I’d heard that in general, black or dark coloured dogs have less chance of being adopted here in Korea, which was great for me, as a habitual wearer of almost exclusively black clothes.
Late one evening, a post popped up on the Animal Rescue Network about a two year old Mini-pin called Sam, there he was with huge floppy ears, big brown eyes and a cute little red bandana. Not much info, just that he was looking for a forever home. He was just perfect! I quickly snapped a screenshot and cropped it nicely to send to Andy. “How about this little guy?”.
I’ll be honest, Sam was one of many submissions, I was trying to get a feel for what types of dogs Andy liked and so was spamming him with lots of possibles. For me, there was only Sam…. but this was a joint decision. After he arrived, Andy and I took some time to settle into the new apartment together and one evening got back onto the subject of dogs. It turned out that Andy also thought Sam was super cute and a good fit for us.
I jumped back on my phone to find his details, but it seemed that he was gone. I searched and searched… but no Sam. There weren’t any other dogs in the mix that we could both agree on…. so we dropped the subject for a few days and concentrated on unpacking. Days turned into a couple of weeks, I kept checking the apps and Rescue network – but we just couldn’t find a dog to agree on
Then, suddenly there he was. The same big brown eyes, the same cute bandana – URGENT adoption needed. I couldn’t believe it, after weeks of looking he suddenly popped up again! We literally messaged that night and arranged to go and meet him the next evening, we knew we liked him but would he like us??. We were still not 100% sure if we were ready for a dog, but thought we should at least go and see. Sam was being fostered by a lovely student through his Parvovirus treatment, not so far from where we lived. We hopped on the bus and headed over.
The house was in a cute neighborhood with lots of tiny alley ways and winding streets. It took ages to find and even longer to work out how to use the door bell! Finally we got up to the studio apartment where he was being fostered, when we first saw him he was even more tiny than we imagined, all legs and eyes. After chatting for a while, it turned out that I wasn’t going nuts – he had been adopted three weeks earlier, but it hadn’t stuck and now he was sick. His current foster Jullianna had been looking after him, but had just been accepted for an internship and felt very guilty about leaving little Sam alone at home for too long during the day.
We sat with her on the floor for a while and he sniffed around and let us give him some kibble. We all took him for a walk together around her neighborhood and he was really cute, sniffing under cars looking for cats and zig zagging back and forth. Then came the first motorbike…. he went BANANAS. Julianna told us that he was terrified of them and would react by barking. We figured he’s only little, what harm can he do?
Once we got back to her apartment she asked “so will you take him home tonight?”. We were a bit shocked. I don’t know what we were expecting, but after reading all about adoption in korea and all the forms and checks and rigmarole – we didn’t expect to be going home with a dog. But, she bundled all his things in a bag and said that she couldn’t bear the idea of him home alone again all the next day.
Cut to Andy and I, on a crowded city bus hiding a tiny dog in a very inappropriately shaped sports bag.
It became apparent after a few months that Sam was not two years old – he was much younger. I had a minor freak out when suddenly he started to shed absolutely everywhere and developed bald patches under his belly and “legpits”. After that his coat grew in thicker and sleeker, he got bigger and bigger and with his size came attitude.
This dog has personality!
His “terror” of motorbikes was not as advertised, it was in fact a murderous rage that was directed at the nearest thing – usually my legs!. Speaking of legs, he also grew into his and suddenly our 4kg mini-pin was a 7 kg maxi-pin. I can’t lie about this…the first few months were tough. We had adopted Sam right on the cusp of his adolescence and we both have scars to prove it. But, on a positive note the timing was right for us all to bond with each other and the added challenges of being jointly responsible for another life totally solidified mine and Andy’s relationship.
We’ve had Sam (and each other) for about three years now and 100% no regrets. We travel as a family, taking him on as many adventures as possible… We even went dressed as him for Halloween!
Sam is not just a dog, he’s 삼 the third member of our family.
Hoegi, Seoul - In the Backyard I had a very small narrow apartment in Hoegi ( my kitchen had about 1 foot of walking space) where I was teaching Kindergarten. In my apartment I had 2 cats Sherlock and Phinnaeus and was taking care of my friend's cat Sami. There was...
Another cat comes along.... This is Phinnaeus Crookedtail, so named because his tail in the middle shoots off at a 90 degree angle. I was coming home late one night from teaching Kindergarten, very tired. It was already dark. The Hoegi neighborhood in Seoul that I...
Kitten in distress!!.