Here in Kota Tinggi, as I mentioned earlier, there is not a great deal of evidence of homelessness. Not sure why, but I have only seen one older fellow laying on the concrete in the downtown area. However, last night brought back familiar sounds of cart people meandering down my street very late at night. You know the sound – jingling and jangling of grocery carts on uneven pavement. I was wakened to this sound and at first I thought it was someone turning on and off my water tap on the patio. It would jingle and then stop and then begin again. Much like the heavy spray from a faucet. By the way, that is the only faucet I have that actually has any water pressure. Maybe I should install a shower on the patio! Anyway, back to the night noises. I finally got up to see if I could see anything causing the noise. In the darkness I could see a large dog across the road and it appeared to have a rope or some kind of leash attached to his neck. He was pulling on this rope with his head pulled off to the side, demonstrating a struggle with the weight of something attached to the rope. He would pull, then stop and rest, and then try another direction and pull again. This went on all night until early dawn. I finally was able to sleep and upon waking wondered what the heck the dog was pulling. It looked like a piece of furniture, but in the dark it was difficult to make out exactly what. Clearly this dog had been restrained by someone and he decided that he was a free spirit and needed to move on. Later in the morning I talked with Jeff and mentioned this noise event in the night. He said he also heard it and asked if I got up to check on what it was. We both saw the poor beast. However, on his way to work this morning, he came to our intersection where we have to turn right onto the highway, and there amid the pylons was this poor dog laying in the middle of the road. The rope wrapped tightly around the pylon – giving him no escape route and no chance of moving away from the pylon. Jeff, the big hearted Canuck, got out of his car, and began to untangle the dog. The dog was freaked out by this stranger and was pulling in all directions, completely unaware that he had an ally, not a foe. He finally got the dog separated, but now Jeff was completely covered in mud from the night travels the dog had taken through whatnot. So now separated from the from the pylon he pulled him over to a house at the corner where we see tons of dogs and hear them regularly at night. He knocked at the door and was greeted by an elderly Indian fellow covered with a small cloth about the size of a large wash cloth. Surprisingly , the old boy could speak English, so Jeff explained the situation to him. The old guy agreed to take the dog and see how he can find the owner. Jeff headed home to change his clothes and try again to get to work.
Another example of Canadians that care. Jeff said that the dog would have died on the highway – either by being hit by a vehicle or from the heat beating down on him. He was already unable to move at 7 am, so would not have lasted much longer in that condition. Kudos to Jeff for helping him out. And glad it was him and not me.
The piece of furniture he was dragging was a large lawn chair! Maybe he was heading to the beach.
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