“Please note, out of hundreds of pictures & countless videos, I have tried to be as discreet as possible with images of Kabang…I know it’s not pleasant to see her injuries, but when you’re loved, like she is, it doesn’t matter what you look like. Kabang really is one in a million & very, very lucky…she was actually meant for the cooking pot!”
This past February, a family dog in the Philippines was credited with saving two children from getting hit by a speeding motorcycle, by throwing herself in the path of the bike.
The dog named Kabang lost the top part of her jaw and face. It was a horrific injury, but she survived. A local vet asked the family to turn over the dog to their custody for euthanasia. But the grateful family refused to put down the loyal and pregnant dog. Kabang has since given birth to her six puppies.
When people heard about Kabang’s courageous actions and her plight, there was outpouring of goodwill and concern for the dog. This week it was announced that Kabang will be flown to the United States so she can undergo reconstructive surgery, in order to survive.
According to the Inquirer Global Nation, a group of veterinarians, animal lovers and humanitarian groups helped raise enough money to organize the trip and surgery.
“Kabang is going to the US with the help of many kind-hearted individuals and donors, who would like to see the dog…live longer. Her story inspired many people especially animal lovers,” veterinarian Dr. Anton Lim said, citing a confirmation from Ramona Consunji of the Animal Welfare Coalition.
The plan is to fly Kabang over to the US within the month. Karen Kenngott, the US coordinator for Animal Welfare Coalition, said: “The more time that goes by, the more Kabang is at risk of infection. Fungal infections can be especially difficult to eradicate and any infection in the bone can be a lengthy process to treat at best. Her chances are better the sooner she can get those wounds closed.” Dr. Kim also agrees speed is of the essence now. Kabang is already losing one of her remaining upper molars, a tooth very important for chewing food because of an earlier infection.
Kenngott said Kabang would be operated on at the Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital of the University of California in Davis, “under a team of multi-disciplinary doctors and surgeons led by Dr. Boaz Arzi.” Arzi is a maxillofacial and dental surgeon.
Veterinarians in the US also had raised money for Kabang’s owners Rudy Bunngal and his wife, Christina accompany the dog to the United States. However, there are some difficulties securing passports for the pair. Despite that problem, everything else is in place to transport Kabang. “So far, the Team Kabang estimated the overall cost for her treatment to reach $20,000. Kabang is expected to be in the US for a month,” said Lim.
The Philippine Airlines Foundation said they have sponsored four roundtrip tickets for the Bunggals and the two accompanying veterinarians. Maria Carmen Aquino Sarmiento, executive director of the Philippine Airlines Foundation, said in a statement: “The Philippine Airlines through the PAL Foundation will help Kabang, the heroine dog of Zamboanga City to get to UC Davis so she can get her face fixed.”
“Please note, close up images of Kabang’s face just after the accident have been blurred out. However, this video does show Kabang as she is now, so viewer discretion advised”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iC0ZCTVWH5E&feature=related
“Kabang’s story – Few know the dog, wasn’t rescued to be a pet – she was meant for there dinner plate, like many more before her! I sincerely hope her recent litter of pups will remain as pets too!”
ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines—There must have been something about Kabang, the pet dog that recently lost half her face saving the lives of two children. Until she came into their lives as a foundling puppy, the Bunggals occasionally kept dogs but only for meat.
In fact that was what Rudy Bunggal had in mind over a year ago when he found Kabang, then a few weeks old, in a swamp where the unwanted puppy had been left to die.
“The dogs we raised did not last longer than three months. I slaughtered them. It’s our only way of eating meat,” Rudy Bunggal told the Inquirer in an interview. “Life is difficult and I have to feed my family.”
Bunggal, 57, is a “vulcanizer” who earns a living mending punctured tires while his wife, Christina, sells small quantities of candy.
The couple has one daughter, Dina, 11, but a niece, Princess, 3, lives with them.
Neighbors agreed that life for the couple was difficult and that the family subsisted mostly on water spinach—”kangkong” or swamp cabbage—harvested from the nearby swamp.
As Rudy Bunggal tells the story, he plucked Kabang out of the swamp amid heavy rain over a year ago. He initially had the same thought about what to do with the puppy: make a family meal at the right time.
So the Bunggals raised Kabang, initially giving her coffee creamer because milk was expensive.
But days, then weeks and months went by and Kabang never came close to being placed in a cooking pot. Bunggal said he did not know why he never felt any urge to slaughter the animal.
Ricky Llorete, one of the family’s neighbors, said they too had looked forward to eating Rudy’s “azucena,” as dog meat as referred to by Filipinos, after Kabang’s arrival.
Llorete said the Bunggal family was known in the community as dog eaters and would share with their neighbors cooked dog meat.
“During Christmas or New Year, we ate azucena and drank tuba (coconut wine),” he said.
Christina, Rudy’s wife, said she, too, was puzzled when Kabang lasted longer than her predecessors.
“It was maybe because we treated her differently. Of all the dogs we raised, she was the only one we fed coffeemate and milk. None of the other dogs we had raised spent the night in the same space with our daughter,” Christina said.
The family shared whatever food they had with Kabang.
Dina and her cousin would play with the dog, who never ventured alone farther than the door of the Bunggal family’s shanty on Nuñez Extension here.
“If she went out of the house, it would be with the children,” Rudy said.
Christina Bunggal plays with a horribly disfigured but treasured family pet Kabang
He described Kabang as a “sweet dog,” who wanted to be cuddled.
Rudy said that aside from providing joy to Dina and her cousin, Kabang would also guard the family’s house against intruders.
“She would sit on the (vulcanizing tools) apparently to prevent strangers from taking them,” Christina said.
“Rudy became a different person when Kabang came. He became humane to animals,” Llorente said.
Rudy admitted that he could not thank Kabang enough when she saved Dina and her cousin from harm one day last December.
Kabang, a hero female aspin, enjoys Rudy Bunggal’s scratching of her head and neck.
The two girls were walking across Nuñez Extension one day in December unaware that a speeding motorcycle was bearing down on them. From out of nowhere Kabang jumped onto the path of the motorcycle.
Kabang lived but she lost her upper snout, which got caught in the spokes of the motorcycle’ front wheel.
Rudy maintained that the incident was Kabang’s way of repaying the Bunggals for saving the puppy and caring for her.
“I believe she was God’s gift to us,” he said.
News Link:-http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/151165/heroic-dog-changed-master%E2%80%99s-life
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