Rescued by my rescue: She lost 2 beloved dogs, now she helps elderly and sick Singapore Specials
In a new series, Stomp speaks to furparents who adopted rescue pets — and found that they were the ones who were rescued instead.
It is a pain that will never go away: in the span of just 16 months, Claudia Ang lost two beloved dogs.
The first one was Bruno, a skittish Singapore Special she had bottle-fed, nursed through countless seizures and taught to walk again after adopting him in 2015. Bruno died at the age of seven or eight in Feb 2023.
For years, Ms Ang had managed his autoimmune condition with daily steroid medication. She watched him relearn how to stand with the help of a wheelchair and thought they could conquer his illness.
"He really taught me a lot about resilience," said the 33-year-old industrial relations officer, who stoically recounted the details of Bruno's life.
She had bottle-fed the puppy, and seen him through a period of anxiety when his brother, Mars, got adopted first. In spite of his nature, Ms Ang said he enjoyed playing with the foster cats in her family home.
It was in 2017 that Ms Ang and her family noticed the two-year-old growing increasingly lethargic, with persistent fevers and red, pink patches on his skin. Then he had a seizure and went into a coma.
Diagnosed with idiopathic meningitis, or inflammation of the brain, Bruno took a week to recover, and even longer to walk again, with the help of a wheelchair. He remained seizure-free until he turned six or seven years old, when he suffered an aggressive relapse.
The only memory she now has of Bruno's relapse is visiting him in the hospital while he was dazed from painkillers, and urging hospital staff to keep him alive while she rushed there so she could say her last words to the beloved pooch.
"I think I blocked (everything else) out," Ms Ang said.
Then it happened again in 2024.
In mid-2023, after processing Bruno's death, Ms Ang and her ex-spouse decided to adopt Chee Kueh, an eight-year-old Singapore Special that tattoo artist and fellow rescuer Lim Jia Bei had been fostering for a year without interested adopters.
Barely a year later, the cheerful dog began coughing. Still shaken by her experience with Bruno and not wanting to be reminded of it, Ms Ang brought Chee Kueh to a different hospital.
The vet deduced that it was either pneumonia or a heart enlargement, and the dog had to spend some time in the hospital inside an oxygen-infused cage. Only when his vitals stabilised would Ms Ang be able to take him home.
It was not meant to be — Chee Kueh died from a heart attack in the hospital the very day he was supposed to be discharged. She suppressed her grief, said Ms Ang, as she had to run a pottery workshop the same day.
'Why is it one death after another?'
Soon after Chee Kueh's passing, Causes for Animals Singapore (CAS) asked Ms Ang if she wanted to foster Dabai, a white Singapore Special with an autoimmune condition that looked like Bruno.
She felt confident that she was up for the task, and took him in. Two weeks later, Dabai died in hospital from his condition.
"I started feeling like I was jinxing these animals. I asked myself, 'What was I doing wrong? Why is it one death after another? Was there something wrong or toxic with my home environment that was making these animals die?'" Ms Ang told Stomp.
Now living alone with her adopted Singapore Special — and sometimes her foster dogs —Ms Ang confessed that it is likely she has not fully processed her grief.
However, she continues to open her home to elderly Singapore Specials and dogs with special needs as she is adamant on providing these overlooked canines, who often spend months or years in shelters, with safe home environments.
Ms Ang also runs monthly clay workshops under her own initiative, Build With Me, and donates all proceeds to street dog rescue and rehabilitation efforts. This includes channeling funds to independent rescuers like Ms Lim, who pay for most expenses out of pocket.
Ah Long the one-eyed Special
Today, two dogs share Ms Ang's home: Ah Long and Cloud. The former is a one-eyed Singapore Special now aged 15, while the latter is a three-year-old foster dog with a prominent scar.
Ah Long was rescued from the Seletar industrial area by CAS in 2016. He was then adopted by a couple who later returned him after welcoming a baby and feeling overwhelmed with caring for him on top of a newborn.
In Sept 2022, Ms Ang learned about Ah Long's plight from a friend, met the dog on the same day, and welcomed him home the next. She recalled the six short months that Bruno and Ah Long spent together with fondness.
"I always felt Ah Long had more of an alpha energy, but he acknowledged that Bruno had been around longer than him and respected it."
While Ah Long greeted Stomp with loud barks, a larger white dog sniffed around eagerly before splaying himself on the ground. It was Cloud, who had folded ears, a longing gaze, and a large scar across his back.
Cloud, who continues to love humans
Cloud, who hails from Johor Bahru, was found with a chunk of dead flesh hanging off his back. Someone had poured hot oil on him and the affected area had to be surgically removed, which led to a scar that makes him look far older than his three years.
Miraculously, his trust in people appears unaffected. "Even though he's scary looking, he has a very good temperament. He loves humans and allows kids to pet him," Ms Ang said.
Right on cue, Cloud approached the dining table where the interview was held with his wide yearning gaze — a polite request for head pats, Ms Ang explained.
For Ms Ang, the beauty of caring for senior dogs is how they match her energy. Due to work commitments, she does not have the bandwidth to care for younger and more energetic dogs. After a stressful day, she looks forward to lying down on the floor with her dogs.
"We reinforce each other's calm, and that just helps us get through things much easier," she added.
When asked what she would say to those interested in getting a pet, Ms Ang urged them to adopt, not shop, and look beyond cute pedigree puppies.
"If you're able to care for a dog with more needs than your average dog, why not? At the end of the day, we're here on earth to help the beings around us."
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