Take me home

Take Me
Home
21st & 22nd Oct 2017
VFA Adoption Drive
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“All they need is love, care, and a lot of patience.”
-Pearly
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“I am one of the few lucky ones to get adopted from Voices for Animals (VFA)
to a comfortable home despite of my horrible past. I looked mangy, lack of
energy and was not adopted for over a year. My brothers and sisters are still at the
shelter, please take them home to love and care for them.”
- Shiro
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All of the
action happens
behind doors.
Today is a special day
because some of them
are going home today.
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Preparation
Every weekend
volunteers come
to bathe the dogs,
including adoption day.
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Bathing
The whole bathing process is exhausting and back-breaking.
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Drying
After bathing the dogs, towels are used to dry them before blow drying.
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Blow Drying & Brushing
After bathing, they have
their ears cleaned, fur
blown dry and brushed.
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Licking is Caring
Though they were retired
breeding dogs, they still
know how to love and
care for others.
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The dogs
Picture on the right:
His name is Boyfriend
and he is jawless. Yet
he’s still very friendly
towards humans despite
the lack of proper care
before being rescued.
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The Cats
These cats stay in the
same shelter as the dogs.
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Dedication
All of the volunteers go
back every weekend
to the shelter to care
and groom the dogs but
Komin is at the shelter
every day to care for the
dogs.
Aside from caring and
loving for cats and
dogs, he also passionate
about photography.
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Official start of the day
The dogs are brought out at the start of the
adoption drive and placed inside a fenced area for
people to view and adopt the dogs.
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Booths
Today’s adoption drive is more unique
compared to the usual drives.
There’s a booth for new dog owners to
buy necessities for their dogs.
There’s also a booth for dog training as
most of the dogs were breeding dogs
and they were never trained before.
Most important booth of all are the
booths set up by VFA volunteers
because all of the money goes into
donation box.
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Registration
Before proceeding to adoption, it is
necessary to register and be screened
before being allowed to adopt a dog.
The reason behind this is to ensure that
the adopted dogs goes into a safe
environment where the adopter takes
full responsibility for the dog regardless
of encountering any issues like, health
or training.
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Interviewing Volunteer/Adopter
She is a volunteer at VFA and she found out about
VFA after cremating her previous dog which died
due to old age.
Donation
There is no minimum amount to donate as every single cent count. All of the
money donated to VFA are not to benefit any of the volunteers however
many people have the tendency to misunderstand that the donation box’s
money goes into the volunteers’ pockets
She has been volunteering at VFA for estimated 3
and a half years. During this period of time when
she was volunteering, every other dog ignored
her except for this white-coloured Maltese which
followed her around all the time. After 9 months
of volunteering, she decided to adopt the dog.
Though her family was reluctant to have another
dog due to unable to get over the loss of the
previous one, she insisted and went ahead to
adopt. She decided to name her, Snowee.
The money collected from the donation box is strictly for the dogs’ medical
fees as medical fees for dogs are extremely expensive in Singapore. Also, they
have a lot of dogs to care for and some dogs have health issues and need
long term medication and/or close supervision.
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Interviewing A Visiting Adopter
The adopter, Kezia, came back to visit after
adopting her brown Chihuahua at VFA 3 years ago
and named her Rini. Rini is currently estimated to be
6 years old.
Rini was an ex-breeding dog, however Rini got
adopted by Kezia and brought back to a nice and
comfortable home.
Though Kezia bought her first dog but she chose
to adopt the second one after acquiring more
knowledge about adopting dogs.
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Interviewing An Interested Adopter
It was the first time Kris visited VFA. Kris previously had
adopted a dog from her neighbour who caged
up the dog for a very long time until the dog had
muscle rigor and couldn’t walk properly.
She adopted it and after 4 years, it passed away
due to sickness. After 2 years of mourning, she
decided to adopt another dog and she stumble
upon VFA Facebook page by chance.
Upon arriving at the registration counter, she was
rejected to adopt a dog due to not meeting
VFA’s requirements of bringing the whole
household for screening.
After speaking to her, she was determined to go
back the following day with her whole household
to adopt a dog.
Side note: VFA only allows
people to adopt a dog when
the whole household is present.
Due to past experience of
adopters returning the dog
and asking for refund because
other household members’
rejection, this rule is set to
prevent such incidents from
happening again.
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Interviewing A New Adopter
Zhang Xiao Yu and her husband had planned to
own a dog together for a very long time. Initially,
they looked at dogs that are for sale. After Xiao Yu
thought about the number of abandoned dogs in
the world, she decided to look into adoption.
She found VFA through Facebook and went to the
adoption drive that day. She had chosen a golden
coloured fur poodle and named her Momo.
“There are currently too many
abandoned dogs in the world,
why contribute to more by buying
instead of adopting?”
- Zhang Xiao Yu
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Interviewing An Experienced Dog Owner
Vivian previously had 2 dogs that are no longer
around anymore and she is ready for another. She
found out about VFA through their Facebook page
and she decided to adopt instead of purchasing.
“Adoption is better than buying!”
- Vivian
Interviewing A Compassionate Adopter
Prince, the photo on the right, is adopted by an
owner who had prior adoption experience. Prince
was very sick and needed constant care if not
he would not be able to survive. She decided to
adopt Prince because he is considered to be less
adoptable due to the lack of a jaw and she nursed
Prince back to health.
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Waiting
These dogs are just waiting to be adopted into a responsible home.
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Caring
Throughout the day, the volunteers are constantly caring for the dogs that are for adoption
as heat stroke is one of the most common issue that can happen during an adoption drive.
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Understanding
Throughout the day,
volunteers are explaining
to interested adopters
about the policies
and requirements of
adopting from VFA.
Their main priority is
the wellbeing of the
adopted dogs and they
want to make sure all
adopted dogs are well
taken care of.
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https://www.facebook.com/VFASIN/
vfasin@gmail.com
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Photobook by: Chan Keng Hwee (Crystal)