It is late on a Friday evening, I am watching a movie on an English language TV channel here in Korea, my wife and son are both in bed sound asleep, my beer is finished and I am considering going out for more.

Our family had also, for some time, been considering getting a dog but, as in any country, we had to look into the pro’s and con’s; the practicalities. In Korea, a country infamous for its dog abuse, we thought it would be a good idea. If we could save one dog from the butchers rope (they are hung and left writhing until they die), then that would be great.

So I go out for beer, buy some and as I leave the shop, I start talking to a sandy coloured dog hanging around outside as if waiting for its owner to come out. Soon, I grudgingly say goodbye and head home. But the dog is following. I make a decision. I will take her home.

Next morning I tell my wife and son about the unknown dog waiting in the lobby, hoping there is no mess to clean-up. So this is the start of our of our relationship with our new family member – SAND – the sandy coloured stray dog, rescued from an uncertain but probably nasty future.

Sand was a ‘Noor – rung – hee’ dog; the type Koreans typically (and incorrectly) say is the type specifically raised for eating (MANY breed’s are raised and/or eaten). She was definitely quite young, very lean, short-haired, high-spirited and about mid -sized between a poodle and a retriever.

We weren’t allowed to keep her in our rented 1st floor apartment but we were lucky in that our apartment backed onto some wasteland which, in turn, was adjacent to a great forest. So we bought Sand a dog house and all the usual dog stuff. Every evening we would take her to the forest and let here run around chasing whatever it was she was chasing. And every morning I would take out food and water before I went to work.

One added bonus was that the local kids would go and see her and give her stuff to eat (typically fruit, chocolate and Kimchi). They WERE a bit afraid, but this was understandable as Sand was pretty hyper-active and very excitable. At least she wouldn’t cower away when approached by anyone; a sure sign of abuse. A few times, some of the kids accompanied us to the forest, playing with Sand. This was great as Koreans have a very limited understanding of dogs and here I had a great opportunity to show the kids what a dog really was.

In Korea dogs are two things – if a dog is large (above some unrevealed imaginary threshold size) it is considered suitable for slaughter like a pig or chicken, accept it may be beaten first to improve the flavor and (hmmm) make the male (always male) diner better at sex. However, if it falls below this mystical size it is considered suitable as a living fashion accessory whereby it can be decorated in pink and blue ribbons, washed and bathed like a baby and worn at all the fashionable salons and events attended by city types.

Of course, in reality, that is REAL reality, dogs are neither food nor fashion; they are ubiquitous companions of humanity that have been with us for perhaps as long as 100,000 years and, through selective breeding and natural selection, have now adapted to react to human emotions and conditions more so than any other creature. The problem is, not many Korean know this.

Anyhow, over the next few weeks, Sand made great progress. She became calmer, less excitable, more disciplined and was beginning to learn some basic commands. The kids were also beginning to lose their apprehensions. Even some of the adults, who seemed to disapprove of the idea of having a dog around their neighbourhood and amongst their children, were warming to her.

This all stopped one Friday morning. Somebody had unfastened her from her lead and taken her. In Korea, early summer (start of dog-eating season), this can only mean one thing. Killed and Eaten. It was likely somebody local (our road is a dead-end) and although I was very angry and upset, I wasn’t expecting sympathy. And neither did I get it – just laughter (genuine and nervous) from my Korean friends and colleagues. I just hoped she wasn’t tortured before she died. She certainly had a good life when she was with us – probably longer than if she stayed a stray.

Silvia is a KARA supporter who lives in Uruguay. She speaks Spanish but wrote her story in English so everyone could read about her percious companion, Pelusita!

My mother had a very old, fat and queen female cat called Caracatinga and she lived 19 years !! She was the "baby bear" of the home and every body loved her so much. I shared with her approximately 15 years and later I went to live with my husband.

I missed her so much when she died from old age. All the neighbourhood came to her burial at my mother's home. Everybody loved her as she was very clever, tender and tricky. So sweet as the cats and dogs usually are when you take them as friends.

Caracatinga saved my mothe's life three times. My mother had three very serious accidents but Caracatinga was the only one who helped her in those moments, as my mother was alone at home each time. Caracatinga was an incredible good mother, too. When she had kittens, she would put her kittens in front of her meal, allowing them to eat first, before she ate anything.

Cats and specially dogs are super useful and watchful in advance of some dangerous circumstances. If you learn to interpret their behavior, you can be sure to avoid many bad moments.

For that reason and many others, I am accustomed to living with animals and love them as our little brothers and sisters.

When I started to live in our own flat with my husband, we wanted to have a pet, and in spite dogs being so clever and sensitive, we could not have one as in the flat it is not so easy for them and for us. We really know that a pet must be happy otherwise it's cruel for them. If anyone is cruel to animals, it speaks badly about their level of intelligence and human quality.

So we thought of having a baby cat. So, Pelusita arrived to our lives in a very special moment.

We went to a big flee market where there is an old couple who give away cats they do not want. Many people go there to have one or more as a pets.

That day it was so hot as it was summer, at 35 degrees. We went to where the cats were and saw several. I wanted one fat black and white like Caracatinga. But my husband saw one very tiny female cat with huge eyes and the hair very uncombed. I thought she looked not healthy and too tiny. But finally, as nobody liked her, she was the only choice for us. We took her home.

She was very scared and cryed all the time confused and watched all with her big and beautiful green eyes. But when she was at home, she soom felt as she were at home.

We neutered her when she was 8 months old and she recovered in one day !!! When we were back from the vet, soon after the operation, she wanted to go to her sanitary box to make her "needs" !! Was really incredible how strong she was in spite of her small size!

She is now so tender, playing like a child, and embracing me when she feels cold in winter, looking us with her big and clever eyes! She is really sometimes like a human being, no doubt, and sometimes she has some tender behaviours that we are really shocked !!!

I can talk a lot about her, but it would be like a long book, and she is only 2 years old now.

I encourage everyone to adopt animals, specially cats, and dogs. They are the better sample of the love in the nature. If we treat them as our real brothers and sisters as they are, we can be sure that our human societies would become stronger and more civilized.

Before the New Year I took a trip to what is probably Korea's best animal shelter, KAPS's Boeun Shelter, down near the town of Boeun, just north of Daejeon.

The shelter is the dream of Sunnan Kum, the founder of the Korean Animal Protection Society or KAPS, and it took her ten years to build. It was completed in 2007, but Sunnan has plans for extensions and more housing. Presently she lives in Daegu, where she manages KAPS's other, smaller shelter. Her goal is to move everything to Boeun, including her home, and no doubt that will eventually happen, too.

The forecast for the day of our trip to Beoun was clear, but the night before a revised forecast said snow, and that's what we got--lots of it. The trip took us on snow and on slush filled roads, perhaps doubling the time it took. By the time we reached the Gheongwon IC things had cleared and the new Sangju-Cheongwon Expressway allowed us a clear run, with little traffic and scenic views, all the way to the Boeun IC tollgate.

On the way, what I thought was an ambulance zoomed passed us. It turned out to be the vehicle above, the KAPS van and animal ambulance, fitted with the standard green of Korean ambulances. That's what Sunnan was traveling in and she met us at the Boeun IC and guided us to the Boeun Shelter.

We got an enthusiastic welcome. I'd seen pictures of the shelter before so I had some idea of what to expect. But when you get to Boeun and see how healthy the dogs are and how spacious their living quarters are, you really appreciate it more. Other shelters around Korea, however well meaning, do not provide conditions quite as good.

Lunch was prepared by the caretaker's wife and we sat down with Sunnan, her driver and the caretaker. We were much impressed with the freshness and strong flavors of the food and side-dishes--the vegetarian ones, that is, I don't eat any others. It seemed better than the usual fare around Seoul and made me think again of how good it would be to live out in the countryside.

In fact, the caretaker's family love living at the shelter for the health giving benefits it provides. Their son, who used to be somewhat sickly, greatly improved after moving to the Boeun Shelter and is as boisterous as any young kid--as the images at the bottom show--and they put it down to country living and fresh air.

The building featured above, on the left of the shelter complex, is the caretaker family's living quarters. The top floor is the housing and on the bottom floor are offices, an education and media room and veterinary rooms. Part of the top floor stands ready for further extensions.

After lunch, with the snow increasing, we had to move our cars onto the main road or else we'd be stuck at the shelter, perhaps for the night. Then Sunnan took us on a tour.

Fortunately things cleared up as we took a look around. The shelter houses about 60 dogs and 40 cats, all of whom Sunnan knows by name. It consists of three levels, as shown above. On the roof are fenced areas where cats can roam.

It's a fantastic feature. One section is also reserved for dogs on occasion. The cats can access the roof anytime from their rooms underneath. The cats stayed indoors but when they heard us on the roof a number of them ventured out.

The cats emerged from those square structures with the small concrete roofs. A little door allows them to come and go. As you can see below, an incline gives the cats easy access to the roof.

The second floor has the cat rooms along one side and small-dog rooms on the other side, with a corridor down the middle.

In the cat rooms there are large warming mats and things to jump on. The rooms can be seen through glass windows from the corridor (they are the ones on the left in the photo above). The lack of fencing helps reduce the noise from the dogs and unless cats climb to higher vantage points, they can't even see the dogs.

The small-dog rooms have two sections, the far section being where the drainage is for cleaning and the front is where they can run around and get up off the concrete floor.

The first floor is where the large dogs are kept. They have a choice of indoor and outdoor areas, but like any other dogs, they preferred to stay outdoors while we were there and watch what was going on.

How all the animals are grouped depended on their personalities and how they all got on with each other. One of the cat rooms had wilder cats in it, and so we didn't go in there, but they got on together okay. If any fighting occurs, the individuals are separated.

In the large dog area, two sections have only two Jindo dogs each. This is because these Jindos can be very aggressive towards other dogs in a more crowded setting.

The shelter is often visited by foreigners who work at the nearby Osan military base. Many of them have adopted pets and serve as volunteers. But numbers have dropped off in recent times with some people moving back to the States.

So, if anyone in the Osan or Daejeon area happens to be reading this, why not take a trip out to the Boeun Shelter one day when Sunnan is there and take a look around or help out, perhaps organize a group effort. Volunteers are needed for dog walking to a nearby reservoir.

With our tour at an end, Sunnan headed back to Daegu to take care of business there. We had a smooth drive back towards Seoul with the snowing having stopped. It took us almost half the time it did to get there.

One of Sunnan's guests.

Photos by Yellow Dog

At the corner supermarket she runs, the grandmother is saying, “Jindol, it’s getting a bit stuffy in here, isn’t it? Let’s go out for a walk.”

She feels sorry for Jindol, her “Baekdu” breed, being cooped up in the supermarket all day. So, she likes to take him for walks several times a day around the neighborhood, whenever she gets a chance.

They've been together for 13 years.

She's really proud of Jindol. You can see it in the way she walks with him trotting alongside. They both look very fit for their ages. It must be all that walking they do!

After getting back from a walk they took a rest, and while the photographer was there, the subject of Jindol's age came up. “Jindol, you must not go off anywhere," the grandmother was saying. And emotions got the better of her, as she thought about the inevitable.

At his age, he's equivalent to an old man in human years. So, here they are growing old together, in a loving and caring relationship countless dogs in Korea could only dream about.

On May 9th, 2009, the long awaited TNR was implemented on stray cats in two locations of Seoul’s Songpa District; one in Seokchun-dong and the other at Sumjeon-dong by two cat caretakers, Jinkyung and me, Yuni.

Jinkyung has been a champion of the rights of stray cats in her neighbourhood for years and works tirelessly to persuade government officials to humanely control the cat population.

Unfortunately, one kitten was poisoned to death by someone. Another one was run down by a car. The car’s tire hit one side of its head and one of its eyes popped out of its small head and some brain parts fell to the ground. It jumped up and down in severe pain from a few seconds to a minute or so, then dropped dead.

I witnessed that and asked the driver that hit it to help take the cat to the animal clinic. It was later cremated. The surviving three kittens witnessed this horrific incident too, and so did the mother cat. After that, the mother cat disappeared and didn't reappear until a few weeks later. She rarely came back to feed, but her kittens did. And now, they have grown and are free to come and go as they please, knowing that as long as I am there, I will have food for them.

Two brother cats and a stranger, a tabby cat, were trapped to be neutered the same day as the other cats I will mention below. They were released the following day without any visible complications but on a rainy day. And when they also did not show up for two days, I became worried. Now they come regularly to eat the food laid out for them.

Among the other cats that came and went from my neighbourhood there was a young dark green cat that I used to leave food for down the street. One evening, it came to feed alongside the kittens that eat at my place. I found that to be odd, so told it to go to his area where I usually left food for it. I now realize that it must have sensed danger in that area for it came back twice to eat after that and then disappeared completely. Perhaps it was killed. Looking back, I mourn for his loss.

* * *

Then a few weeks later, a gentle grey and white striped cat showed up. This was the friendliest cat I had ever seen. He must have lived in a home with humans at one time before he was let out. He is such a friendly cat that all I needed to do was to pick him up and take him to the vets to check if he was neutered, and he was. So, all that was needed for him was an eartipping, which is what vets do to signify that a stray has been neutered.

When he was at the vets, the effects of the anesthesia he was given made him vomit and poo because he ate something before that. After he was anesthesized, one ear was tipped. Then, he was taken to Jinkyung’s place to rest and recuperate. When he woke up, Jinkyung gave him some food, which he readily ate. He then proceeded to groom himself and meowing to be released. Upon close observation, Jinkyung decided that he would be the first cat to be released.

So I took him to the exact spot where he was captured and released him. He ran out of the cage, never looking back and went into seclusion for two straight days. Needless to say, I was worried sick over his welfare, but on the third day, I saw him and he ate some food I gave him. His newly tipped ear must have been uncomfortable, since he twitched his ears from side to side, slightly shaking his head. I felt sorry for him. But now, I am happy to say, he is his jolly old self again.

Another cat taken to the vets was a six month old nursing mother cat whom Jinkyung and I were able to trap first and bring in to the veterinary clinic. The doctor said she had to be sedated to check her gender, and afterwards to get spayed. The hysterectomy that female cats go through is more complicated and the recovery period can be at the earliest, three days to five days.

When it was clear that the six month old mother cat was nursing kittens by the look of her slightly swollen nipples, which when pressed gently would express milk, Jinkyung adamantly refused to have the mother cat spayed. She took into consideration that the mother cat still needed to nurse her kittens or else they would die. If the mother cat were to be spayed and released the same day, as the vet had suggested, she would not have had the strength to take care of herself, much less her kittens. Therefore, everyone agreed to call it off.

I was very proud of Jinkyung’s wise decision. No matter how tempting it was to spay her, the mother cat’s welfare and those of her kittens was of more importance for the time being.

After being released from the animal clinic, the young mother cat was taken to Jinkyung’s to rest and recuperate. It was evident that it took a long time for the sedative to wear off. When she woke up, the mother cat had difficulty moving her lower back extremities even after nearly four hours. She was shaking her head from left to right, pulling her weight with her two front legs, and basically having a hard time. It was painful to watch her go through that.

At 6 am the next morning, after Jinkyung checked to see if the mother cat was alert and moving around the cage on all four paws, and that she was healthy enough to be released, she was set free at the very spot she was captured. She sprung out of her cage and ran for her freedom to be with her kittens. I don’t know where her kittens are. She has them so well hidden. These days, she comes to eat the food I lay out for her from time to time.

* * *

There some points I want to make about my TNR experience. First, I want to emphasize that it was a group effort. Jinkyung made it easy for the doctor by getting the traps ready and helped with advice. Another KARA member, Mr. B.K. Zang helped take the cats to the vets and lift the heavy cages in and out of his car.

Also, luckily for me the three cats that regularly come to my place to eat are very mild tempered and gentle. That is, except for one orange tabby that was caught and neutered. He was a real wild one. He would hiss and try to bite my hand through the cage when I was about to release it. I could see that he must have had a tough life. These days, he sits and waits at the site I released him for food.

It is my belief that Korea should follow the example set forth in Japan. I heard every neighbourhood there pitches in some money to buy food for cats and after the cats eat at their regular spots, they go off on their own and never pester or bother people. Therefore, cat colony caretakers are of utmost importance for the stray cats.

The mindset of some people in Korea to beat and kill cats and other animals must change. And that change can come with information, education in all sectors of the nation on compassion, warnings, and that animals too have rights to life and happiness.

I felt a pang of guilt that invasive surgery had to be done to control the cat population in this age of high technology and medical development. If only there was an easier way; like a one-shot birth control method that would last a lifetime for all animals. I really wish that, after decades or even centuries of conducting painful and cruel lab animal tests, a safe birth control method had been devised.