The story below has been written by Amina Abazza, founder of the animal shelter SPARE (www.sparealife.org) in Cairo. Besides the normal work SPARE does, such as sheltering and giving free medical treatment to the animals, they would like to educate and inform the people of Egypt in order to change their attitude towards animals into a positive way. Amina's intention is to write animal-stories, especially for children. She hopes that she will be able to bundle those stories into a book and hand them out for free at schools. We support this idea with all our heart, and are glad that we could put the narration about Ringo on our website. The story about Ringo, besides the part about dog' s heaven (which is fiction), is based on true facts. Let me introduce you to Ringo!





I am Ringo, and I am going to tell you my story. I will leave it up to you to judge whether it is a happy story or a sad one. I am now no longer with you, I have gone to paradise, in the department reserved for dogs. Here, I can run and play with my friends as much as I want, the land is so green. The space is endless… we can smell thousands of different smells: every kind of flower, fruit, plant and tree is here. The air is so fresh, the water so pure. Unfortunately all the smells are divine, there is no garbage at all here! This is the only time I miss the earth because the smells were different there and I loved to smell what you humans call “bad smells”.
 
Here in paradise (in the dog department) there is a continuous open buffet - whenever we finish our delicious meals our bowls are filled again immediately. We are always served wonderful dishes: cheese, milk and eggs are always served in huge quantities offered to us by our neighbours who live next door in the farm animal department. They always send us their produce with one of the angels assigned to feed us.
 
I can tell you that now all the dogs in paradise have become vegetarians. We can’t eat our friends. We only eat and drink what they produce and are happy to give us. Many angels are around us and one of them has only one job, to cuddle us. Another plays music for us changing his instrument depending on what we are doing at the time. He plays the guitar before bed-time and the drums when we play. Every activity has its own instrument. An angel rubs our tummies and another one (my favourite) plays with us all the time. He stops only when we are exhausted. Like I told you at the beginning life here is completely different.
 
Now it is time to tell you what happened to me on earth. This cruel planet where so many dogs are so mistreated. When I think of my life down there I ask myself “Why do some people treat us this way? What have we done to suffer so much?” When I was born 18 years ago I was a nice white little puppy. An Egyptian family bought me from a pet shop. I think they chose me because they liked my colour, my coat and my tiny size (I was only 6 weeks old). They took me home with them and put me in the bathroom.
 
When I recall my life on earth, the first thing I think about is a wash basin in the bathroom and the sound of running water coming from the tap. It took me some time here in paradise to enjoy the rivers and waterfalls, I had become so bored with the sound of running water. But here it is so different! When I am thirsty the water is cool and when I want to swim the water becomes warm, so blue! I must keep remembering that I am in paradise after all! I spent 14 years locked up in this bathroom. I was lonely and miserable. There was nobody to talk to me, no human contact and of course no animal contact. I was becoming dumb. But what could I do? It was my destiny.....
 
I also had a problem. There was no-one to care for me or clean my eyes which began to itch all the time. They always had discharge which kept accumulating inside my eyes. Nobody noticed. The Egyptian family that had bought me were only giving me food and water – nobody held me in their arms or looked at my face. I don’t even know whether they were living in the same flat. I don’t remember hearing human voices.
 
When I was young, I used to spend my time counting the tiles of the bathroom and on each tile I used to imagine something wonderful. The first tile on the left was my mothers’ face, on the second a huge garden where I could run to my hearts desire, the third was piece of land full of mud where I could dig huge holes. This is how I spent my time but as time went by I couldn’t see the tiles anymore because my eyes were hurting so much! But nobody knew or noticed. You know I can’t talk your language. I was crying but nobody was hearing me. If only my eyes didn’t hurt so much!
 
The only person who took care of me was the groomer, an old man called Mohamed who used to come twice a year. When I was 14, I overheard Mohamed talking to my owners: “Where do you want me to take him? Nobody would want to adopt a old blind dog 14 years of age.“ Was he really talking about me? Had I already spent 14 years locked up in this bathroom? Was it me the old blind dog? But yes, I feel so old and it is true, I can’t see anything anymore. I then heard Mohamed speaking on the telephone to an Egyptian lady who had just opened a shelter for stray animals in Giza not far from the Great Pyramids of Kheops, Khufu and Mykerinos. He asked her if could bring me to her. I think the lady was horrified by the story and was shouting at the other end of the phone. I could overhear some of the conversation.

-  “Mohamed are you telling me that this dog spent 14 years locked up in a bathroom?“
- “Yes, of course, I am sure because I have been grooming him twice a year for all this period.“
 - “How did he become blind?“
 - “Because nobody cleaned his eyes or put eye-drops or took him to a vet for a check-up.“
 - “Why didn’t you do this yourself?“
 - “Madame, I am just a groomer, I am a poor man. I was cleaning his eyes with water twice a year when I was called in to groom him. Now they don’t want him anymore, they want to buy a new puppy and throw Ringo out in the street.“
 - “Ok, bring him over immediately.“

Read more >>