My name is Gini.

I am a spayed female dog, 4 years old, weighing 55 lbs/25 kgs, who survived the brutal and illegal southeast Asian dog meat trade over two years ago, in the late summer of 2013. After policemen seized my transport and I was removed from a suffocating crush cage along with many others, I once again lived at the edge of survival for many months, at the government livestock center where I was brought after my rescue.

Overcrowding, disease, lack of sufficient food and medical care – all combined to create an environment almost as perilous as the dog meat market where I would have been sold to a hungry passerby to be tortured to death before being eaten. But I survived both – and came out on the other side with my tail still wagging!

A Good Samaritan halfway around the world saw my photo and looked into my eyes – she sponsored me out of that place in October of 2013, which is how I ended up at the wonderful Elfesworld dog sanctuary on an idyllic Thai island. A complete reversal of fortune!

On December 2, 2013, I flew to Elfesworld on Koh Samui (Samui Island), after leaving the shelter in October and driving the long road to Bangkok, where I was treated at Hataimit Clinic for malnourishment and brought back to good health over the course of six weeks.

I lived there for almost 2 years- lucky me!! However, although Elfeworld is a lovely place for its fortunate inhabitants, I am not faring well here. And Elfe – mama to all 650 of us – knows that I cannot realize my true potential until I find a home to call my very own.

Elfe describes me as absolutely lovely – friendly, affectionate, and constantly craving human affection. You can see a little bit of my silly nature in action here, the other day, when Elfe shot this Facebook video of me playing with her during a rare period of supervised time out of my cage.
I socialize well with other dogs and I LOVE to be around people.

Because of my size (anything above 50 lbs is considered very large in Thailand), and my coloring (mainly black, which – as in most places globally – decreases my adoption chances), Elfe frets daily over my fate. Two years have passed and although visitors and locals love me, none step forward to adopt me. My only chance for a real life with a family and home seems to be overseas.

“Gini is a big girl, about 25 kg, and her colouring is mainly black. I am worried that will reduce her chances of rehoming. That is why I always leave her out when introducing possible adoption candidates, since we have many smaller, more popular-looking dogs urgently needing homes as well. But for Gini the time is ticking past…her precious life time, which is now spent almost entirely in a small run alone.
She is alert and playful and craves human interaction very much. When children visited us, she was always excited and happy, and behaved so gently with them. Nowadays, I see mostly sadness and hopelessness when I watch her from afar.

She will be the perfect match for someone! She is intelligent and loves to please people and to learn new things. She is beautiful, for those who choose to see it.

I

I send you this appeal with great hopes and prayers for my wonderful Gini.”

I am soooo lucky to be here, I know that! And if life at Elfesworld in a small run is all there is in store for me, I accept and understand that I was still spared a horrific fate at the meat market, where adrenaline is thought to increase flavor, and therefore my end would have been truly tragic and terrorizing. I would have been long dead were it not for the string of lucky life events that has brought me here. I try to tell myself this while I watch the world go by through the bars of my cage.
But truly – this is no life for me. I want nothing more than to be with people!
I am so very sad, and my depression is growing due to my confinement.

I miss and crave human affection so. I have no idea what an actual home with my own people would be like, but from what I gather, it is something like a heaven on earth – and it sure sounds like it!

Are you the adoptive angels I am destined to live with forever?
Can you help make my dreams come true?
I fall asleep each night to the sweet vision of a future life with a forever family, though I know it’s dangerous to dream so high…

Thanks for reading my story.
Love, Gini