A Cold Weather Dog Living on the Equator
Half a world from his home, Rocket was sick and neglected — until two strangers came to the rescue
Rocket has had a hard life. No one doubts that, but no one really knows his whole story. The few details that Alex and Crystal Spectre know for sure are these:
Someone in Singapore imported Rocket from Alaska as a puppy, and when he became a bit too much to handle, they just gave him up. Rocket then found himself living in a factory for a couple of years — with little to no exercise — before being given up to a shelter when he started developing a bad skin condition that affected his coat.
Staff at the shelter quickly realized that the Alaskan Malamute was also seriously malnourished, underweight and had no idea how to interact with other dogs — or even take a walk. Mals (a term of endearment from lovers of the breed) who don’t get adequate exercise quickly become bored and frustrated — and have a tendency towards self-mutilation, inappropriate chewing and destruction of property. Needless to say, Rocket was in a bad place due to human neglect. And being that he he was the biggest dog that the shelter had ever seen, he stuck out like a sore thumb amongst the other animals. Life was not good for Rocket.
But things would soon change.
Luckily for Rocket, Alex and Crystal were temporarily living in Singapore with her family. And luckily for Alex and Crystal, one of their friends volunteered at the shelter where they learned of Rocket’s plight.
The friend knew that the young couple was already planning a move to the more temperate climate of the San Francisco, California, for Alex’s tech startup that he founded. And — even more serendipitously — that they had also planned on adopting an Alaskan Malamute when they got there.
This was a match made in heaven.
So Alex and Crystal went to the shelter to meet Rocket and immediately fell in love. They quickly adopted him and brought him home to nurse him back to health and prep him for the big move to California.
But they were soon met with a sobering reality that they hadn’t anticipated: the astronomical cost of shipping Rocket to the United States.
Rocket was huge. He didn’t fit in any standard travel crate and no airline would take him as checked baggage. So we found that the only option was commercial shipping in a custom crate — and that was very expensive. It was going to cost thousands of dollars to get him there.
So the young couple researched around the Internet and ultimately decided to crowdfund the costs to help the rescue Rocket. They set up an online fundraiser at CrowdRise and asked friends, family and fellow dog lovers for help to get Rocket out of this unforgiving climate and to a better place.
They quickly raised thousands of dollars from people all across the world. They took this money and immediately hired someone to start making Rocket’s custom crate for the journey. He was so close to getting out.
And while they waited for crate to be completed, Rocket kept on getting stronger — and more social around other dogs. He gained nearly 50 pounds, was soon up to three walks a day and his beautiful coat started showing.
Any day now, the trio should have all their paperwork, permits and vosas approved for their long-awaited move to San Francisco. They can’t wait to start their new life together in their new city. But as excited as they are, they know that none of this would have been possible without the help of so many others who chipped in. And Alex and Crystal are so thankful for that.
The biggest lesson we learned was the generosity of strangers. We were absolutely blown away by how many complete strangers donated to our campaign — and in quite large sums! It went to show that even a bad situation like Rocket’s can turn around fast with enough love and effort.
This same sentiment about the generosity of strangers could be said for Alex and Crystal. Rocket was a stranger to them and they didn’t have to bring him into their life. But they did — and all three of their lives are better for it.
If Rocket could talk, we’re sure he’d agree with that.
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Decent Humans is a series of stories spotlighting the incredible community we witness on CrowdRise doing amazing things for good. By sharing their stories of aid, altruism, and passion we hope others will be inspired to live a charitable life.
