Something that influence my life

Something that influence my life: Animals.

They are the ones that shaped the values I live by.

I grew up surrounding by animals.From having my first cat at five years old till having 20 of them now. Together with the cats, I have two additional cheeky dogs at home.

My two cheeky dogs ! Chester on the left and Momo on the right .

Chester was adopted from a shelter.

 

Momo was abandoned by her owner as she was no longer cute, so my family decided to adopt her .

This is Lane , one out of the many cats I have.

Because of my love for animals, I aspire to be a vet since young. I want to be one who is able to cure the sufferings or pain from the ones who could not speak out.  Thus during my poly days, I studied veterinary Bioscience. However after graduation, I came to realize that the journey to a vet career is costly. My family could not afford it so I gave up the slot that a university offered to me.

Following my passion, I volunteered at a shelter -SOSD every weekends and do re-homing.  That was when I learnt so much values in life. Many of the dogs in the shelter been through much hardships.

One of the recent rescues by SOSD.

Some of them was abused before, confined,  abandoned to strive on their own when they was domesticated. Yet, they never gave up in life. Every time when volunteers visit them, they are always so wagging their tails like it was the happiest moment of their life. Just a little kindness from us was something important to them. I believe that this not only apply to animals, but even for people too. Little kindness action will bright up someone’s day or even change their life.

Xiang Xiang, the bubbly dog that is always so happy.

Just like how when I help to re-home abandoned helpless kittens and cats. There are so many screenings to be done to ensure that the home is suitable. It is a tedious process but the efforts put in will find them a place where they truly call home. I realize that what I did may not have change anything in the world, but I know I have changed their entire world.

(Left : When Orllie was first rescued )                 (Right: Orllie at new home)

Orllie was a kitten that was found in the drain. My family brought him home and fostered him while looking for adopter. He was eventually adopted and is now very happy at his new home!

Other than weekly volunteering, I took up the role of SOS rescue team at SOSD. The SOS rescue team main role is to help stray dogs that are in need. We have a hotline and email address that public members can contact us to inform us about any dogs in distress.

At that point of time, I was working full time while handling the rescue team on a volunteering basis. The role was not easy. On most days, I see the ugly side of humanity. I get nasty calls threatening us to save stray dogs at the area before authority comes and cull them because they do not like to see them in their living area. Owners giving up their dogs just because they are no long cute and cuddly.

This is Migo, one of my first rescues. He was infested with ticks due to negligence of his owner. Eventually the owner wanted to euthanize him as they did not want to care for him any more.

SOSD shelter took him in and provided him the medical attention that was required. He is now officially adopted and has a place he calls home!

 

Authority would give us a list of dogs with their pictures, asking us which to one we would like to save. Most of the time, the shelter is often filled to the brim, so we could only offer to save a few usually. As for the rest which we or other animal welfare organization did not have a chance to save, they will be euthanized.  I hated the fact that we were the one that decides their fate. These strays did not have a chance to even try to survive on their own. These strays use to roam around forest and field. But the lands were cleared to building house estates for people eventually. They ended up with nowhere to go and eventually began roam into housing estates in search for shelter.

These incidents taught me to be more tolerant to each other difference. Sometimes you may not know if the other party is having a hard time which they did not say. Sometimes the other party may have grew up in an difficult environment which resulted in what they did.

 

 This is Fraser, one of the dogs that was lucky to escape the fate of euthanasia. He was taken by authorities as he reported as an aggressive dog. When we met him, he was actually one of the tamest  and friendliest dog ! He is still looking for a home.

When I think back, I am really glad that I am brought up in a house with animals. This is because they taught how me how to be a better person and play a part in shaping who I am now.

[updated on 3/12/15]

Oral presentation reflection

Since young, presentation was never my forte. No matter how well-prepared I was, I would always stumble upon my own words. During my polytechnic days, my role in my Co-curriculum activity(CCA) often requires me to lead and give instructions to a large group of people. The role have helped to boost my confidence when speaking to a group of people and trained me to speak loudly and clearly in order to capture the audience attention.

During my presentation on last Thursday(5 Nov 15), I am glad that I was able use my past experience when I was presenting. In addition, I was able to continue speaking by thinking on foot even though I actually had forgotten my script. However, I feel that I still have a lot of room for improvements.

Firstly, peers reviewed that at certain point of time, I looked like I was trying to recall my script when my eyes started looking at the ceiling. I will need to practice on my eye contact even when I have forgotten my script.  Next, I tried the method of speaking without using the slide. I realize that in order to do that, one need to be really good at catching the audience attention which I feel it was not suitable for me. I should make use of the slide to boost my presentation and make it more interactive. In addition, I tend to use filler words in between my sentences which it is a very bad habit I should learn to get rid of. Lastly, I learnt that group presentation is not only about myself. I need to learn to coordinate with my groups to ensure we are doing it as a group presentation and not as individuals presenting a group presentation.

Presentation skills is very important in our daily lives. I hope that during my next presentation, I can work on my flaws to further improve on presenting!