Kratos tales: How a lost German Shepherd found his forever home
Every superhero needs a good origin story, but my furry hero Kratos’ origin story is one of my absolute favourites. Here’s the tale of how a sad and skinny dude overcame the mean streets of Taiwan to become the most adored pupster of all time.
In 2009, I moved over to Taiwan to join my then-husband Art. We had met at Auckland University in 2003, but two years into our relationship he had decided to become a pilot and took a cadetship with China Airlines. After getting married, I quit my job and moved over there.
For the first year of me being there, I pestered Art to allow us to get a dog. He was reluctant, despite always having had dogs growing up, as he wasn’t sure how well having a dog in an apartment would go. I pointed out that most of the rest of Taiwan lived in apartments, and lots of them had dogs and we were right next to a local park. How hard could it be to take it downstairs to do its business? Finally, after lots of puppy-dog eyes from me, and seeing how bad the stray/abandoned dog situation was, he finally agreed to us getting a dog. It was the end of April, 2010.
The very next day, I went shopping in the late afternoon. I was contentedly plotting what I might make for dinner that night, and came back from the local fruit and vege market laden with a few too many things. As I was hauling my load along, regretting some of my earlier decisions to get the two-for-one deals, I spotted a German Shepherd dog loitering outside of the 7-Eleven on the corner of our street. Now, seeing a dog isn’t unusual, but seeing a GSD was. Moreover, Art’s much-loved family GSD, Rifle, had recently passed away. So I stopped, put down my 357 shopping bags, and snapped a quick photo of this dog to show Art. As I took the photo, he looked right at the camera.
Assuming that his owner must just be in the shop, I deadlifted my shopping and continued my slow march home. I glanced back, and saw that the dog was on the opposite side of the road from me, casually trotting along. There was a dude just ahead of him, so I assumed that must be his human. I smiled to myself, and carried on. Then, the dude went into an apartment complex, and the dog didn’t follow him. Instead, this dog was making eyes at me across the road. I looked around, checking for someone who had lost this dog. Meanwhile, he was crossing four lanes of peak time traffic, making a beeline for me.
I ditched the bags of shopping and reached down instinctively to pull him into my side and away from the traffic, simultaneously worrying he might not like this and turn on me. Instead, he leaned into me, trusting. Well. That was that then.
I called Art and asked him to come down and bring a belt, as I had found a dog that was either lost or abandoned. Within 20 minutes, he had the car ready and we were making our way to the local vet to get his microchip scanned and see if we could reunite him with his human. He was seriously skinny, and had bones poking out at all angles. He also had cuts on his face and concrete in fur on his back. It was clear that he’d had a rough old time of it. Once we were at the vet, he weighed in at 24kg, which was about 10kg less than he should have been. He also didn’t have a microchip. The vet said that he could keep him there and see if anyone claimed him, or (clearly seeing the look on my face) we could foster him for a month, after which time (if he remained unclaimed) we could formally adopt him.
On the condition that he could name him, Art agreed. I wanted to call him Larry (as in, he’s as happy as…) which was quickly poo-pooed and thus Kratos received his official name. Kratos was the protagonist of Art’s favourite PlayStation game of the time: God of War.
And so, Kratos found his forever home. But this is not where the story ends. The next installment will detail how Kratos came to prove his name and how we dealt with that… Stay tuned for more doge tales.
