Wait till you hear my dog story! We have a Tahitian Shepherd that we rescued from Tahiti and he’s the best thing that has ever happened to our family!

My husband and I were vacationing on a private island in Bora Bora for our 25th Wedding Anniversary. While we were there we met this cute stray shepherd pup that began to follow us around. In Tahiti, they don’t really take care of their dogs, and the resort people at the Island would just shew him away and even kick him if he came close to the hotel guests. But, being dog lovers as we were, we welcomed this dog with open arms. It wasn’t long before he was following us everywhere. He’d even find his way out to our bungaloo, which was at the very end of the property. What amazed me about this dog was that as skinny as he was, (he had to steal food to live), when I fed him some filet minon, he took it from me very gently. He’d get so excited everytime he saw us. Well, then it was time for us to leave the island unfortunately. So, as we were leaving, he tried to jump in the boat with us. Of course the boat driver wouldn’t have it. So then as we were leaving , he tried to jump in the water to follow the boat! I couldn’t believe what I was seeing!

Then about a week later we were on a cruise and got the opportunity to go back to the same island for a day. So my husband and I went over to the island we had been on and looked for the dog. He was overjoyed to see us again, but then when it was time to leave, he again tried to follow the boat in the water! It just broke my heart!

Well, we left Tahiti and came home and about a week later, as I came home from work one night, my husband suddenly said, out of the blue “Do you want me to go get him? I didn’t even know what he was talking about and I said “Get who?” He said…you know, the dog!!!!” I was dumbfounded. I said “You mean you’d do that for me?” He said “That dog is special. Sure I’d do that!” So, he flew back to Tahiti (from California) and came prepared with a cage and dog biscuits. For the first couple of hours that he landed on the island, the dog was nowhere in sight. Then, about three hours later, here he comes out of the jungle area! He jumped for joy when he saw my husband! My husband put the leash on the dog and it was just as if the dog knew he was ‘going home’! My husband had some trouble getting him on the boat because no one wanted to take a dog on their boat. But with a little incentive of some cash, one boat owner finally agreed to take the dog over. There were countless problems getting the airline to approve taking the dog over, but my husband finally got him on a charter flight from Bora Bora back to Tahiti. When they were unloading his cage in Tahiti. someone stacked his cage on several other boxes, and he was at least 13 or 14 ft. in the air. Well, one of those little carts came along driven by some airline employee, and he suddendly ran into the stack of boxes and the dog’s cage fell to the ground and it busted open his cage. He became very frightend over the sound of all of the airplanes and he took off running across the landing area and into a jungle area nearby. My husband got in a motoorized cart with an airline employee and they started looking for the dog, but to no avail. They told my husband to just go to his hotel and they’d call him if thye found the dog. My husband was terribly distraught! He felt horrible about taking the dog out of his normal habitat and now he was out in a jungle that he would probably die in if he wasn’t found!

About eight hours later, the airline called to say, that the fire department had gone looking for the dog and he had been found!!! When my husband went back to the airport, there was the dog but unfortunately, he was injured from the fall. He could barely walk! My husband then went looking for a Veternarian, as this was a requirement before he could fly back to the United Statess (as well as needing to see the Dr. because of his injury.) The Vet. he chose turned out to be athe President of the Tahitian SPCA and he was moved by the story of my husband coming all the way back to Tahiti to rescue a dog he and his wife had fallen in love with. The Dr. called the local newspaers and TV stations and before my husband could even react, they had him and the dog on National Tahitian TV!!!! In the meantime, the dog had a broken tailbone, which made it difficult to walk. He was treated for the injury and the vet. told my husband that the injury should heal soon.

After a very long flight home, my husband finally walked into our house about 7pm whth the happiest dog ever!!! We’ve named him MoTu, which is Tahitian for Private Island. We have had the best time ever with this dog. He is the most affectionate dog we have ever had! He sleeps in our bed (and my husband had previously never let our dogs upstairs. He is a physician and he always said it wasn’t hygenic to let dogs sleep with you!!!) But this dog, well he’s different! He is extremely intellegent. He knows how to open doors, cabinets and even understands certain words! He’s three years old now and we just love him to death! The only problem we have had with him is that he still thinks he needs to scavenger for food, even though he’s fed very well! (I have to make sure no food is within reach when we’re gone!) He also gets very upset when we leave him. I like to say he has abandonment issues! He also has nine lives. He’s survived Distemper, a broken tailbone, eating two boxes of rat poison, several dog fights when he lived on the island and more!!! We love this dog so much. He’s brought so much love into our family! People that aren’t dog people think we are nuts for going around the world to save a dog! But those of you who do love dogs, I know will understand! Oh and one more thing, his injury from the fall healed perfectly in a very short time, just as the Vet. said it would! I hope this story has warmed your heart the way MoTu has warmed our lives.

Marsha from CA