A story about an offer puppy

Dear sisters,


Someone from school, let's call him Jim, was taking his three children to school by car, their driver behind the wheel, when they drove through a village and had to slow down for a group of puppies frolicking (nice word) in the road.

Balinese dogs excel at moving out of the way at the very, very last moment, and Balinese puppies learn early, so when the driver accelerated, the puppies scattered and jumped to safety just in time, as they had been taught. All except one. One of the puppies stumbled over his own feet and was hit by the car.

Understandably, the three children in the back seat were upset and Jim only managed to calm them down by promising to come back for the puppy after they had been taken to school, and make sure it received proper treatment.

Jim, true to his word, returned to the village with his driver, where they found the puppy lying injured in a yard. Jim watched as the driver negotiated with the villagers, who were apparently protesting, but he came back with the wounded puppy. They drove the puppy to a vet, who determined the dog had a broken leg, which could be treated. Jim would have to pay 200.000 Rhupia ($20)for the treatment, which he said was not a problem.

"Ah but this is a perfect offer dog."

Jim looked at the vet.

Not knowing that puppies were offered, he asked

" What makes this puppy the perfect offer dog? "

"The coloring; brown with black markings make it ideal for the offering."

So, basically, if Jim intended on returning the dog to where he found it, the vet would not treat the dog, as it would more than likely be offered soon anyway.

Jim suggested keeping the dog himself, then.

It was the driver's turn to become upset. He had solemnly promised to return the dog to the villagers.

The vet added that, by the way, if he kept the puppy, there was a good chance it would soon be stolen, as a good offer puppy can fetch as much as 1.3 million Rhupia ($130) on the market.

It was a happy ending for this puppy. They went back to the village and paid a price- the story does not say how much - puppy's leg was fixed and puppy was adopted by a loving expat family in Sanur, who live behind walls and have security to prevent abduction.

We asked Nyoman about the puppy offering business, Yes, he said, puppies are offered to appease the demons. They are used in cleansing ceremonies. He was skeptical about the price quoted above for such a puppy, however.

We asked how many puppies his village offered each year, just to get a feel for this practice. Not each year, he said, only one every three years.

S1