One of the dogs waiting to be adopted at the Uitsig Animal Rescue Centre"Why are you going so slowly?"
The car is moving at what feels like less than a kilometre an hour and the combination of dust penetrating our lungs and the sun beating down on our heads is giving me a bit of a headache, making me rather glad when Jayne pipes up from the backseat.
"Because I don't want to ruin my car!"
A hollow echo can be heard as Ash says this, reiterating her point. This is certainly not a pleasant road to drive along, and the dilapidated houses that we passed a little earlier didn't really help my impression of the area.
This place is going to be a total dump, I think to myself, but keep the thoughts silent. The rescue centre means so much to Ash and Jayne that I don't want to ruin the trip before we can even get there.
We turn onto another road, less rocky this time around but covered in far more dust that flies into the air as we drive through it and tickles the back of my throat making me want to cough. I am wondering when this hell will end when we round a corner and come face to face with a gated farm with a sign reading Uitsig Animal Rescue Centre.
We open the gate with a little difficulty and suddenly find ourselves surrounded by dogs, all running free and all excited to see us, greeting us as though we are old friends rather than strangers to them. Compared to the last animal shelter that I visited, this place is like heaven on earth - instead of concrete cellblocks, there is plenty of space here for the healthy dogs to run 
around. Chicken wire separates some of the dogs from the others - the anti-social and the not so well off (which make up a large number of the dogs that come in) - but even these can hardly be called small. Regardless of where the hounds are situated, they are guaranteed to be much happier than where they were before they arrived at Uitsig - most of the dogs are brought in from abusive or neglectful homes or are found wandering the streets. Though none of them can speak, the stories of abuse are written all over their bodies - in the amputated leg of one dog, in the backing away of another as soon as any human comes close to it, and probably most noticably in the mange that plagues so many skins and coats.
Ash calls me over to introduce me to her puppy, Sunny Snapper, who she rescued off a traffic circle near her work. With too many pets to handle at home already, she can't keep Sunny herself, but insists on visiting him on at least a weekly basis and checking up to make sure that things are running smoothly. They always are. Ash and I decide to take Sunny and his sister on a walk, and I make my way through the farm towards the gate, holding onto the dog that I decide to name Mashi (short for mashisoyo which means delicious in Korean - my own personal joke), so that the other dogs can't attack her. She is smaller than the rest and can't defend herself properly, but she shivers in my hands, uncomfortable and untrusting of the human hands holding her. She seems to warm to me as we walk though, and by the end, as we return to the compound and I need to pick her up again, she isn't nearly as nervous.
After our walk, I decide that it is time for me to check out the other part of the shelter - the cattery. The cattery is separated into two areas: one with the younger cats and kittens, many of whom appear to have some form of snuffles, and the other with the older and wiser cats. As I step into the room of kittens, I hear the tiniest of meows and look down to find a grey and white one practically standing on my feet. Soon a couple more come closer, their curiosity getting the better of them, and I give them some attention before making my way to the next room - if I stay with the kittens too long, I won't be able to resist taking one home! As I walk 
towards the second cattery, the kitties see me coming and start storming the door, about twenty of them wailing for my attention and begging me to take them home. They swarm me as I step through and I can't take another step for fear of standing on one of their tails. I wander through the room, taking in all of their beauty before tearing myself away and returning to the real world.
It is time to go, and Ash, Janey and I all pile into the car without any joy - all of us wish we could stay there forever or, at the very least, take all of these wonderful animals home with us. But we can't. That would be taking away the opportunity for others to find the pet of their dreams, because I can almost guarantee that if you go to Uitsig looking for a pet, you will fall in love with at least one.
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