Rescued July 2024 · Maun, Botswana
As told by Peanut
Born Different
My name is Peanut. I am a Weimaraner-Africanis cross that was rescued by the Oister Foundation in Maun, Botswana, in July 2024. As a dog, I am not familiar with the concept of time, but to put this into an understandable sentence for humans — absolute perfect timing is what aligned to initiate my rescue.
I was born in a dusty, sandy village on the outskirts of Maun, Botswana. The human family my mother lived with were not well off, so my mother was in very poor condition when I was born, due to malnutrition. I was born very different from my brothers and sisters — I was born without joints in my hind legs, so my hind legs don't work. Only my front legs do. This made getting around, from birth, very challenging, as I have to drag my entire body using only my front legs.
Fighting for Survival
Due to my mother's malnutrition and sickly state when I was born, I also didn't get much nutrition from her milk — and even that was rare. As the weakest pup in the litter, with only two legs working, I was in fierce competition for milk with my hungry brothers and sisters. Being the slowest, I was almost always the one who didn't get any. And when I was able to reach the milk, my clumsy stumps would get in the way and obstruct my attempts, almost every time.
Being born without joints in my hind legs means I have dead-straight hind legs that cannot bend — they look like sticks. This is very unfortunate in traditional Botswana. Dogs like me, who look different, are often associated with witchcraft — just like cats — and so we are not given any compassionate treatment. We are seen as a pest of some sort, and this is essentially a curse on dogs like me.
The Moment That Changed Everything
Getting back to the "timing" I mentioned at the start of my story. While the kids were hurting me — shaking me up and down by holding me by my disabled legs, a painful and traumatising event — a compassionate human called Stefanie, from the Oister Foundation, drove by and saw what was happening. Stefanie jumped out of the car and approached the situation with urgency and anger — but justified anger, anger ignited by compassion for me, the disabled pup in distress and excruciating pain. She didn't hesitate to tell off the kids and take me from them. The mother's response was: "I think the kids broke his legs — that is why they are so straight." Later, the Oister Foundation did get X-rays of my legs from a vet in Maun, which proved that I was born without joints. The X-ray episode is another story, perhaps for another time — but even that didn't go as planned and turned out to be another traumatising event.
Dogs Don't Judge
Anyway, back to this story. I do not hold judgment towards the kids who hurt me. To the contrary, I find them to be innocent children, conditioned by a cultural belief system so powerful that it can cloud their judgment and justify acts that inflict pain. From a dog's perspective, I can separate the conditioning from the innocent child and not hold anger or judgment. Dogs don't judge.
At that moment, they did not comprehend that I felt pain just like them, despite my crying. They only saw a pup that looked different, and they had been taught that this was an evil thing. That deserves immense compassion — for essentially, they are innocent kids who did not understand what they were doing.
Safe at Last
Stefanie took me from the kids, from the family in the village, and held me close to her heart. At that moment, I knew I would never be hurt again. I felt safe. I also know that this act of kindness planted a seed within those kids — the exact seed that can grow to break an evil form of conditioning and change a mindset.
Peanut is now an ambassador for the Africanis™ brand and the Oister™ Foundation's mission to protect and preserve the Canis Africanis — Africa's aboriginal landrace dog. Every purchase from Africanis™ helps fund special needs cases like Peanut's.