There are over 100 dogs at the Tiger Cave Temple and some of them we have gotten to know a lot better than others. For the most part, when people come to the Temple, they tend to stay in the greeting area. Not very many people wander over the hill to the actual cave part of the rather large compound. Most of the dogs live in the main area but there are a few that prefer the more quiet life of living on the other side. One of those dogs is the very friendly "Caveman."
Caveman is not wanting for food, he is one of the better fed animals here at the temple probably because he is one of the only dogs that hangs out on this side. The monks spend a lot of time over there even though the general public do not, they always bring food over for him and he is well looked after. We were not regular care-takers here at the Tiger Cave Temple when it was discovered but 4 years ago Caveman came down with some cancer and he is proof that with a little TLC that this can be gotten past.
We treated him years ago including with a few courses of chemotherapy and we checked back up on him regularly to make sure the cancer didn't come back, which it can do. During that time when we discovered that he had cancer it was a little difficult to determine. All we knew is that the monks told us that he was all of a sudden not interested in going on the rounds to sit with the monks while they sweep out the caves. If your dog or really any dog all of a sudden loses interest in something that they used to love, you should probably get them blood-checked. I'm not trying to alarm anyone but just like it is with humans, doggy cancer is far more treatable if you detect it early.
During those times Caveman had a litany of other problems, one of which resulted in him going blind in one eye. Caveman doesn't seem to mind, and is back to his old ways of following the monks and even me when I go back here. I am able to give him treats and then trick him into a blood test and I always hope for good news and that is exactly what we got! Caveman is still cancer-free.
According to the monks Caveman almost never crosses over the hill and chooses to live a solitary life at the caves almost entirely by himself. This is odd for a dog since they are normally quite social creatures but Caveman does his own thing and seems to prefer the company of humans but not really the company of other dogs.
We are just happy that we got to him in time so he can continue to accompany the monks on their once daily cleaning of the caves and Caveman looks forward to it as well. He has a lot of character so if for whatever reason you ever end up at the Tiger Cave Temple, cross over the small incline of about 200 stairs and visit the outer caves. You will almost certainly run into him and he is very welcoming and friendly.
if you would like to see how you can help out or simply spread the word, please visit our website at
http://krabianimalwelfare.org
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