A roughly 9-year-old Bokdori. Due to a traffic accident, the right hind leg and left side are unbalanced, causing limping. Unable to urinate separately, he often dribbles.
[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters, Reporter Kim Yong-woo] Jeong Hyun-joo, a 60-year-old president running a small manufacturing business in Busan, could not bring himself to abandon a stray dog that entered his factory, so he raised it.
Originally, he disliked keeping dogs, but he only fed and let the dog sleep without tying a leash. One day, the dog, which had gone outside, was involved in a severe traffic accident.
The companion dog suffered a serious injury with a fractured femur and faced a life-threatening situation, but after being hospitalized for 3 months and 20 days and undergoing more than ten surgeries and treatments, it survived.
Jeong himself also faced hardship. He was diagnosed with colon cancer and underwent surgery and chemotherapy and is currently battling to recover.
A chance encounter between a stray dog and a human?let’s look into their bond through the dog’s perspective.
# My name is ‘Bokdori’.
There are two types of my kind: companion dogs or strays.
Before I met ‘Dad,’ I wandered the streets, so I have experienced both lives.
Our kind is a bit strange. We call the ‘human’ species who are not our birth parents ‘Mom’ or ‘Dad.’ This applies only to companion dogs.
Since I was born a stray, I had no mom or dad to remember my age or birthday. Later, when I was seriously injured, the veterinarian estimated my age.
That’s how I lived until I met ‘Dad’ in 2015. It was a cold winter evening in February when I was wandering the streets hungry.
Busan Sasang-gu has long been an area with many factories. Among the many buildings, I saw a factory with its shutter door open. I entered without hesitation and fell asleep there, unaware that the owner disliked dogs.
That’s how I first met Dad. The next morning, I barked through the opening door, and the owner, startled, chased me away. I wandered the streets all day but somehow remembered and went back to that factory.
Although the owner looked at me with dislike, perhaps feeling pity, he bought dog food for me. When I came back after playing, he fed me again. That factory became my dining spot.
The owner must have heard the saying, “When a wild animal comes, don’t chase it away until it leaves on its own.” He probably thought I would leave soon. But just a few days later, when I visited again, I found a new collar with a name tag attached.
My name was ‘Bokdori,’ and I even had Dad’s phone number. Still, I continued to roam the neighborhood, visiting Dad only to eat or sleep. I had a collar but no leash, so I was still a ‘free spirit.’
Since I met Dad, his factory seemed to do well. Two years later, in 2017, he moved to a bigger and cleaner factory. Of course, I followed.
Dad said, “Since this dog came, business has been going well,” and I guess he got used to me. Even when I urinated anywhere in the factory, Dad never said a word. Even when my urine touched products that rusted and caused Dad to lose customers several times.
About a year after moving to the new factory, in the summer of 2018, one day I wandered far away like a ‘male dog in heat.’ It was quite a distance from Sasang-gu to Gupo-dong in Buk-gu.
But after that day, I couldn’t return home for over 110 days because I was fighting for my life. Now, I will return to Dad’s memory.
# June 14, 2018, 5 p.m.
A desperate call came to Jeong Hyun-joo (60), who runs a factory in Mora-dong, Sasang-gu, Busan. A young woman said, “The dog was hit by a truck and severely injured, so I contacted the number on the collar.”
When Jeong arrived at the scene, Bokdori’s lower body was completely crushed. People murmured that the dog would soon die due to the severe injuries.
Jeong took Bokdori to the hospital. His hip and knee bones were completely broken into six pieces. The animal hospital expected the owner to give up on surgery. The surgery cost was huge, and the wounds were so deep that even with surgery, survival chances were slim.
‘Bokdori’s Dad’ searched for a hospital that performed good surgery and treatment and scheduled hospitalization for the next day.
The surgery started at 2:30 p.m. on June 16 and ended around 7 p.m. After a long operation, the bladder and urethra were removed, and this surgery was only the beginning.
Afterward, they had to prevent damage from urine leakage causing organ necrosis.
During the 110-day hospitalization, a total of 10 surgeries were performed. Major surgeries and treatments for fractures, organ damage, and bladder removal continued consecutively.
Jeong’s credit card bills piled up to 15 million won from the surgeries. The total cost from hospitalization to discharge exceeded 20 million won, but the hospital gave him a 30% discount seeing his dedication.
After discharge, over a year of treatment for bladder stones continued with ultrasound examinations, costing more money.
Jeong’s job involves personally processing piping materials and hydraulic machine parts with one or two employees, so it’s not a high-margin business.
Jeong said, “Since I met Bokdori, business seems to have gone well. I think I chose a good name.”
He also said, “I didn’t ask about the surgery and treatment costs; I only thought about saving him,” and laughed, “I found out later that the treatment cost was so high.”
Since August last year, Jeong faced hardship. Two large tumors were found at the late stage of stage 3 colon cancer. He had surgery in October that year, removing 27 cm of his colon. He underwent chemotherapy eight times and is still monitoring the prognosis.
Jeong said, “Bokdori’s surgery cost 1.7 to 2 million won each time, but I only paid 50,000 to 60,000 won because health insurance covered 95%.” He smiled slightly.
He added, “Now it seems Bokdori is saving me. If a limping dog with urine leakage can live well, how can I, a human, not overcome illness?”
Jeong worries about the reality where people abandon their dogs or let them die in pain because they cannot afford treatment costs in this era of living with companion animals.
The meeting of Bokdori, who went from stray to companion dog, and Jeong, who is not even a dog lover but accepted him as a companion and ‘partner,’ is not very common.
# I am Bokdori again.
I am about 9 years old in dog years, which is over 60 in human years, so judging by average lifespan, I probably won’t live longer than Dad. I will live happily, so Dad, please overcome your illness and live a long life.
Even if we part, I will say I was happy to meet the ‘human’ Dad I love most in the world. Promise.
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