Every dog has its day, but few canines get a motorcade on their return home.
Kabang, who lost half her face after jumping in front of a motorcycle to save the lives of two girls, received a rousing welcome Monday in Zamboanga, a city in the southern Philippines.
The mixed-breed came back from months-long treatment at the University of California, Davis, veterinary hospital, paid for with $27,000 in donations raised in the Philippines and abroad. She was reunited with her owner, Rudy Bunggal, and the girls she saved from the accident in December 2011 – the owner’s daughter, Dina, and cousin Princess Diansing.
‘She is not just my friend, she is like a part of our family,’ 13-year-old Dina Bunggal said.
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Cured: Kabang, a two-year-old injured mixed breed, chews on a toy after being released from the from the William R. Pritchard Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital at the University of California, Davis,
Wounds: Sadly, doctors couldn’t reconstruct the snout of Kabang, pictured with caregiver Dawn Gillette
Home: Kabang, pictured, is heading home to the Philippines after being released from hospital on Monday
‘I am very thankful to her, because without her, maybe I will not be alive today.’
Kabang and Rudy Bunggal rode in the back of a pickup truck festooned with yellow balloons to the Municipal Hall, where Mayor Celso Lobregat bestowed the title ‘Pride of Zamboanga’ on the dog.
Motorcycles and cars took part in the motorcade that drove Kabang through the port city. Residents snapped photos of the dog and kids petted her. At the mayor’s office, Kabang was given a bag of treats.
But all is not well in Kabang’s household.
Rudy Bunggal, who told reporters he was struggling with drinking and financial problems, asked the veterinarian who had accompanied Kabang to the U.S., Anton Lim, to temporarily care for the dog.
The Philippine Daily Inquirer also quoted Bunggal’s wife, Christina, as saying the couple has separated.
The husband, who worked as a mechanic, now lives alone in a shanty and found a new job as a construction worker, earning less than $5 a day.
The mongrel dog has endured months of surgery and treatment on the other side of the world after her story became went viral.
Sadly, doctors couldn’t reconstruct Kabang’s missing snout but they were able to heal the dog’s wounds and treat other ailments, before she was released on Monday from the University of California, Davis veterinary hospital.
Procedure: Veterinary surgeon Boaz Arzi, left, describes how a nasal opening was created in the face of Kabang
Faceless dog: The dog’s snout and jaw was ripped off in the motorbike accident in 2011
Cancer: Brave Kabang was also treated for undiagnosed cancer during his seven-month hospital stay
Newspapers in the Philippines reported she saved the lives of her owner’s daughter and niece, who were apparently in the path of the oncoming bike.
UC Davis veterinary professor Frank Verstraete said Kabang was in hospital for seven months. Doctors discovered Kabang was also suffering life-threatening cancer, and got to work treating her with a dose of chemotherapy.
After completing six weekly intravenous chemotherapy infusions, the hospital announced in December that Kabang appeared to have beaten the cancer she was suffering from, Gina Davis, the primary care veterinarian at the William R. Pritchard Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital in Davis, told the San Francisco Chronicle.
The dog, however, was still undergoing treatment for heartworms in her arteries before she was able to have the gaping wound on her face closed. Full treatment of that condition was put on hold during cancer therapy.
Kabang had the first of three arsenic-based heartworm shots on December 4 and received the other two in the second week of January.
‘It will be one to two months for her to recover from that before she goes in and has the surgery,’ Davis said in December.
Helping a hero: Kabang’s facial surgery was been postponed after veterinarians at University of California at Davis discovered a tumour and heartworm
Good girl: Kabang was hailed as a hero in the Philippines after saving two girls by jumping in front of a speeding bike, which left her severely disfigured
Treatment: Dr. Anton Lim plays with Kabang after her arrival at the William R. Pritchard Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital at University of California Davis
The horrific accident occurred in December 2011 when the daughter of Kabang’s owner, nine-year-old Dina Bunggal, and her cousin three-year old Princess Diansing, were playing with the dog in Zamboanga City, Philippines.
The dog ended up in Davis hospital in 2012 after a nurse from Buffalo, New York, spearheaded a fundraising campaign to bring her to the U.S. Veterinarians in the Philippines were apparently unable to treat her injuries.
Care For Kabang raised over $20,000 from 22 countries to cover the costs of surgeries, visas and airfare.
Surgeons were planning to perform two or three procedures. The first involved dental work, extractions and covering exposed roots. They then closed the dog’s wound and restore nasal functions.
Prior to the surgeries, the dog’s bony structures were exposed to air, increasing the chance of infection, Davis said.
Kabang will now return to he owners in the Philippines. The bill for her treatment is expected to top $10,000.
Close call: Doctors in the Philippines suggested that Kabang’s owner put her down, but he would hear none of it
Grateful dog: Kabang was found in a rice paddy as a puppy and was nearly killed for meat, but her owner’s daughter and niece pleaded for her life
Global effort: A New York nurse helped raise more than $20,000 from 22 countries to pay for Kabang’s medical care in the U.S.
Davis said in December that despite Kabang’s many conditions, the dog appeared to be in good spirits.
‘She has come through everything very well,’ Davis said.
‘Her appetite is still good. She’s still bright and happy.’
Kabang’s face became tangled in the spokes of the bike’s wheel, and her entire upper jaw was torn off.
Kabang, who became a mother to six little puppies in April 2012, had a rough start in life when Dina’s father Rudy found her abandoned in a rice paddy.
He brought the dog home to fatten her up and feed her to the family, but his daughter and niece convinced him to spare Kabang and keep her as a pet – a lucky move for both dog and family.