Buried dog in heaven - but saviour in hell

A STRAY dog that was buried alive three months ago is now living the good life - with plenty of food, the best medical care and acupuncture and hydrotherapy sessions.

The dog, now called Lily, made national headlines after she was buried at Luhlaza High School in Khayelitsha in Cape Town, allegedly by two elderly janitors.

She was saved following a frantic anonymous call to the Mdzananda Animal Clinic, a Khayelitsha-based subsidiary of the International Fund for Animal Welfare.

When horrified clinic staff arrived at the school, they found the canine half buried and barely alive.

While the two janitors, both 59, appeared in the Khayelitsha Magistrate's Court on Friday morning on a charge of cruelty to animals, Lily was lying on a table receiving therapy so that she can learn to walk again.

Said her new owner, freelance journalist Helen Walne: "Lily fractured her spine in an incident that happened before they tried to bury her. Staff at Mdzananda decided that acupuncture was going to be the best way to open up the communication between her back legs and her brain so she could learn how to walk."

Walne already owns two other dogs and described the latest addition to her family as "quite young and puppy-like". She added that Lily was "happily destroying our garden".

According to the clinic's manager, Jane Levinson, the dog was incontinent and would always need "some affection".

But Bukelwa Mbulawa, who made the call which saved Lily's life, has not been so lucky: she says she "regrets" blowing the whistle.

Mbulawa, 35, alleges that she was "forced" out of her R600-a-month job as a cook at the school - and says she fears for her life.

The mother of two said that when she returned to work on October 28 after being off sick with flu, she was told that the principal had called the cooks into his office and told them that this was her last month in the job.

"He claimed that he had agreed with the governing body that someone should be laid off because the number of children we were cooking for had dropped," she said.

Mbulawa said that, before the janitors' first court appearance on November 21, "people came knocking here [at her home] calling out my name". She said this intimidation had continued for three days.

She said the cooking staff had collectively decided to call the clinic about the dog, but that she had been singled out by the school authorities because "it was my phone that was used".

After the rescue of the dog, the department of education then instituted disciplinary action against the school principal, Manono Makhaphela, and gave him a final written warning and a R3000 fine for animal cruelty.

But spokeswoman Bronagh Casey, said: "The department investigated Mbulwa's claim that she was unfairly dismissed and found no evidence to that effect."

The court case against the two janitors was postponed to January 27.