Rufus was rescued, along with his mother Suki, from a life of being permanently tethered to a chain. The chalet in whose grounds, they lived, was unoccupied and their owners visited them just once a week to feed and water them - often they were fed chicken carcasses and left over rice. If they knocked over their bucket of water they waited for their owner's next visit. In the summer heat that was unbearable and cruel. Rufus was then about 12 months old and skin and bone.