Meet a visitor at the shelter

Eva visited the shelter today and enjoyed mixing with the dogs and getting to know them a little. She also helped me with a trip to the vet with Fe's pups who are suffering with diarrhoea.

The vet found bacteria in their diarrhoea and under the microscope he showed me minute circular bacteria.

These little pups are 4 weeks old and are getting weak through constant runny poo. One of them is showing a bacteria infection on the skin around the face.

Vet suggested we replace water for drinking with electrolite and prescribed the pink antibiotic 1cc per kg (they are all about 1.5kg)

Eve enjoyed her stay atthe shelter and kindly made a donation on her departure. A very nice girl.

Scissors came in handy

Today I went to Maejo again with Karin to meet up with a new volunteer Carolyn McCarthy who has started to share the feeding commitment on alternate weeks with Karin.

There were lots of hungry mouths to feed and the pups we saw last week were now weaker and 1 had died. We collected them up, much to the anxiety of the mother to take them back to the shelter. Momo, Tisha & Cinemon would no doubt find a home quickly as they were just so cute & cuddly and if they lived.

( Pic taken 3 weeks later )

Picked up a kitten for someone who wanted to adopt one. Wat Vivek has loads of kittens and any home would be better than their sorry existence here. In the process of 'picking up' got bitten by the ferocious little tiger, leaving nasty gauges in my hand.

On the way out of the area, we stopped to see some fishing like nets, strung across the tops of grassland, with wild birds fluttering for freedom, trapped by their every move. I rushed for my scissors that I now keep in my hand bag, since meeting those folks at the Nimmanhemin Road Arts Fair, and Karin & I cut many birds free and took some away with us to free later in our handbags, as some locals had seen us stop and were becoming interested.

Why? Why? Why? Still don't understand why these folks do this. There is no meat on these little birds. Maybe sell them for pets. Maybe I don't want to know.

Anyway, now I don't just rescue dogs, I am an Animal Activist!!

BuunLai goes home

Well the guy is finally pulling through and his skin is no longer bleeding every day. His stiches have been removed after the benign tumur was removed and he is looking much fitter than he did when I took him to the shelter, exactly 3 months ago.

Kh Chom, the village hairdresser was there to greet him and BuunLai worked himself into a frenzy, marking all his territory with a pee and a goud ground scuffing along with his characteristic vocals. BuunLai howls like a wolf and makes a groaning sound when stretching his legs or when he is excited.

Today, he is trotting around as if he has a new set of legs, endless energy and a smile from ear to ear.

His dog friends also came to greet him and he was definaely relaxed and happy to be home.

First trip to Maejo with Karin

Today I joined Karin on her weekly trip to Maejo, to Wat Vivek & Wat Gaset Mai, where she has been visiting weekly to feed and provide treatment facilities for dogs over the last year. In fact I think it could be longer than that.

She introduced me to some of the dogs and showed me how there were packs of dogs who stayed in certain areas, therefore needing to make seperate feeds at those places. She introduced me to some of the characters, friendly, skittish, scared and a variety of post injury or operation cases. They came to us from behind & under buildings, from the forest and many were just hanging around waiting for time to pass.

Karin told me told me that this temple complex seemed to be a regular dumping ground for people to leave their dogs. She told me horror stories about puppies just being left at several weeks old and cars being seen just throwing the dogs out.

When Karin told me there were over 40 at the first temple alone, I was stunned. When we went onto the second temple, there were even more. Apparently about 60 dogs live here and there is thankfully a monk who likes dogs and looks after them, almost like pets to him. Karin brings mixed food along on these trips and also dry food to leave with the monk to feed the dogs during the week.

The volume of dogs here made a big impact on me. It left me feeling quite bitter towards dog owners and although now I realise that I should not generalise, with so many strays on the streets, at our shelter and at so many temples, it is hard to think about the positive side of things. There must be some dog loving folks out there, surely.

Whilst at the complex, we took a couple of the sick looking ones to a vet, one of them belonging to the dog-friendly monk. This dog was suffering from an advanced infection of its anal gland. In a dogs bottom, just inside the vent, there are 2 scent glands that exude smell to their poo for others to recognise. When these become blocked for what ever reason, the dog might be seen dragging their bum along the ground or licking it excessively. For this dog, it was past all that. The gland had erupted through the flesh of the bottom cheek and was remaining infected inside. The wound needed a regular clean and would repair itself.

We looked at 4 cute little pups running around in the dust & leaf litter and playing freely. They were snivelling a bit, their noses quite wet and had a cough too. We had them checked out at the vet and gave the monk some medicine. The mother of these 4 was a wild thing. There was no way we could touch her and to catch her for sterilisation is going to be a nightmare.

Happened across a breeder of Tsitzu's and they had other dogs too. All of them were suffering with mange, mites, fleas & ticks. We gave them some Ivomec and said we would return next week and also gave them a good spray. Is it any wonder that when pups from dog shops / markets look fine at first and then deteriorate and die so quickly with low immunity?

Adopt don't Buy!!

Why Buy when you can Adopt?

No dogs today

Met a nice couple of people at the shelter who adopted a cute little puppy called Choco that had been dumped at Wat Phaa Ngi.

( Heard from them a week later that the puppy was stolen from their garden 3 days after )

Picked up a cage that a generous lady donated to the shelter. Hurt my shoulder lifting it!! I am getting old.

Collected and returned bundles of washing for the shelter from home. Karin's washing machine has seen better days and will be out of service for a week!

Getting back to a routine after last weeks madness.

Nimmanhemin Road Arts Fair

1st of December through to 5th, we held a stall to raise funds and awareness. We did it in 2 shifts, many kind people helped us and we were able to raise quite a bit of money through sales of small items and generous folks making donations.

Learned a big lesson. Holidaying foreigners generally do not like to donate and have an opinion 'its not my problem' This was a challenge for us but we kept smiling.

We also met many people with stories to tell about their pest or their own animal welfare activities. In particular there was a couple of Americans who were avid pidgeon rescuers. They explained to me about their activities in Thaepae Gate during their stay in Chiang Mai, with a specially created cotton bag and a small pair of scissors. They said that many pidgeons lose their feet due to a tornequet forming on their legs from rubbish they picked up when they walked, like nylon fishing line etc. They described how they would catch the birds, snip the line and relieve the bird of its shackle. They also told me about the work they do back in the states and I was very impressed. The following day, I put a small pair of scissors in my hand bag, just in case.

Spent most of the next 5 days running to & fro, collecting new stock for the sale or printing up new maps for distribution.

The next sales stand we do, will definately be better than this one. We learned a lot during those 5 days.

Sua Suay Goes Home

Well its been a few months now and the treatment of Ivomec on Sua Suays skin is having little of no effect. This poor dog has had Mange for so long, he has lost all his hair, his skin has turned black and that say the vets is indicative of long term suffering and maybe no return for the hair.

So today, he returns to his 7-11 home in Huay Kaew Road (Opposite Dunkin Dognuts sp ? pun intended) a few kilos heavier than when he left.

He quickly marked his territory with a load of fresh wee and did a tour of his estate ( The pavement, the shop forecourt and the vendor area where folks get their clothes mended in the street)

He looked happy.