Some other dogs we met today

First of all today's photogenic dog award goes to Wan. She just needed to cool down!

Today I had the pleasure of meeting up with Amandine who has just flown from the USA for a 2 month holiday to work hands on with Care for Dogs.

Amandine founded Care for Dogs with Karin a year ago and is currently working & studying veterinary practice in America whilst at the same time trying to raise funds and awareness of our efforts to help the dogs here in Thailand.

We visited a temple in the city where we have been helping the health of the dogs there, vaccinating, feeding and dealing with some TvT cases. Amandine set about taking ticks off as many dogs that would allow her, much to the amazement of the school children who were fascinated that foreigners would get down on their hands and knees and de-tick so many dogs.

We saw the deteriorating state of some pups that were born about a month ago. More worrying, are that 4 more pups have been born there this week. This is so sad. A month ago we rescued a pregnant dog from here back to the shelter & she too has now had her litter at the shelter. This temple has been in need of help for so long. Lets hope we can now make a difference and sterilise all the females as soon as possible.

Our next stop was to check on a couple of dogs Amandine had helped when she was last here. We called in at Big C & met Valentino ( along with his friend Diane). Unfortunately his condition has deteriorated and the mange that plagued him before has returned. Amandine gave him some mackerel & Ivomec and made a deal with him, that if he took the medicine, she would visit him regularly to give him the mackerel.

Next we visited a temple near to Big C, Wat Don Chan. This was the site of an awful massacre of many dogs about 2 years ago, when the labourers killed, bar-b-q'd the dogs and left their heads for all to see. Apparently the number killed was thought to be well over 20. Today we found a few dogs there. A couple in a bad condition with Mange and a monk who wanted his pet Tshizoo vaccinated.

After giving appropriate medication and making another promise to return regularly, we made our way to Wat Doi Kam. I haven't mention the situation here recently, mainly because I have become so upset by the treatment the dogs were receiving by the monks and staff there but also because the numbers of dogs had dwindled away from 15 in February this year to 3 last month. Then out of the blue, some of the dogs that I feared killed or otherwise missing returned. The Doi Kam Pack has now reduced to 11 but this is made up of 4 new faces. Nik & Nak are 2 little cuties dumped about 4 weeks ago. They are obviously from a family environment and are quite affectionate. They have short legs, smooth brown coats and very kissable heads. 1 is female, so we shall sterilise her but today we took both of them to the shelter in a hope that someone might like to adopt them.

Whilst at the temple, we tried ( & failed !!) to blow dart a female that had now finished nursing her single remaining pup. Never did know how many she had, she hid them in the forest and only recently has the scrawny female pup ventured out for food along with her mum. Hopefully we can catch them both soon.

10 hour day - Fe's gets sterilised - Its official !

At 8:30 this morning I went to the shelter to pick up the dogs that were due to go to the vet today. There was Fe, previously sterilised last July and then pregnant & gave birth last December. There was Aunty, who was affected by Distemper when she was younger and as a consequence, nods her head 24 hours a day. And then there was Molly, who is currently on heat. So all 3 needing a little bit of special treatment during the operation.

The vet advised me afterwards, that Fe had definitely not been previously sterilised as there were no signs of scar tissue and she had both her ovaries & fallopian tubes intact. Molly's op was successful without complication and Aunty was sedated with a different anaesthetic to deal with her condition appropriately.

Also along today is Daeng Gwaa, the dog from the village. The owner of the dogs' father is still threatening to kill Daeng Gwaa.

From the shelter, Naiomi & Luca who are both suffering from a persistent cough. The vet said their lungs are ok and that was a relief. He suggested we change their meds slightly.

And finally this morning, I took along a village dog called Aidut, a Jack Russell / Beagle cross. He is suffering with blood parasites and last week his blood platelets were so low that blood poored from his nose. Today he received an injection to boost his blood condition. Cute little guy.

Left the 4 for sterilisation with the vet & took the other 3 back to the shelter / home.

Met up with Kh Yu at the NakornPayap International School to drop off some sales & information stuff for a forthcoming Movie Night they are holding to raise money for our shelter.

For lunch I met a friend at his home and his sister who is visiting from Holland. Renate joined me in the afternoon, when I went back to the shelter & collected Sandy & Diane to return them to their previous homes, now having recovered from their operations.

While we were at the shelter I could see Renate falling in love for so many of the dogs at the shelter and she found it very difficult to hide the tears.

We took Sandy back to Wat Doi Kam and met up with the usual crowd there and it was great to see so many of the pack. She was now sterilised and looking fatter than when she came to the shelter a month ago.








We then went to Big C and returned Diane to her mate, Valentino. He looked very happy to see her, standing back and chilling out as she polished off the remnants of a pile of chicken bones. Her small operation to remove her rear dew claws was a sucess and she no longer limped or showed signs of discomfort from her legs.







Learning how to drive away from Big C now, Valentino always wants to follow me and I inevitably turn back and stop him running. This hurts every time. Today though I did a bit of a detour and snaked through traffic till he lost sight of me.











At about 16:30 we drove to Kachow market to meet up with a coffee stall vendor who cares for dogs in the area. She had been looking after a little Labrador type pup who dragged his legs behind him. We picked him up and he will stay the night at the shelter before seeing the Orthopedic specialist at the small animal hospital tomorrow morning.




Dropped Renate off at her home in a flood of tears and promised we would do this again. She is a great animal lover and I look forward to seeing her again soon.

Picked up the 4 sterilisations from the vets and took them back to the shelter and their homes.

Arrived home at 19:00.