This story is a little upsetting as the title suggests. But there is a happier outlook for them and we can assure you, they are now in a better place than they were.

In September 2007, the concerned children of an old lady that had recently passed away, contacted Care for Dogs. They explained about their mother who lived on her own in Chiang Mai, as they had moved away to Bangkok, had been taking dogs from the streets in her surrounding village into her home and with what little money she had, as well as giving them food, she also gave them a place to call their home.

But as many dog owners will know too well, not all people will accept barking dogs living next to them and the old lady finally gave into their pressure and attempted as best she could to suppress their noise.

Firstly she tried to keep them in cages to stop them from running around in the garden or worst still, running out into the street. That failed to satisfy the pressure upon her so she began to cover the cages and this in effect stopped the dogs seeing anything to alarm them, let alone each other.

Apparently, some of her fears were that if she didn’t contain the dogs, they may have been exposed to poisoning or being taken away to the meat market by the people she might offend.

Sadly, the lady died, leaving 14 dogs in need of a new carer and the Bangkok based family looked to Care for Dogs to help. The family, like their mother are animal lovers and thankfully they made the effort to find people to help them, rather than turning the dogs out on the street, taking them to a temple & hoping someone else would deal with the problem or worst still, just let them die in their sad environment.

The scene at the home was shocking and unacceptable, with dogs being kept in a constant state of loneliness & boredom. Although some were ‘fortunate’ to be imprisoned with another dog, some were completely isolated in their own small dark space.

Some of the dogs were at various stages of blindness, apparent from their white eyes and a couple were quite old and frail. But they all shared the common characteristic of being totally petrified of anything outside of their tiny 2 x 2 cell. It was as if they were suffering from something similar to “Cabin Fever”.

A friend of the family had been feeding the dogs every day, so despite their psychological condition and therefore social problems, they generally looked well fed, clean with shinny coats and not suffering from ticks or fleas. As well as caring in her own way for these dogs, it turned out that the lady had also managed to sterilise all the females.

In another post we wrote about one of the 14, Jenny and we posed the question that people might consider the old lady as un-caring. But as you may hopefully come to appreciate, she was doing her best and she thought the world of these dogs, she was devoted to them.

Volunteers such as Sarah, Gill & Irene, have spent a lot of time trying to improve the sociability of the 14 and they are pleased that their efforts are paying dividends. They just sit near the rescued dogs, getting them used to being near to each other, people, let alone other dogs. When they first arrived at the shelter in Hang Dong, many of the 14 were unable to leave the security of a corner or the darkness under a floor of a hut for quite some time. Slowly but surely, they have all emerged into the main area of the shelter or mixed with other dogs in a smaller and safer enclosure but at least they are getting some socialisation.

Their names are listed below and some of them with links, have more details available on this site.

Amelie
Bonnie Killed at the shelter
Clyde
Dao
Finn
Jenny …
Jet
Lulu - ed Lee
Malee
Max
Mii …
Panda …
Suki
Tao

It was clear the old lady was trying to act with the best of intentions and Care for Dogs are thankful that her caring children turned to us to help these poor creatures find a brighter future.

If you would like to consider giving one or more of these dogs space in your home, please get in touch either by phone or email.

There are also many puppies, teenagers and adult dogs awaiting adoption currently at the Care for Dogs shelter, follow this link to look at some of them.