Here is a fabulous report by Frances Wood who works hard in the local community to make a difference to the many dogs she comes into contact with.

Could you do the same? – Could you help people in your community to take the initiative and have their dogs sterilised?

Call us 086 913 8701 (Thai) or 0847 52 52 55 (Eng) to find out more, alternatively write an email, just let us help you help them.

Today, Karin, Soraya & I met up with the volunteer team from Nakorn Payap International School (NIS) at Wat Ban Tho, the temple project they have recently initiated.

We were there to collect a couple of TvT (Transmissible Venereal Tumor cases) and to check in with Elissa Francemone, the teacher who is driving this project. It was great to see her along with many young and interested folks, looking to improve the health of this temples dogs, giving mange treatments and vaccinations against heartworm, using Ivomectin.

In the grounds of the temple, there are a lot of dogs, some puppies living in a burrow and lots of mange, fleas and ticks.

Right across from the entrance to the temple is a local market which is busy with people, plenty of food and obviously, a large number of dogs. Lets hope NIS can help these folks around this temple appreciate the benefits of sterilisation.

Our visit was however, cut short, as we received a call from a distressed resident of Sea Games Village, saying that a dog had been poisoned and was in desperate need of assistance.

After collecting just one of the 2 TvT cases, it transpired the second dog had already died but how she died we may never know, we made our way to Sea Games Village, which is on the Canal Road, adjacent to the 700 Year Stadium.

On the way I had a chat with Om, the patient with the tumor and experienced the ride from the back seat.

She will join this week’s TvT run along with the current list of 10 others being given weekly injections of Vincristine (Chemo therapy) which is gauranteed to stop the tumor growing and help the dog make a full recovery. I will be writing about that subject a little more, with some nasty photographs very soon.

Now I appreciate what it’s like on a Monday for the poor guys sat in the back.

Apart from there being very little leg room, if you are sat with a character who wants to look out of your window, there isn’t much you can do about it but squeeze up together and share the view!

At Sea Games Village, we met up with the lady who called us, whilst desperately trying to save the dogs life. We were too late. She had done what she could, tried to pour a solution of charcoal and herbs down the dying dogs throat but unfortunately the dog could not make a recovery from the painful and wretched sequence of death that poisoning so often follows.

If we had arrived sooner, there would have been nothing more we could have done. A vet may well have been able to assist in some way but that again would have been a delay in time.

This village is a government development and after discussing the death with our colleagues at Lanna Dogs, we found that this dog and some others were recently sterilised by the government vets. This ‘murder’ is not the first to have happened in the Sea Games Village, we have been called a couple of times previously when other dogs have suffered the same fate.

What can we do? What can anyone do, if there is someone who hates dogs so much that they will lay baited food down for the dogs to eat, knowing the consequence of their actions.

All we can do is hope someone catches them doing it and is brave enough to tell people like us who it is.

But having said that… to murder a dog in Thailand is not thought to be an offence anyway.

February in Thailand is the start of the hot season, with temperatures in the mid 30′s in the shade it is sometimes a little debilitating.

But not so it seems for dogs escaping eager blow darting dog catchers and thankfully, the heat didn’t stop to the lads from making this another blow darting success.

Doi Kam is a small mountain that sits in the foot hills below the massive Doi Suthep & Doi Pui mountains, the land mark that dominates the back drop of Chiang Mai.

On the top of Doi Kam is a temple and after the 2006 – 2007 Royal Flora event, that brought millions of tourists to Chiang Mai & the world of gardens at the foot of Doi Kam, Ratchaphruek, the temple has become more widely known.

Today a planned capture of some of the previously elusive and some of the newly grown and newly dumped dogs was carried out by a group of volunteers, aided by a couple of the guys from the shelter, so that tomorrow they could be sterilised and then returned here post their week of stay at the Care for Dogs shelter in Hang Dong.

We were reacting to a call from the resident Abbot at the temple and he was keen to also have the 2 cats he knew of at the temple sterilised too.

We had come prepared with some smelly & yummy looking food to grab & maintain the attention of the dogs. All the commotion this causes, with tourists & well wishers visiting the temple, is always a problem but thankfully Karin was able to pacify concerns of people wondering why dogs were being darted, chased & then appearing to be dead, sparko & out for the count!

After a couple of hours of dart – chase – lose – wait – hear – find we managed to get dart 3 but lost 1, who would enjoy a relaxing 5 hour nap in the undergrowth of this thick forest. The Abbot kindly arranged for one of the cats to be caught & put into a cage we had with us & another dog who was quite approachable was also added to the list for tomorrows Sterilisation Run.

But the prize of the day was the black & white (yes white, it’s a bit dirty up here !) female who has previously escape capture on many occasions and has mothered far too many puppies of which many have died due to her and their ill health anyway.

Sterilisation is a simple and effective process to reduce over population.

It costs money but with systematic sterilisation of as many dogs as possible within our budget from donated funds, we try to curb the population explosion that is otherwise not being addressed by society.

If you would like to make a donation towards even one sterilisation surgery, your donation will be gratefully received and sincerely utilised.

** Update Both re-homed together **

One of our volunteers Soraya, was contacted by the Abbot at her local Temple to say that 2 cats had just been dumped there. Being a caring and sensible man, he checked them out and discovered that they were both female, so his first thought was to call Soraya to arrange for sterilisation.

The cats were passed to me for the vet trip and for foster care after their op’s. However, when the vet opened them up she discovered that these two had already been sterilised, so she quickly stitched them back up again!

They are living with me while they are recovering and it turns out that they are just the most adorable and friendly cats. It’s obvious that they have come from a very loving and caring home but for some reason, (that we will never know and it doesn’t really matter), their owners found they could no longer keep them so abandoned them at a Temple in the hope, I suppose that they would be cared for.

They chose their Temple well, its in the middle of lovely village well away from busy main roads and maybe they knew that the Abbot there would take responsible action, who knows?

But the fact is that the Temple already has enough cats and dogs and they don’t need or want this extra burden, so I’m looking for a home for these two. I can’t keep them, I just do the fostering here and I currently have three other cats recovering from sterilisation and two pups from the shelter who are recovering from coughs, but those are other stories!

The cats are about a year old, maybe a little more, but still young and very play full.

In the evenings they like to snuggle up on the sofa with us, and as I’m typing this, one of them is tucked up against me.

They love company, and they love attention and cuddles and I’m sure they would be happier in a home rather than going back to the Temple.

Please give me (Gill) a call on 0871 891623 and come and visit them.

The task of running a shelter, with a seemingly never ending change of faces (shiny noses) and a bewildering array of names is hard enough.

But when you then amplify the difficulty with diversity of health conditions, as well as a necessity to communicate the whole thing, in more than 3 languages, one can start to imagine the demand this role has upon the encumbent.

As you can see below, the extremely important white board on the shelter building wall, is the focus for logistic management and maintaining this list is a complex and difficult process.

The busier it gets, the lower down the board the writing extends and the always helpful, sedate and curious dogs just love to sit with their backs against it and rub off the ends of the words, giving everyone a trial of guessing the meaning of the smudged writing!

But besides the light-hearted message of humour, there is a sincere and meaningful recognition of what this board provides.

Take a look at the lists and appreciate their value.

Nakorn Payap International School (NIS)  Boot Fair, Saturday 22 November 2008, was certainly the happiest & liveliest place to be, with a well organised mix of stalls along with plenty of fun and laughter.

This event, originated as the direct result of teacher Ms Elissa who is the driving force behind the fabulous work that NIS students are doing, working in the community with temples dogs, feeding, vaccinating, sterilising and generally providing health care for them. The initiative is called NIS Temple Aid Program.

You can read a little more about the early days of this program here … (August 2007)

Care for Dogs were very proud to be invited along to the boot fair today and join hands with NIS in an adoption opportunity and many pup’s indeed found homes from the fair, some from the temple currently aided by NIS and others from Care for Dogs.

Care for Dogs also managed to raise money via sales of various items and also took many donations from visitors to the stand.

This money will help sterilise so many more dogs we see wandering on the streets and at temples, homeless and just about to go through another round of getting pregnant, giving birth and then losing many of the litter through poor health or not enough food or care.

Amongst the visitors to the stand was a local personality Nick Wiszynski “The Upward Spiral” who is a magician and performing artist.

Not only did Nick put me under his spell, demonstrating the 1 and 5 dollar bill swapping wonder, he enthralled many of the children, only too pleased to take in the excitement of such a talented man.

Nick performs at various parties and events in Chiang Mai & if you would like to engage him for a special occasion, why not contact him here …

For anyone looking for a very useful and authentically Thai gift or accessory (especially at this time of year) the Chiang Mai Charity Calendar for 2009 is an ideal seasonal choice.

This years theme is “Delightful Lanna” and as always a very colourful document, @ just 100 baht, it is a real bargain.

Organiser, Basil McCall’s display of his product attracted many people to their stand and if folks reading this are inclined, they are able to buy the calendar on-line by following the link above.

We think the event was a success for NIS Temple Aid Program as all stand position payments along with entrance fees will go to their program and although as I publish this I have no concrete numbers, the number of pups adopted were in excess of 5.

Well done Ms Elissa, well done all those students who were confidently proud to be called “Staff” on their name tags and others that organised & attended this event.

A tiny community living in isolation except for excursions into civilisation from their world apart, these people live in total squalor, living in the realms of mental illness and disorder.

A dilapidated 3 floored warehouse building with an equally squalid adjacent house is where a group of approximately 6 people live along with an uncounted number of cats, dogs and other wildlife that go hand in hand with this environment. Maybe a few years ago, this might have been the centre of recycling activity but ‘the corner shop verses the superstore’ syndrome has taken it’s toll here too.

We drove down the small paved roads leading away from busy Mae Rim Road, passing behind the hugely popular and successful Toyota (Lanna Branch) premises. Any cement track, turns to grass and that in turn reduces to a muddy wallow, aggravated by the tricycles these people depend on for their (livelihood?) lives. They make daily trips to roadside accumulations of rubbish and salvage as much material from their snatch and grab ventures as possible, bringing their treasured finds back to base and stock piling it in their home. Sorting, grouping and filling sacks with similar materials is their business and the byproduct is a filthy, smelly and quite unhygienic place to live in.

We met the 2 women who live nearby, who had called Care for Dogs about this situation, want to do something about the growing problem of multiplying dogs and in turn, offer help to the people living here.

Today, we returned to this ghastly place with a known objective. We had come with transportation cages to take away 5 dogs for sterilisation, to start the process of reducing the numbers of dogs, finding an existence here. The ladies had told us there were a couple of bitches in heat and another actually pregnant, these apparently were in the larger building ‘with the men’.

They introduced us to the matriarch, ‘Khun Yai’ or grandmother, who lives in the house, the one with no glass or wood in any opening of the damp and wrecked building, amongst piles of clothing, plastic, waterlogged paper and literally every other item that we have all seen in our waste bins, most of them, clinging to the wet bottom of the bin liner we have in our kitchen rubbish bins.

Khun Yai showed us here female dogs that all followed her up to the car in a line behind her, a bit like ‘the pied piper’ and trusted her implicitly when she walked them caringly towards the waiting cages. We selected 3 of them for today’s trip, letting her know we would do all of the females in due course. One of them, herself the grandmother of many of the others, khun Yai said she didn’t want to let us take, saying that she had not given birth for many years as she had always arranged a contraceptive injection for her.

All of this, written in a structured and in an almost novelist form, sounds straightforward and easily told. However, it is complied from a 2 – 3 & sometimes 4 way conversation going on in Thai and English, between people that have fears and anxiety about losing a loved and cherished dog, people with knowledge and experience of managing these types of situations and at the same time, there being a sense of extreme frustration.

On our last visit here a couple of months ago, we discovered that appalling conditions that so many dogs and puppies were living in. We removed several litters of puppies (15 in all) as we believed they would certainly die if not rescued and with our help, could find adopted homes and if any of them would survive, then at least we could start to reduce the uncontrolled growth of dog numbers at this awful place. We have since found all of those puppies good loving homes.

Knowing that there were 3 dogs in the warehouse that we would ideally like to take with us today, we approached cautiously, as the ankle deep mud, littered with shards of glass, plastic and metals and increasingly anxious because the ‘forward guard and pincer movement’ tactics were activated in the pack.

But we had been thwarted by the men who were obviously angry and vociferous that we wanted to take their dogs. Pride is a tremendous quality in mankind, despite living in theses conditions, became the single focus of their anger.

The boy-man who last time tossed puppies about using their heads as handles, today climbed a ladder to their loft on the second floor with the dogs they wanted to hide from us.

The growls from the dogs front, rear and side, were bad enough, but the growls from the wretched toothless recyclers, communicated the stress of the situation, the pressure upon us to leave and the threat that was present in the clenched fist and sticks in hand.

Retreating to relative safety of the house, we found 3 more of kh Yai’s dogs and after a little re-shuffling of who gets on with who in the cages, we loaded the truck to leave.

When we arrived to meet the ladies, they had been holding a small, skinny dog in their arms.

As we greeted, they explained that the men in the warehouse didn’t want her and asked if we could take her away.

Now very disappointed from our failure to help the 3 dogs in the larger building, we felt compelled to give this poor little mite a chance and from our first impressions, her temperament will help her find a home very soon.

We will sterilise the 6 females and return them to khun Yai’s home next week, cleaned, sprayed from ticks and fleas, vaccinated and of course, unable to grow the numbers anymore.

We will continue with other females she can get to us and maybe after the men see what we are able to do for them, they may reconsider.

We can only hope.

View location of these dogs with Google Maps here …

First of all a slight apology to readers about this weekly synopsis of my Monday vet run, my ‘Hands-on’ contribution to Care for Dogs, because it might be getting slightly boring, with the same names, same faces and same stories appearing each Monday.

Some of the other volunteers do write and are capably telling their stories but the reality is that so much work is performed by the silent majority and what you read on this site is just the tip of the ice berg.

I try to encourage other volunteers to write about their experiences with Care for Dogs for this website and I acknowledge they are all very busy and therefore some find it hard to contribute. I would ask you the reader to appreciate that too.

There is so much work going on every day, to list a few examples:

• Vet runs for medical assessment
• Sterilisation runs
• Wound dressing at the shelter
• Feeding
• TvT runs
• Catching dogs that are needing to be sterilised or treated for their particular condition, Pyometra, TvT, Mange or other disease or condition
• Transportation from homes and temples to the shelter & then off to the vet and then back again
• Bathing & Grooming (Including Ears!)
• Cuddling
• Talking or just sitting with the dogs and puppies at the shelter

That said, I think I have covered some of the activities but again, just the tip of that iceberg.

So now I have brightened up this otherwise brief and rather sad update, today’s trip to the vet was not really different from last week!

Max was along for his ears, slightly improved but not likely to ever be totally clear of fungal infection. The vet said today that his chronic ear condition would be with him for life. Tara (Tear’a or Terra as she is also known for good reason) had her eyes checked and it seems the current treatment regime is working wonders, the corneal ulcers are dissipating and what was last week all red & inflamed, is this week looking pink and healthier.

But today’s 3rd doggy is Ringo, pictured above being carried after a recent vet trip is the dog found wandering near Chiang Mai University, amazingly putting one foot in front of the other, despite having no energy or apparent zest for living and looking like he wanted to just give up and die. Ringo was spotted by Fred, one of the Care for Dogs volunteers and received immediate treatment. Ringo was diagnosed with poor blood health and possible renal complications and Fred is personally sponsoring the ongoing treatment.

Ringo is confined to a spacious cage in a quiet area of the shelter and is on a drip of saline 24 x 7. He visits the vet every other day, to receive a course of intravenous injections and tablets. Today, after the vet successfully administered the medicines, Ringo got back in his cage he was today sharing with Max and promptly sprayed a 360 arc around him with black and extremely smelly diarrhea, about which Max was not too pleased. (Gave him something to moan about I guess). Poor Ringo.

Ringo’s future is not looking bright. He has been on this treatment for 3 weeks already and this week we will need to seriously assess what needs to be done next for his own quality of life.

My husband, Nok, came back from paying the rent today and changed my planned afternoon of work. The  landlord told him there were 2 stray dogs in soi 4 of our Muu Baan (lane 4 of our housing village), 1 of which was pregnant but has disappeared possibly to give birth somewhere. Mmm… I could sense another street project about to be born, at least this one is closer to home!

Nok urged me to go & have a look for the pregnant dog, we did with no luck.

The landlord had also told him about 2 puppies that had appeared in the Muu Baan about 5 days ago so off we went to see them too on the opposite side of the Muu Baan. There was 1 black male puppy and 1 black & white female. They were very skittish and scared, about 4 months old.

I pretended I had food to see if they would come to me, the black one almost did. I went back home, got food & water  & came back. They woofed it down, poor little things were starving.

I then went back home & got dry food for them and again they hungrily munched away till eventually full.

I stayed with them for ages & ages just sitting and waiting for their curiosity to keep bringing them closer to me and to finally trust me. Once they were in a submissive state I managed  to get close to the little black one & he started licking my hand which led  to patting & stroking him. He of course then fully gave in to me and the affection and I was able to pick him up & sit him on my lap. A thorough investigation found no fleas and only 2 ticks so I was pleased. Bit of a skin problem though but nothing major so will be easy to treat.

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Haven’t won the trust of the white & black puppy yet although she’s much closer than before. Don’t think it will be long. Poor little things, they look so lonely and are sleeping on an empty piece of land with no shelter from the cold or rain. Will be back to check on them and feed them tomorrow. I’m naming them Blackie and Bess.

These pups were most likely unwanted and dumped in our Muu Baan which unfortunately is all too common here in Chiang Mai and many other parts of the world.

I then met the landlord in the street and she guided me back to soi 4. Could only spot 1 stray dog. The security guard told us that the pregnant dog had given birth in the car port of an empty house of soi 5. Off we went and found 8 puppies all of which seem quite healthy. They’re only 12 days old, a lovely mix of colours and sooooo cute!

The mother is a street dog that wandered over from the local temple and decided soi 5 was better. The lady on the corner feeds her daily but only rice & chicken soup (better than nothing I guess). She had a litter of 6 puppies last year too. Need to get some nutritious food and vitamins into her along with a good nail clipping.

A woman in the same soi wants the 3 male puppies and that now leaves 5 females that we need to find homes for. I’ve instructed her to keep them with the mother for at least 6 weeks for her to continue feeding them her milk. Once the feeding has finished we’ll organise for her to be sterilised.

I was also told another resident of the Muu Baan no longer wants her 2 dogs. As they are already living in a home I feel they are not urgent so will deal with the puppy situation first. I just hope she doesn’t dump her dogs like various other dog owners have. I’ll be over for a coffee & chat with her soon.

Many dogs in our Muu Baan have been poisoned which unfortunately is also a much too common occurrence in Chiang Mai. Our landlord has stated to me that she does not want all these stray dogs in the Muu Baan. I fear if I cannot find homes for them soon they ‘will’ be poisoned. They cause a commotion at times as they wander the soi’s of the Muu Baan exciting owner dogs when they pass their gates and territory resulting in lots of barking, fighting and agitated owners. They would be much better off in a loving home where they will feel wanted. **If anyone can help in adopting these lovely puppies then please contact me as soon as possible.**

Phew… all in a day’s work hey. And I had planned on having a quiet day at home catching up on work for my business, yeah right!!

Follow up from Street Project – (part 2)

The update this morning (24/9/08) from Sarah regarding Princess was dim. During her double surgery (c-section & sterilisation) 2 puppies were found still inside her but unfortunately already dead. Princess is suffering from a serious internal infection that was in her uterus and caused her to have an abortion. This would explain why she was so overdue on the birth of her puppies, why they were dead and also the dark green/black liquid and discharge. This infection has spread into her blood stream. As her uterus was removed during sterilisation we are now dealing with the infection in her blood stream. These kinds of infections can be picked up from a number of things including tick fever or other diseases. As street dogs are generally not vaccinated they run a much higher risk of contracting these serious and at times fatal diseases.

The concern for the doctors at Purpoon Clinic was that she had stopped eating or drinking and was quite distressed. Having just lost all her puppies she was suffering from emotional trauma and being in a strange place with all new faces certainly didn’t help the situation. If a dog stops eating & drinking it generally means the infection is very serious. They were keeping her on a UV drip to keep fluids in her and also treat her infection.

I immediately felt the urge to be by her side to give her a familiar face, love and comfort. I arrived at the clinic early afternoon and found Princess attached to a UV drip and looking rather depressed.

Upon getting a whiff of my familiar scent she immediately sat up and looked perkier & brighter. Once I opened her cage & stuck my head in I was greeted with many wet kisses from her and I knew right away that I’d made the right decision to take a break from my busy day to come & be with her.

I was successful in feeding her some water so suggested to the doctor that I attempt feeding her some food. She immediately gobbled it all up and myself & the doctors were thrilled as this now changed her situation to looking more positive.

Mmm… that was good!

I sat with Princess for a while patting & stroking her which seemed to give her great relief. She especially enjoyed the complimentary body massage (my dogs rave about it)!

After discussions with the doctors we decided that if another feeding was successful she could be transported to the Care for Dogs – rescue shelter. A phone call later in the day from Sarah informed me that she was already at the shelter. What a relief. Princess will now reside at the shelter for the usual 1 week sterilisation after care. The Care for Dogs team at the shelter are also currently treating her infection orally with a pain killer, double anti-inflammatories and double antibiotics. I will be visiting Princess at the shelter regularly during the week to help keep her spirits up and monitor her progress.

Princess bears some of the usual war scars that street dogs wear. The wound on her ear that you see in these photos are apparently from a previous accident. Although it still looks unpleasant it is now almost healed and all her hair should eventually grow back.

Princess will return for a check up at the clinic in 1 week. If all is well then I will return her to her friends and neighbourhood. Keep a lookout for an update.

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We now have the wounds attended to and 3 of the 4 females sterilised…. 1 sterilisation to go, continue the flea control and then we can start on the vaccinations.

If you haven’t already done so, you can read more about this street project by clicking on the below links

Street Project (part 1) – Assadathon Rd.

Street Project (part 2) – Assadathon Rd.

View location of these dogs with Google Maps here …