Karin, Soraya & I went on a road trip today, returning to Doi Saket and the awful caged dogs and the man who we are trying to encourage to change his ways and on the way we called into a government office, the local livestock department.

Recently, a Thai Government officer working in Bangkok, visited the shelter whilst taking time to relax in Chiang Mai and was moved to express concern that we should contact the local livestock department and ask for their assistance with our work.

Today we went along on the recommendation to introduce ourselves, in an effort to build rapport with this office, hopefully assisted by our recommendation.

For the past 3 years Care for Dogs has operated purely on private donated funds and not been able to receive financial (including aid) support from the Thai Government.

So until we receive a call from the officer who we hoped to speak with today, who we wanted to ask if they are able to assist us in any way with our work, we shall continue to press on with our activities regardless of the fact that we get daily calls to rescue dogs from the streets of Chiang Mai and are not receiving large local charity donations from social fundraisers or Government assistance.

In Doi Saket, we met the man who caged the dogs we had seen on our last visit.

We were returning the now sterilised mother of the 4 pups that were running around in the yard and we found the large black Labrador still in his tiny cage locked up.

The pups were very happy to see their mum but it was quite obvious that one of them was not as lively & alert as the others. We set about de-ticking them with tweezers, taking off hundreds from between toes and jam packed ears and then sprayed them with tick & flea remover as well as vaccinating them against Parvo & Distemper and giving them a course of de-worming syrup.

The guy opened up the cage and ‘Murd’ bounced out and was extremely pleased to be running around and greeting everyone with his boisterous but playful manner. We looked at his penis again and felt justified to advise the guy to let us take him to the vet for proper examination, as we strongly believed Murd was another TvT candidate.

He agreed ! Result !

So by now the pups were running around rid of their ticks and full of doggy treats we had lavished on them but 3 of the 4 appeared weaker than the 4th, 2 of them had diarrhoea so we put Murd along with the 3 pups into the car and drove a short way to the other factory area where the Rotti was also being kept in a cage.

She too gained some freedom, albeit on a strong chain and after a dose of de-worm and vaccinations, she was taken by her ‘handler’ for a shower and then led back into her cage.

The guy then explained he wanted to re-design his factory area to include an area in which the Rotti could roam around free during the night.

We will be back and keep up with our pressure to get the Rotti some improved conditions.

You can imagine our elation as we drove away, very pleased with progress and looking forward to ultimately turning this perceived nasty guy into a learned dog lover.

That was slightly short lived.

After less than a kilometre, one of the pups who was on my lap vomited in my lap. Worms! After a hurried roadside hose down and extraction of the worms from the drivers foot well, we drove to see Dr Tarn the vet in Saraphi. There we ascertained that all 4 had signs of Pneumonia and as for TvT, well that will need to be assessed on Thursday. We also checked up on a couple of ‘In-Patients’, David, Natalie & Foxy.

Heading for the shelter, we stopped by a local convenience store to check up on White, a dog I had met yesterday and wanted Karin & Sorya’s help with communication and logistics as to how we could include White in the TvT program.

I will pick him up Monday after the vet run & take him back to the shelter for the start of his course of treatment. Another few days won’t matter it would seem. The people at the shop said White had been in this condition for a couple of years already.

Words fail me.