Today I visited a temple that I call into from time to time, to look at the dog population, offer medication and sometimes drop off a bag of food to the monk living there. On this occasion Lek, another volunteer with Care for Dogs came along too.

I started going to this temple because of a rather convoluted story but in short, about 2 years ago, a dog was adopted from Care for Dogs and when after a while we did a follow up visit, it transpired that the dog had been dumped at this temple. Consequently, we went to the temple to see the dog and found him well adjusted and happy to be in the small pack living in the grounds. He had come from a temple 2 years previously as a pup with his brother and now it seemed returned to a temple life.

During our first visit, Karin, Amandine & I set about de-ticking the residents at the temple and found the puppies to be completely covered with colonies (herds/shoals/packs/swarms/dracula-gatherings … who knows?), of ticks, for example with 100′s in each ear and between each toe. The mother was completely infested and the creases in her skin on her stomach were just dark lines of blood gorging beasts!

A few weeks after that, I went back with people visiting the country and they were very pleased to help do a repeat de-ticking.

Tdik looks like he did before, scrawny, wrinkly and scared of his own shadow. It was encouraging to see the monk hand him some food and to see Hippo the Alpha male, let him eat it without harassment. But sadly he is now having terrible trouble walking. His body has many sores and dry areas which could be fungal but his feet are swollen, particularly around the toes and he tries to walk or stand on 3 legs, giving one a rest from the torturous ground. He must be in pain, the poor thing.

After looking at the few remaining dogs and 3 cats with kittens tucked away too, we both felt there was something needing to be done.

Later on in the day I brought a large bag of food for the dogs, tomorrow I will pick up Tdik & take him along to the vet for assessment and Lek meanwhile, said she wanted to get the cats there sterilised as soon as possible, before they get pregnant again!

You can read more about visits to Wat Pha Gee here …