Hello

Well hello there folks, to those few people who actually read my newsletters, you’ve probably been wondering what happened. I’m still on Phuket working with my dog’s, same as before except that now my days are longer and harder than they were 16 months ago when I posted my last newsletter (NL No.38 / June 2010). However, during my absence I have been taking photo’s and making notes of some of the events that happened along the way, I can’t possibly fit everything into this newsletter, so my next few newsletters will be a brief recap of those events, which will eventually bring you up to date. So here goes…………

July 2010

This is ‘Mer’ from Wat Kata temple, she featured in NL 31 / November 2009 with her 4 puppies. I noticed Mer was eating less and less over a 2 week period and that her stomach looked swollen, I de-wormed her thinking that maybe she had worms but it didn’t help. The weather was bad at the time so I brought her to my house to give her a chance to recover, she stayed in my bathroom for a few days where she slept a lot but still wouldn’t eat. I took her to the clinic, the vet confirmed that Mer had ‘Tik Fever’, she died at the clinic a few days later.

This is ‘Fifa’, a very sick Pit Bull puppy that I cared for at my home for 2 months, she was literally half the size of her siblings, her owner didn’t have time to take care of her and asked me to help. I took her straight to the clinic where the vet confirmed she had Ringworm and intestinal worms. After 2 weeks of medication and a healthy diet she looked much better. Fifa liked to play with my cat, one day she got a bit too playful and received a deep scratch above her left eye that got infected (centre photo), which required more medication.

By September Fifa looked 100% better, she’d gained about 5 kilos and her skin was perfect, I took back to rejoin her family (right photo). When I went back 1 week later to give her the last de-worming tablet, she was dead. I don’t know why, there were no external injuries or symptoms of being poisoned. I saw some chewed bones scattered in the garden, maybe some bone fragments caused internal bleeding, I’ll never know.

August 2010

This dog ‘Mee’ has an owner who did absolutely nothing about this problem. Mee lives close to where I feed 3 other dogs, in the end I took him to the clinic myself because I couldn’t stand to this poor dog suffering any longer. By the way, the owners (Thai) have money, they holiday in Europe for 1 month every year. Anyway, mee’s problem was caused by a large abscess that was draining puss through his tear duct, the vet had to make in incision to drain the fluid and then clean the area. Mee needed medication 2 times a day for the next 10 days, also his eye needed to be cleaned at the same time. The owner watched me doing this and never said anything or offered to help. When Mee was at the clinic I noticed drops of watery blood coming from his penis, turns out that Mee had TVT, a sexually transmitted disease that requires weekly intravenous injections until the problem is cured. Mee needed 6 injections altogether. I explained to the vet that Mee had an owner and said I would try to get them to pay at least something towards the medical costs as 1 injection costs 800THB. When I presented the owner with a bill for just 1 injection she just looked at it and put it face down on the table and looked away from me without saying anything. I never intended to care for animals that have owners but I cannot ignore an animal that needs help like Mee.

September 2010

My blind dog ‘Bawt’ died from liver failure. I started caring for in July 2008 when he lived on Kata Beach, he was very afraid of fireworks and used to run away and couldn’t find his way back to the beach so I took him to live at my home in October 2009.

I loved Bawt very much and Bawt loved me back, I still miss him and think about him often.

RIP my baby, you are gone but not forgotten.

October 2010

This little brown poodle was dumped where I feed 3 other dogs, at first I ignored her thinking that the owner was close by. I went to my next stop to feed the dogs in the temple but kept thinking about her, something wasn’t quite right. Later I went back and found her in a different place, that’s when I saw the maggots coming from a badly infected right eye and spreading across the top of her head. This photo was taken at the clinic where she was recovering nicely, the clinic (Phuket Animal Welfare Society) agreed to keep her for adoption. Breed dogs usually get adopted fairly quickly, sure enough she found a new home about a week after this photo was taken. For sure this dog was left by the owners for me to take care of their unwanted problem, this has happened many times, it makes me feel sad and angry but at least in this case in was a happy ending for the dog.

This is ‘Joe’ (left) and ‘Pepsi’ (right), two male dogs that were dumped at Wat Kata by their owner. When I first saw these dogs I knew I’d seen then somewhere before but just couldn’t remember where. One day a friend was passing by as I was feeding them, she knew these dogs straight away, they used to live with a family that ran a laundry business in Kata, actually only about a 15 minute walk away from the temple. My friend asked the owners why they put the dogs in the temple, they said that the dogs were chewing the laundry that was drying on the racks. It didn’t occur to them to move the racks or discipline the dogs? These dogs are still at the temple today, Pepsi’s coat is in a bad condition, he needs to be brushed every day and showered regularly but I don’t have the time, all I can do is cut out the matted hair that forms to make him feel more comfortable.

November 2010

Distemper is a terrible disease that very few dogs survive. This dog was dumped at Wat Kata along with her sister on 23rd May 2010, they were about 4-5 months old at the time. The sister died from Distemper in August, she went quickly, before I could administer any medicine.I started to give this dog vitamins every day even though she looked healthy but towards the end of September I could see she was getting sick. I decided to take her home where at least she could be comfortable and have a better chance. I gave her the medicine that her sister should have had. She stayed with me for 2 weeks but gradually got weaker and weaker. The day after the photo on the left was taken I took her to the clinic to be put to sleep.

December 2010

Apparently, on December 30th at approximately 11pm I was on Thai national television, I had no idea until the next day when many people said they’d seen me! You may be wondering how that could happen, well here’s what happened . . . . . . I got a phone call in September from a Thai man called Meewat, he didn’t speak any English, all I could understand was that he was coming to Phuket (from Surat Thani) in a few weeks and wanted to meet me and the dogs. I said that I’d be happy to meet him, thank you very much, then pretty much forgot about it (seeing is believing).

Anyway, true to his word, Meewat called me one morning, saying he’d just arrived on Phuket, we met on Karon Beach Road, that’s when I realized what it was all about. Meewat was part of a 3 man team working as a freelance film crew, they film news and interest stories in the south of Thailand and had heard about me from a Thai lady that owns a small pet shop in Kata.

They filmed me at 3 different locations including Wat Kata and stayed with me for about 2 hours. I had to do a bit of chat for a few minutes about myself and the dog’s, I realized after that I could have done this in speaking Thai (which I think would have been better) rather than English but it was all so unexpected, I didn’t have any time to think about it. When they finished Meewat said he would call me if the film footage was going to be used on TV.  Meewat didn’t call me to say that I could see myself on Channel 7, on a program called “Leuang Jing Pan Jaw” on December 30th at 11pm . . . . . That’s what happened!

OK, that’s 2010 completed. A bit if a mixed bag but mostly sad stories as usual, it’s just the nature of the job. I’d like to say a very big thank you to the people that sent donations, especially my friends in Sweden who still believed in me even though I wasn’t posting any newsletters.