The Good, The Bad And The Ugly

An emotional rollercoaster

There was torrential rain yesterday. A huge storm. I secretly like the storms because apart from a few medicines to administer the dogs don’t want to come out and hide away to stay dry.

I was eyeing up a sneaky 2 hour Monday morning nap with glee as I was close to exhaustion. Those are the sort of naps that power you on for another few days helping the dogs. Crucial.

Thats when the phone started lighting up. A dog had been shot…

Rising Above A Cruel Blow

In the last couple of weeks there have been a lot of challenges. The dogs getting poisoned wasn’t easy to take but now here we were with a dog who had been shot.

I shared the full rescue here in this video but the good news was he got very lucky. His family absolutely love him and the shooter had aimed for the heart and missed.

His name is Mangosteen (after the fruit) and he is safe with us now. He’ll go to the hospital for a big operation tomorrow morning to save his leg. He’ll recover well and we’ll work with the family to make sure he is safe. Not an amazing day but he is alive.

Change At Scale

It’s so easy for the individual cases to rip your heart out. Seeing dogs nearly die through a mixture of neglect, cruelty and illness isn’t easy. What it absolutely imperative is pushing on and finding big solutions.

Tina’s hospital has had huge progress in the last couple of days. We have installed containers, equipment is ordered and we are interviewing staff. I still can’t quite believe this is happening and it gives me so much hope while the big hospital progresses just behind this area.

Something else that I’m incredibly proud of is the speed which we are now rolling out partnerships across Thailand. The latest 2 this week are with The Voice and Rescue Paws.

These sterilising partnerships will see us fund 4,800 dog operations with Rescue Paws and 1,500 with The Voice in 2025. Happy Doggo provides the funding while they do the amazing work in the community. Thats what real change looks like and along with the other 8 partner charities we have it means 100s of dogs are getting sterilised every single day.

While we battle an individual case like Mangosteen being shot it’s also worth remembering just how many sterilisations we can now fund. This is incredibly expensive work but if we are to make a lasting impact to street dogs we need to speed this up even more.

Dogs Between Life And Death

Dogs don’t typically live that long and street dogs have even shorter lives. When dogs come to us they are often very sick so the chances of us seeing death are very high. In the last 48 hours there has been a raft of live or death issues…

• Panda came in with acute liver issues. He’s been in the vet on life support. I sat with him as I thought he was taking his last breaths. He seems to be turning a corner now a little.

• Kerry just collapsed on me on Sunday morning. She nearly died twice. After a mad rush to the vets we’ve found she has an enlarged heart and six months to live at the very best. A gutting blow after her huge successful operation 2 weeks ago.

• Donut has been doing wonderfully learning to walk. She just lost all power and also collapsed today. Unbelievably she also has heart issues.

I don’t share these stories to make people sad. It’s more to paint a reality of the ups and downs. I perhaps stupidly always think we can save every single dog but when 3 come close to the edge in such quick succession it really makes you draw on every reserve of power you have.

The Mental Toll Is Challenging

Anybody who works in animal rescue will tell you the physical and emotional toll is often close to unbearable. Last night I was asking myself why I felt so exhausted and burnt out. I’d been running my 5kms and eating healthy. I started thinking and realised in the last 24 hours I had…

• Dealt with a dog being shot

• Watched a dog nearly die in my arms (Kerry)

• Watching a dog on life support (Panda)

I’m sure in vet college or as a doctor you get training on the emotional side of things. My biggest issue is even when I only know the dogs 1-2 days I think of them as my own pets. I can’t sleep. Eventually that takes a toll. Last night I had a horrific panic attack.

I wish I could be more emotionally detached and just churn through the bigger picture stuff but every life on the ground matters. I can always find the money, vet or hospital to help them somehow but not being able to physically help the dog myself is the part I find so hard. I don’t have kids but I would imagine it probably feels the same as watching your own kids being sick and not knowing how to help.

What I love about writing these updates is that they help put things into perspective. The sterilising, re-homing dogs, saving individual lives like Panda and the hospital. They feel more real when they are written down and I read back over the words before sending.

For now I’m off to bed to try do some meditation to calm my nerves and not worry too much about Mangosteen heading off to the big hospital at 4.30am for his gunshot operation. He’ll be absolutely fine but I’d love to just explain to him what is going on and why there is a 12 hour road trip and why he hurts so much. I’d love to tell him all will be ok and his family are waiting for him when he gets the bullet out.

I can’t even find time to reply to comments or keep up with messages I get. I do see them though and they mean the world. I couldn’t do 1% of what we do with Happy Doggo were it not for you all.

Sleep needed. Thank you all so much.

Big Love

Niall

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