When it comes to helping the dogs you face 100s of choices every single day that could result in life or death for them. That may sound dramatic but it is fundamentally true and nobody wants to feel responsible for a dog dying right?
Sometimes it feels like running an military field hospital and only having limited capacity. You basically have to triage the dogs. To explain it as best I could I wanted to show you a snapshot of what I’m looking at today in terms of dogs out there that need help.
To give it some context I’d love you to answer the question I get asked the most often…why don’t you just take the dog home with you?
1. Bambi And The Starving Puppies
Most weeks will see the arrival of some new puppies. This week 3 little beauties arrived and they were incredibly thin. So much so that they were lucky to be alive really. Little Bambi not only had no mother but she also had no tail. They are on the emergency bulking up diet with high quality food and goat’s milk 4 times per day.
The have good shelter but they are up against snakes, humans, other bigger dogs and lots of other dangers.
2. Six Dogs Getting Sterilised - Post Operation
As I’ve spoken about in the past getting the dogs sterilised is the absolute key. There are 6 dogs in this week getting their operations. Ideally I’d keep them somewhere for 24-48 hours post operation but unfortunately they have to go back onto the streets to recover. The alternative is not getting them done and they fall pregnant and more puppies appear within days.
The dogs that have operations all need daily medicine, wound cleaning and then stitches removed. They are also spread around the island. You can see in this photo how groggy Angel is after I sterilised her a while ago.
3. Izzy And Bella In Their Foster Homes
Little Izzy and Bella are in long term foster homes which I’ve paid for. Bella had a broken leg and had to recover. Izzy was badly attacked. Put simply both of them wouldn’t have survived any longer on the streets. Finding them the right forever homes is a time consuming process that can take up to 4 months if in another country.
4. Bubba On A Drip In The Vets
I shared the story of the wonderful Bubba this week. We just about saved his life with minutes to spare. He’s an amazing dog and will hopefully bounce back after a lot of treatment and medication. His case is so serious that he has to stay in the vets for 3 days to make his comeback. After that we will see if he is fit enough to go back on the streets.
5. The 80 Street Dogs
The dogs are actually all doing great today. They are often injured, weak from diseases or get attacked but today was all good. At any moment one of the 80 dogs could need a home. They also all happen to be super cute and many want attention as much as food. I’d love to give them all homes!
So Who Do You Take Home?
Your answer might be different to mine. The truth is there is probably no right answer. I choose to take none home as I already have Jumbo (A street rescue) and Snoop (A long term rescue) to look after. I also had Bubba at home this week and another small dog for a day each. Taking dogs home would slow me down out in the “field” fixing them. Thats my logic.
You could easily take 20 dogs home but that doesn’t solve anything. You could make a case for the puppies but then how could you leave Bubba out there to fend for himself? Izzy has already been attacked so you’d be sending her to her death if you put her out.
This daily picture is always changing. New dog issues come into the frame on an hourly basis. The solution I have is to sterilise as many as I possibly can and to put the fires out wherever they arise. It’s not perfect and it is often life or death for a dog.
So you will probably understand after reading this why I smile to myself when someone asks me…why don’t you take the dog home with you?
I absolutely love the challenge of all this. I now know that what I do is saving dogs lives. I might not always get it right but going to bed at night I know I have tried the very best I can.
Believe me I’d love to take all the dogs home with me if I could.
Niall
P.S Between sterilising, operations, vets, puppies, food, medicine and emergencies there are quite a lot of expenses. Money doesn’t fix all of the problems but it does help me to quickly find solutions and move onto tackling the next dog issue. To anybody who has donated thank you so much and to anybody who wants to the page is here.
Niall, just an idea. Investigate becoming a satellite location to a larger organization in Thailand? Might be a possibility of funding and help without all the legal requirements and money (that could go directly to the dogs) without starting up completely new. Appreciate your e-mail/twitter posts!