Hua Hin Dog Rescue Makes The Bangkok Post

[sbk]

Cheers to NR for sending her lovely story in to the Bangkok Post, she published it in the pets section earlier this year.

Its A Dogs Life

January 26, 2007: I had to put a dog to sleep today. His name for the last three weeks of his life was Vito. Before that, who knows? Did he even have a name? Did any person, even when he was a pup, ever hold him in enough regard to bestow a monicker on him?

Continued here in the Bangkok Post

[Buddy711]

Sad story indeed but wonderful voluntary work. Thailand need more people with this kind of attitude.

[pumpuiman]

God bless you November Rain, and all those you care for.

[November Rain]

Thanks all. Let's just hope the article brings in some much needed help. Khun Chompoo who does the Pets' Page was lovely, printing it in the same week I submitted it, so many thanks to her.

[sbk]

That Pets page is terrific, I must say. Have you ever asked her about hilighting some of your dogs or does she do so already? Do you know what kind of response she gets on adopting some of the dogs she talks about?

The Bangkok Post is so widely read in Thailand I can't imagine it won't help. Good luck to you

[kratindaeng]

Thanks all. Let's just hope the article brings in some much needed help. Khun Chompoo who does the Pets' Page was lovely, printing it in the same week I submitted it, so many thanks to her.

Good on ya NR!

[Jet Gorgon]

About time you were acknowledged for your work, NR. My western union is on the way. I want to adopt a Thai ridgeback female. Give the rest to all the babydolls.

[stevemcqueen]

Nice one NR

I'll bring some things round for the shop you have in the shoppping centre,next time I'm in HH.

[mackayae]

Great article. Ciao Vito.

[tuktukmike]

We moved to Hua Hin 3 years ago and by chance were adopted by a dog that lived outside 7/11.

We called her Buiscuit which then turned into Sabai, one of her front legs were withered due to being hit by a vehicle when she was a pup. All the Thais in our soi adored her mainly due to the way she was such a happy little dog despite her handicapp.

Yesterday she was run over and killed by a speeding pick-up, this of course devastated me and my wife.

We called the local vet only to be told that dogs just go out with the rubbish, we just could not handle this thought.

At our wits end we contacted NR and I honestly cant thank her enough, she has arranged for our pride and joy to be buried on a friend of hers land.

Words cant begin to explain my thanks to NR.

Mike & Mo.

[english_farang_lady]

November Rain deserves a medal, pure and simple. But the situation in Pattaya is far worse than Hua Hin. Dogs hobbling around with devastating injuries, and nobody seeems to give a ######. I do my little bit by feeding scraps to those I see, but really that is just perpetuating the cycle of misery. They get well fed, and start having more puppies. A national neutering program is what is desperately required, but in order for that to happen, the mindset of many of the locals needs to be edited.

I am absolutely convinced that most tourists coming to Pattaya and Jomtien are greatly disturbed by what they see. But again, lone tourists can do very little.

We managed to rescue and rehome eight dogs during our two years here. A mere drop in the ocean. I just dont understand why Expat Clubs dont do something to help? Every other place I have lived (including Mexico) have not one, but many rescue shelters, with an oversupply of volunteers. NR is virtually doing it alone.

Her dedication and compassion is phenomenal, and how she copes with what she does I will never know. I just wish we lived close enough so I could help with fund raising or manning the shop. But with an imminent move abroad, I simply cannot. My son helps out occassionally in the shop, but being a teenager with a new social life, he is annoyingly inconsistant with his help.

If there are any ex-journalists out there, who could help with a PR campagn to spread the word about the HH Dog Shelter via the press, then I am sure NR would be delighted to hear from you.

PS Brilliant idea, the Bangkok Posts Pets Page. Maybe they could do a regular "Dog of the Week" or something? My experience of rehoming is that if you can find a hook, or something unusual about a dog (or cat), then write a short article about it, many local papers for sure, and possibly national papers too, would run it. Free publicity! It worked when we lived in Europe -- one cat had only three legs (Hoppy) after a piece in the local press, about ten volunteers came forward to adopt him. He went to an old couple who adored him, and I homed two others I had from that one editorial. Anoher was a tiny dog who could "sing". Whenever pop music was on, he would howl along. A perfect hook which resulted in him finding an exceptionally good home and his own chair in front of the fire!

Best of luck NR.

[November Rain]

Thanks to everyone for your kind words.

Mike, Sabai was picked up at 7:30pm last night, so will be in her final resting place in the country by now. It's a really beautiful place, very peaceful. I'm glad I could help, but I'm really sorry it was under such tragic circumstances.

Well, I've been so busy today, answering emails & phone calls. A wonderful response. I'm so grateful to everyone. At 11:30 am, nearly 19,000bt had been put into our account, we'd had a cash donation of 10,000bt & someone had gone to our vets in Hua Hin & paid off 10,000bt of our bill. I'm overwhelmed! If we can get enough to carry us for a couple of months, I'd be so pleased, as it would give me time to try & come up with a plan for more sustainable funding. No volunteers for helping out in the center, though

Anyway, thanks for the support, guys. I (& the dogs!) really appreciate it!

[PB7]

i missed the article in the Post and can't get the link now.... does anyone have it saved please?

[November Rain]

PB7,

I've pm'ed it to you

[LaoPo]

PB7,

I've pm'ed it to you

November Rain, can you please paste+post a copy of the article (I'm sure BKK Post wouldn't mind as for them it's 'old' news...)

Good luck to you!

LaoPo

[November Rain]

PB7,

I've pm'ed it to you

November Rain, can you please paste+post a copy of the article (I'm sure BKK Post wouldn't mind as for them it's 'old' news...)

Good luck to you!

LaoPo

OK, hope it's OK with admin... It's in a slightly weird format, as I lifted it from a website. I could put the original, but it's very subtly different from what was published.

Pet projects

IT'S A DOG'S LIFE (but it doesn't have to be)

Vito was the personification of a Thai soi dog. Not pretty, tough, physical problems, but independent, with a spirit that would fight on and on. A dog that would definitely bite the hand that fed him if that hand tried to force him to do something he didn't want to do.

Volunteers with an underfunded, overextended charity pulled out all the stops to save the life of an outcast at death's door. They failed, but not through want of love or effort. Now the organisation itself is on its last legs. Can you help?

Story and photo by DAWN POOLE

January 26, 2007: I had to put a dog to sleep today. His name for the last three weeks of his life was Vito. Before that, who knows? Did he even have a name? Did any person, even when he was a pup, ever hold him in enough regard to bestow a monicker on him?

Vito had only been with us, at the Hua Hin Dog Rescue Centre, for three weeks when he died. He came from Cha-am. Cheryl, who has a cafe{aac}/bar there, alerted us to his plight. We arrived at her place and she took us to meet him on the section of road he called home. My first comments weren't complimentary. I made some remark about him being an alien, not a dog. You might forgive me for that remark, had you seen him. No hair; covered in scabs and dry scales; one ear all swollen up with haematoma; unable to stand properly because of malnutrition and a problem with his hind leg; gummy, rheumy eyes; and the mouth of a denture wearer sans dentures. And thin _ so thin you could see every bone and overstretched tendon.

In the process of catching him, I got my first glimpse of Vito's personality. He wasn't physically able to escape us; in fact he didn't really try. He did, however, bite me (not as bad as it sounds, remember he was sans dentures, but he did have gums of steel) and protest the indignity of being lifted bodily and bundled into a car, most vociferously.

It was Joy, the volunteer who helped in Vito's capture _ or rescue, depending on whether you see it from his point of view or ours _ who gave him his name. She said it means "life". Even for such an old dog, it was truly an apt name. I've never seen such life, such spark in such a dilapidated shell.

At the vet's, blood was taken to test for heartworm, his fleas and lice were nuked (not quickly enough, though _ they had a field day with me, leaving me with a rash on my torso for a week afterwards), his ear was bandaged and he was treated for mange. Then we took him to his new home _ a cage in my garden. This may sound like torture for a free-spirited soi dog like Vito, but it was the one thing he seemed truly happy about. He didn't need to move around too much. He was able to lie on soft, warm quilts. He got meals twice a day, and water just by standing and turning his head. And he got out to relieve himself morning and night. He was also given medication that started to cure his mange, treat his gummy eyes and generally deal with some of his problems.

Two weeks passed, during which time Vito and I came to an understanding. This contract proved simple enough _ once I learned the details, that is. He didn't object to the food, or the water. He was quite happy with the comfy quilts, changed once a day, or more frequently if he'd had an accident. He'd happily take the medicine, if hidden in a lump of meat. He'd submit to having his eyes cleaned and medicated. He was partial to his nightly dog-chews. The one thing that he wouldn't tolerate was being taken out of his cage for his twice-daily trip to the "toilet". This was an indignity that a dog of his stature shouldn't have had to endure. And he chastised me for it. Many times, my nose got caught in a gummy "embrace". I eventually learned (how slow-witted we humans are!) to hold him in a way that wouldn't allow his gaping maw to connect with any part of my body. And, to simplify matters, I learned that if I left his cage door open after I'd remade his bed, he'd hoist himself into it as soon as his bladder and bowels were empty. No toddle round the garden for him!

On Monday, he had trouble standing to eat and to relieve himself and seemed generally uncomfortable, so I subjected him to another visit to the vet's. By the time we reached the clinic, his legs were in spasm. He was inspected and more blood drawn. It didn't look good. That night, he had his first seizure. From that time onwards, he never stood or left his cage again.

Lab results the next day proved he had suffered renal failure, was anaemic and had a problem with his platelets as well. The vet asked me what I wanted to do. Between us we decided on a plan: We'd try to treat his ailments for the next five days, and if that didn't work we'd put him to sleep. Caring for him became a little more difficult. Food needed to be held under his mouth, water syringed into it. He needed to be rolled off his quilt when wet, and rolled back onto clean, dry bedding. He tolerated this with more good grace than he had many previous experiences. His leg muscles were constantly in spasm and he must've been in pain, but he rarely grumbled.

He was, however, going downhill fast. By Thursday, when the vet visited on an unrelated matter, we agreed that the time had come to let Vito go. The vet made an appointment to come over the following morning and I spent the rest of that day burdened with the knowledge that it would be Vito's last. His final dog chew, his final evening meal, his final syringe of water, his final bedding change, his final breakfast.

The act of dispatching him was more traumatic than anything similar I have ever witnessed. Administering the injection proved difficult because he was in such a bad state that most of his veins had collapsed. Then he refused to go quietly. He didn't struggle outwardly, but he was possessed of such a monumental will and spirit that he held out against the euthanising drug for five agonising minutes. I'd never seen that before. Of course, he did, finally, succumb.

So why this tribute to an ugly, bad-tempered, old soi dog that I only knew for three weeks? A dog that never showed me the slightest sign of gratitude for taking care of him? No pacifist, Vito, no licker of hands or wagger of tail, he! Why am I crying, yet again, while writing this? Tears obscuring my vision and dropping onto my keyboard? For two reasons, both intertwined:

Vito, to me, was the personification of a Thai soi dog. Not pretty but tough; physically weak but still fiercely independent, with a spirit that would fight on and on. A dog that would definitely bite the hand that fed it _ if that hand tried to force him into something he didn't want to do.

Vito did not, to paraphrase Dylan Thomas, "go gentle into that good night". He "rage[d], rage[d] against the dying of the light".

Vito, you were a true character. Rest in peace, old man, you deserve it. And, let me tell you, you earned the undying respect of one farang woman. Goodbye.

May 17, 2007: Vito has been gone for nearly five months, now. Earlier this week, I had to put another dog to sleep. Si Khao had been dumped in my garden during the rainstorms a fortnight before. He was quadraplegic (probably the result of a stroke), incontinent and had a huge abscess covering one entire wall of his chest. I cared for him for two weeks, turning him to prevent bedsores, cleaning and dressing the abscess, changing incontinence pads and bedding so that he didn't have to lie in his own waste. Sadly, he deteriorated, and was in such pain that he'd scream when moved and every time the painkillers wore off. So, I thought it kinder to let him go, too.

Our work continues. The dogs continue to come in. To be dumped. To be reported to us. The money and the volunteers don't arrive with anything like the same regularity. We have no money, at this time. We have a single volunteer (who helps out one morning a week) but she's on holiday for a month. Another has travelled up from her home in Bang Saphan to help me for a week, due to the desperation of our situation. Other than that, the work in the centre, caring for over 100 dogs is done by one paid worker and myself. The 30 dogs in my house (the sickest ones; the paraplegics _ five of them; the pups) are looked after solely by me. We owe our vet 13,000 baht. It was 17,000 baht, but I've managed to scrape together 4,000 baht for him. Now, we can only take absolute emergencies to him. Anything else, I have to try and treat myself.

During the rainstorms we had dogs with hypothermia (some of the pen roofs leaked terribly); two pups died. I couldn't get bedding for the sick dogs properly dry after washing it, so I had to risk putting them on damp bedding.

The Hua Hin Dog Rescue Centre is on the verge of closure. It's heartbreaking for me personally, but also frustrating professionally, as we are/were about to start a neutering programme for strays in Hua Hin, in conjunction with Dogchance, neutering and vaccinating a minimum of 40 street dogs per month. This will help/would have helped with the stray-population problem in Hua Hin. We desperately need assistance in order to continue.

Here's how you could help:

- Donate. Money, food, bedding materials (old blankets, towels, quilts), even old newspapers would all be very gratefully received;

- Sponsor one of our dogs yourself or get your business/company to do so;

- Practical help. Do voluntary work at the centre or at our charity shop (if you're based in the Hua Hin area). Help maintain the pens and the centre;

- Adopt a dog. All our animals are friendly, sociable, loving, neutered and vaccinated;

- Fund-raise. Could you organise a fund-raising dinner and invite your friends along? A sponsored parachute jump? A party? A sponsored dog walk? It'd be a way to have fun and help our dogs at the same time.

Hua Hin Dog Rescue Centre details:

- Web site: www.dogrescuecenter.org/

- Email: [email protected]

- Telephone: Ring Dawn Poole on 08-1981-4406

- Bank: Bank of Ayudhya, Hua Hin branch

- Account name: Mrs Maureen McCulloch Taylor or Mrs Dawn Poole

- Account number: 074-1-25450-9

- SWIFT code: AYUDTHBK

[Jet Gorgon]

Absolutely fantastic news, NR! Well done.

Hope sponsors keep contributing and this news cheers your Mom, too.

Good on ya!

[elfe]

just found this thread.

nr i wish you strength and health for all the good work you do. don't give up. hope things are looking up more and more soon! if i was free i would at least come up to hh to give you a hand. but am in a very similar situation as yourself (moneywise and all alone).

is there nothing we could do to get together and get more influence so that what efl suggested, official neutering programmes could be achieved and we could get some support?