A quick reflection of some memories over the last few weeks.
Joyous and sad, difficult and challenging but huge differences made for the good!
All the while learning and evolving, I hope to make yet more differences for the better.
Your support through the ups and downs is immeasurable to me and the animals and organisations I am helping out here.
To the people who have made donations, I am truly overwhelmed by your generosity and faith in me and you have made a direct difference in dogs and cats, puppies and kittens being fed, vaccinated, medicated, rescued, adopted, sterilised and transported and ultimately, prevented the lives of hundreds of kittens and puppies being born into a miserable life!
Finally, thank you all for your support, love and care for Belle. She really was one in a million and she should still be with us. But out of bad comes good and in her name together we will rescue others and do better for them! 🙏❤️
Love Chris and Freddie xx
📢 GOLF COURSE PUPPIES UPDATE
I had previously posted about the work to capture a bunch of adult stray dogs and the puppies at the golf course ahead of the Vetvan spay 'n' neuter clinic last Wednesday.
The tragic passing of Belle happened the following Thursday morning so I have been slow to out this update together.
Well it's pretty much all good news!
There are four remaining puppies at the golf course, which, in reality, will be their forever home. Three of them were successfully captured, (they had to be darted with a sedative), but the fourth although darted, was lost in heavy plant growth and could not be found!
Thankfully, she woke up and returned to her 'safe' area but it was a sleepless night as she would have been wondering where her siblings, Mother and Aunty all were!
I am arranging to capture her separately before the next clinic on the 15th November.
Since their sterilisations the puppies are all recovering well. Their appetites are healthy. They have all been vaccinated.
The three adopted puppies are all doing fine and will be sterilised and vaccinated this month.
Then, that will be it! Mission accomplished in ensuring our seven golf course puppies will lead lives free from giving birth, fighting over mating and all the negative health issues that go around that.
Three of them have a loving family home. Of course, would have loved to got all of them homes but the other four are pretty unadoptable sadly but together, we have given them a better quality of life by 100%, such as that is.
Thanks to the fantastic sterilisation partnership scheme created by @wearehappydoggo and the incredible work of @vetvan_thailand
Thank you to everyone who has been so supportive of the journey of these little ones who I will continue to visit and who thanks to Din and her fellow golf course employees, will ensure they will get a meal every day and look out for them 👌🙏
Do you recall the news about a neighbour's cat adopting ME!
Barely older than a kitten herself, pregnant and abandoned by her family!
And the most remarkable story of her trying to help a terribly injured kitten whom she had to of jumped over high walls to rescue and return to lay on my sofa! 😲
Well....I am her new Dad! Never had kittens before so that's going to be a new experience but we'll make sure they are fine, get them vaccinated, spayed/neutered and adopted to good homes.
Clearly that's my travel and volunteering plans placed on hold for the following months although will try and fit in day trips to shelters but, this little Angel deserves some live for what she did.
Not even sure I can keep pets in my rented house but will cross that bridge when we come to it. 🤞
I guess her babies will arrive in the next couple/three weeks, will post news of their arrival 🥰
Never for one minute did I think I would be posting this!
I got a call from the vets this morning telling me Belle had deteriorated from complications of the blood parasites and passed away this morning.
I visited her yesterday morning before going to the Vetvan spay clinic. She was down in her spirits and I did raise that with the veterinary team who told me they would carry out further blood tests and update me on this mornings visit but instead, I received a call at 9.30am telling she passed from further complications arising from the parasites.
Just yesterday I was discussing arrangements with Jazmin at Vetvan for her relocation to Muttlands Sanctuary ahead of being found a beautiful family back in stunning Cornwall, England where I imagined her running along the beaches. Can't believe it won't happen for her.
I am trying not to be selfish in my own sadness and I don't want any sympathy. I chose to do this. Instead, please give your own beloved pets a big hug and a moments thought to all the animal rescuers and rescue shelters around the world who face this kind of heartache everyday and send them some love and support, go and visit them if you can. What they all do is so incredibly difficult!
So sorry to bring this news. I know so many of you loved Belle for which I am truly grateful. 🙏🐾
Love Chris & Freddie xx
PUPDATE ON BELLE
I became increasingly anxious that time was not on my side to wait until the 23rd for the next Vetvan clinic, where through the @wearehappydoggo sponsorship, I could have her spayed and vaccinated for free.
So, through the help of a fantastic American lady who is a local stray dog feeder and pet shop owner, I engaged a local dog darter to catch Belle this morning and get her to a local vet for all the procedures ASAP.
Normally they dart with a sleep inducing drug. I was too worried that on the dart hitting Belle would scamper out into the Highway so instead, she laced some food with eat which was tricky because on putting the olate down for Belle the other dog wanted to jump in and eat the food. Trying to keep him at bay was also freaking Belle out, (strays are so nervous!), but eventually managed to get Belle to take the food.
After a nervous 15 minutes watching her wander along the Highway edge, in and out of the side road, she eventually let me approach her, and she laid down, allowing me to pick her up.
Wow....I can honestly say carrying her to the dig catchers car was one of the best feelings ever! She is very cuddly!
She is now at a private Vet practice where tomorrow she will be spayed and vaccinated. She will also have blood tests to check for any health issues. She will stay a week so she can recover fully from her spay surgery.
Freddies Friends Foundation is going to meet these costs.
Thereafter, I am planning to place her a Muttlands sanctuary where she will be well cared for, socialised and prepared to go on to a forever home.
I do have an option to send her to a fantastic dog rescue and adoption centre in Devon, England where I know she will be well cared for, (I know the people personally), and eventually found a dream home to live a dream life in Devon or Cornwall but I am open to all adoption enquiries.
Main thing is, she wil NEVER return to the streets 🙏❤️🐾
Finishing off the week with a bit of fun 😄
Called in to my local pet shop this morning and their pet cat wanted to be included in my purchases 🥰
That's what you get when you make a fuss of every animal you come across! 🤭
Have to love Thailand!
Happy weekend everyone!
Thank you for another week of amazing support and love for what I do here and the cats and dogs we are trying to help! It means the world and you are part of making a difference! 🙏🫶
#catsofinstagram #kittensofinstagram #cat #kitten #pets #petshop #weekend #catlovers
Our golf course puppies greeting us with nervous but happy little waggy tails when we arrive with breakfast 🥰
They are building in confidence though two of them are still very timid which is a worry.
If you are convinced Momma's coat is a little purple, don't worry, you're not going mad, we have applied and skin treatment a vet recommended to us that won't affect her milk but which has a purple colouring in it.
All present and correct and gaining weight.
Thank you for your love for our little golf course puppy gang 🙏❤️🫶🐾
You become invested, don't you!? 🥰🐾
📢 Golf course puppies update....
We are now feeding the puppies everyday with tasty puppy wet food and biscuits and goats milk. Don does this everyday and I drop the food in a visit two or three times a week.
Along the way, we are trying to build trust with them so they will not run away and enjoy the food.
Mother dog is also slowly warming to me but she is fine with Don because she hangs out in the Caddy's cafe area where Don pops in occasionally and always makes a fuss of her.
I am working through plans with Vetvan, sponsored by Happy Doggo, for their sterilisation and vaccinations in around 2 months, maybe slightly sooner but only by a week or two.
Need to work on two puppies in particular who are so nervous and are not growing as well as the other five.
Signs they are slowly relaxing towards us. In the meantime, Don will get word out and see if some employees will give them homes after we have taken care of them.
Huge thanks to so many of you who have reached out with messages of support. It really does make a huge difference as its unavoidable to not get emotionally invested in their little lives. How people deal with this daily is quite remarkable!
Will keep you posted on their development 🙏
#puppiesofinstagram #dogsofinstagram #puppies #puppy #puppyrescue
As promised, an update on the recently discovered litter of puppies at Rayong Green Valley Golf Club.
She good and bad news!
The mother dog's condition was not so bad. Nothing some good quality shampoo baths wouldn't put right and when she has finished feeding, some parasite medicine.
Down side being that already three puppies have been removed by staff which is too soon. Ideally we would keep them all together so they can fully socialise, enjoy Mums milk to the end ready for me to get them spayed, neutered and vaccinated by @vetvanthailand but unless we know who they went to and word gets to them this will be done completely free and I will transport them to the clinic, then they won't do it.
So frustrating as they simply don't get that they ARE the problem!
I draw a comparison with the tip that was that area of a buggy junk yard and it's surrounds....out of sight, out of mind and it's somebody else's problem.
The fact I could leave the items of comfort and engagement for the puppies because they would be stolen tells another story! Literally not £12 worth of items that folk would want to steal from a puppy! 🤨🙄
Herein lies the day to day challenges of the stray dog rescuers and stray dog rescue organisations. Ultimately, there is only one solution, and that is population control. Many Thais view them as pests and for sure, I get bemused looks from Thais when I am putting food out, talking to dogs with a ridiculous baby voice 😆, cuddling puppies but frankly I don't care as its not the dogs that are pests, it's the other way around!
But if you give up with engagement you will never get ahead. To give up is giving up on the ones that have been born and the ones about to be born. The incredible street dog rescuers of Thailand don't do giving up! ❤️🐾
Updates will follow but what about that kiss from Dang to her beau, Thon Dam! What a romance that is!! ❤️❤️🥰
#thailand #straydog #puppiesofinstagram #dogrescue #streetdog #makeadifferen
Another street dog has given birth to a litter of puppies at Don's golf course, Rayong Green Valley Golf Club. Only this time, it has been kept from her and Mum is suffering with a bad skin condition and some of the puppies are skittish and may dissappear into the grounds becoming victims to not only the weather but Monitor Lizards and snakes!
She has taken refuge in the golf buggy park where, and all credit due, an engineer cooks up rice and puts down food for some of the dogs, including sweet Dang. Clearly, he kept this all to himself, probably because it gave him personal enjoyment but has come to realise that the Mother needs help.
So frustrating when he and most staff know that Don and I work together to firstly take care of the health issues for all the stray dogs who live at the club but thereafter and most importantly, get them into a @vetvanthailand clinic to ensure no more puppies are born to that Mother and the puppies if they are still around at four months.
You can't really say anything, or at least I can't, because she was given refuge and food but Mum has needlessly suffered and the puppies will soon want to venture outside of the buggy yard which is a high traffic area! 🫣
Will pop down tomorrow with provisions and see if Mum will accept me as later this month we will hopefully get her into a crate to get to the Vetvan clinic.
This is how it is with street dogs and puppies in Thailand but are we all agreed.....the puppy Don is holding......OMG, what a sweetheart! 😍😍😍❤️🐾
#puppiesofinstagram #straydogs
#streetdogs #streedogrescue
#dogsofinstagram #dog #Puppy #puppies #doglovers #puppylove
A short clip to say I will be editing a video of my time in Surin for my YouTube channel, which is also called Freddies Friends Foundation.
It has been my intention to use YouTube to provide more meaningful content about animal rescue in Thailand and with the occasional video about creating a new life here and what that entails.
My obstacles being I am not comfortable in front of a camera and having a personality that likes things to be done well or not at all and so many attempts to put something together have been huge fails! 😁🙄
Equally though, there is a need to tell good stories, provide accurate information and be engaging to do justice to the incredible people who work so hard and sacrifice so much to help stricken dogs and cats and wildlife. Not least, their personal stories and fascinating and inspiring!
Give me a few days to put something together before I upload it to YouTube. If you use YouTube, I am hoping to get to 1000 subscribers, (on 200 at the moment), to become monetized which is a way to raise funds for the shelters and people I visit. So, if you like what I am doing then it would be amazing if you could subscribe to help us get there. 🙏
This week, its back to the local beach restaurant to pick up some cats to get them spayed. Thank you so, so much to the wonderful supporters who have sent donations via my Ko-fi page. Your donations will change the lives of these cute souls next week! ❤️🙏🫶🐾
Join me on a trip to Surin where I a spending time with Thai rescuer who I have followed and supported for two years.
There are a lot of incredible Thai animal rescuers who most of us don't know about because, understandably, their social media reach is Thai centric and in Thai language.
Equally, there are Thai dog and cat holders who use animals to, frankly, scam an income.
So I'm heading out to learn more about Thai rescue methods and practices, the challenges they face and, to see if its possible to reach western following.
Hope you enjoy this week's content 😊🙏
#Surinprovince #travel #Thailand
