On our first day we turned up later than we wanted because it took us so long to find our hostel. Our hostel had free bikes that we could use so we got up the route and were on our way. 40 mins later we arrived at Soi Dog the scenery we witnessed on our way to Soi Dog was beautiful, rows and rows of amazing trees. We were truly submerged by nature passing cows every so often who were allowed to roam where ever they wanted in this mesmerising countryside.
When we arrived we had just missed the last tour so we ate our jam sandwiches with the volunteers who were also lunching. We finished our lunches quite a bit before them so we went to greet the cats for half an hour and played with them. They were adorable dans favourite was this three legged cat. My favourite was glass who was a cat with no eyes. For cats who were at such a disadvantage they had so much happiness and loved interacting with humans. 3 cats were separate from the rest they had FIV which is an animal equivalent of HIV. I felt sad that humans couldn't play with them.
At 3:30 our tour began. It was 45 minutes long and such an interesting 45 minutes it was, the time flew by and I wanted it to continue. This lovely lady from Cornwall conducted the tour and was excellent, she showed us round all the grounds. When the tour finished we had a chance to play again with the cats, which we were eager to do. When the rest of the tour group left we stayed behind to jump start our volunteering so tomorrow's we could get stuck in. We watched a volunteering video which took you through the health and safety. I was thinking half way through watching it that it was all fairly obvious and that I would know it all, having dogs of my own. How wrong I was when I started volunteering the following day, the video helped and I wouldn't of known what to do if it wasn't for it. But I'll get to that.
There was one dog who was spoken about in the tour who really touched my heart. He was called lockjaw, I'm not sure what breed he was but he was a light tan colour. He got tragically hit by a car and was badly injured, they thought the impact would have killed him and with treatment he wasn't predicted to live long. When he arrived both of his eyes were hanging from his head connected with only threads of ligaments. Unfortunately, they couldn't save his sight so they removed his eyes. He was a stray dog before he got hit and was suffering from a terrible skin condition, he had no fur upon arrival. They predicted he'd either fight through the vital 6 week recovery or give up and pass away. When I heard this story in my depth than I can describe I was almost in tears, what an incredible inspiring story. One all us humans could learn from. He was one of the most happiest personalities in this shelter and that's what added to his inspiring story. Soi dog thought he'd never get adopted as he'd been here a long time, for a while he couldn't be adopted because of his health issues but he'd been declared healthy for quite some time now. The good news flooded in that someone in Russia an ex volunteer wanted to have him. He'll be the first dog getting shipped to Russia and I wish him the best for his happy life, blind but still full of bounce.
Day Two
The day was upon us, we could begin volunteering with mans best friend. We arrived at 9:30am, where a senior volunteer was waiting for us. She told us the great news that we would be working with the puppies all day! We grabbed our volunteer bags which contained 3 leads, 3 harnesses, a choke collar (for emergencies), a folder with photos of all the dogs and their names.
We spent our first hour getting to know the puppies and trying our hardest to learn all 12 names. Then we began walking them, we took one each so they went out in twos. For some of the puppies it was their first time on leads and leaving their cute puppy runs. They all got rather jealous over each other when we took two on their walks.
Although we were told that puppies don't have a heiracy. We were told we don't need to walk them in any particular order, so they were walked in random orders. However, you could see with time who would have been the alpha males and who wouldn't. 3 dogs were really shy so shy we couldn't even stroke them, let alone walk them, we just let them be. There was a small amount of bickering between some dogs, but it was fine more like playful fighting. We did have to clap a few times loudly near them to break it up, which we were taught in the training video the day before.
There was one dog called Daisy, this was dans favourite dog, she was a lovely grey short haired dog, quite a medium build. When we got back from our 3rd walk of the day. The one thing I didn't want to happen happened. A dog fight broke out. Dan and I were the only two people in the run. It looked serious Dan was stunned and stayed back I was there clapping by their heads. Noticing that that didn't work I did what I was trained to do, grab the nearest dog water bowl, which were fairly large. I grabbed the bowl and threw half the water over the two that were fighting, it had no impact so I threw the rest of the water, still nothing. I wanted to grab them and pull them apart as I knew I was capable of it, but we had been specifically told not to do this. The fight went from bad to worst when they both started drawing blood from one another at this stage 4 other workers were running into the run and pulled them apart. Daisy started the fight, she was segregated from them for the remainder of the day.
It was a slight shock but perfect timing as it was lunch time so we could recover from the sight of it all as well as the dogs. We ordered some lovely veggies and rice which only cost B40 which is equivalent to £1, it was a huge portion that fed Dan and I. Over lunch we chatted with a lovely girl from London who had just finished her veterinary degree and was now working out here to gain some more experience and relax. She gave me inspiring career advice, as I believe animals are the forte in which I want to pursue.
Lunch was over and it was back to walk the rest of the dogs. Some dogs even got the chance to have two walks which was nice. There is a lovely pond walking area on sight which all the volunteers use, so it was nice to have small talk with a few of them whilst walking our dogs. We saw some people on the Soi Dog tour, I went over with my dog as they were all looking at the adorable puppy I was walking. I knew he wasn't a shy one and loved human interaction so we went over for cuddles. When I was on the tour I loved it when dog walkers would take their dogs over for a hug, so I did just that. There was a chicken by the pond which my dog was so apprehensive about but I made him walk past it to know that it's not scary. When he saw me walk first he picked up confidence to follow.
Overall, it was a life changing experience. I loved getting to know all the different characters and personalities, I will definitely return one day. When I'm back in England I'm going to also try adopt the cat my soul fell in love with. It's comfortable with dogs, but if not its 3 legged and could stay up stairs, I've thought through all the answers my parents will question to try prevent me from getting this cat. I really want it though it fell in love with me as much as I fell in love with her, she's fully house trained and won't leave the house anyway which is perfect! If not I just pray she goes to a loving household. Ive left Soi Dog with memories I couldn't build anywhere else on this large earth. The foundation and everyone running it has a special place in my heart and I was sad to see the end of it.
No comments:
Post a Comment