Karuna - settling in

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Hi folks. settling in to a wee routine now and beginning to get to know all the dogs. The center has roughly 22 resident dogs who are not kennelled but wander freely about the area, they come and go as they please and normally at feeding times there are several more waiting at the gates to get fed. Most of the dogs that stay at the center have lost limbs or their back legs are paralysed. These are the ones that are bandaged regularly to help prevent infection of cuts and sores, it is amazing how cooperative the majority of the dogs are and not just the ones who are tended to daily. The out patient clinic is always busy, locals bringing their pets and livestock too for attention (at no cost). I saw my first rabid dog the other day, not pleasant as you can imagine. It had bitten the the young boy who had brought it on the hand, he received treatment and the dog was put to sleep. This appears to happen regularly too that people come for treatment for minor wounds. The boys are very knowledgeable and adept at what they do and I have been fortunate to be allowed to help apply stick splints and bandages to broken limbs. I saw one young pup have his splints removed- with great results. One of my other routine tasks is treating a fungal skin infection which several of the dogs have. Using an Ayuverdic treatment solution made up of distilled cow urine, Neem oil and Collodial silver and applied all over the skin, it appears to be working a treat, but as you can imagine the smell isn't too great!

The dogs are now getting to know me too and are starting to greet me when I arrive, there is one wee dog who was admitted with distemper and has been left with a marked tremor. He follows me around, occasionally nipping me on the backs of the legs to get my attention, for this reason I've called him Nipper lol ! He has even tried to follow me home on several occasions and I've had to take him back to the center. Some of the dogs do have names but most of them don't due to their transient natures, some of the names I can't pronounce or write so I've taken the liberty of giving them names of my own. Here are some of them, Pushkin (little dog) this adorable pup is paralysed and is one of the one I help bandage, she runs to me every morning and loves nothing more than being petted and just falling asleep on my knee ( I love it too). Blackie (his original name) who is paralysed too and lolls around like a beached whale because, he is so fat, loves his food and nothing better than getting his belly scratched because he can't do it himself. He will bark at me and roll over telling me too get busy! He continues barking as if he's trying to direct me to where he wants scratched. Homer is a lovely old dog who is blind and I was warned by the boys to stay away that he was a biter. I just sat near talking to him and he came to me, he is now a lovely old friend who toddles over to me when he hears my voice and lies down so that he can have his daily massage, he's even letting me remove the ticks from him now. Another of my daily tasks, tick nurse not nit nurse! I have never seen so many ticks on one dog! It is an endless task. When I get the wi fi problem sorted I'll post some pictures of them, the dogs not the ticks!

The center itself is well laid out and very prettily painted and surrounded by beautiful trees and shrubs ,it was originally a house.There are plenty of kennels for the the injured and sick dogs and the monkey house and cat house are on the roof. Some new buildings have been added, a birth control block where the sterilisations take place and a new kennel block which was donated by Marchgig Welare of Scotland ! How's that for coincidence! There are about twelve cats, some with disabilities, apart from the person that feeds them they do not have a lot of human contact and are starved of afffection. Only one of them would come to me originally, now there's about four but I'm hoping with daily visits this will change. There is a monkey expert coming to the center this week to discuss the best way forward for the monkeys because at present they are all kept caged apart from one large one who wanders about, he looks so sad! Finding my way about the center was easy as it is not very big, lots of little corridors and staircases. Which now brings me to the toilet! being a house previously it has a lovely bath and flushing toilet - lovely- not! After using it and flushing it about six large cockroaches decided to flee from under the rim- in my direction. Jumping back and trying to keep an eye on them all scattering, one had run to my right side and decide up was a better option and proceeded to run up my trouser leg, disappearing round my back somewhere!. I then launched into something akin to an Irish jig that Michael Flatley would have been proud of!( only fault was my arms were flailing too). After what seemed like an eternity I calmed myself down, still trying to swivel my head around like Linda Blair in the hope that it would be on the floor when it crawled across my neck and down onto the front of my t-shirt Aghh! so off I went again. I don't now who got the biggest fright, me or the cockroach. In the aftermath I then found myself laughing hysterically and walking like someone from the ministry of funny walks! , it was just as well there was no-one around to witness or hear any of it. So ...needless to say, I'll use the toilet at the flat LOL!! Even now writing about it gives me the shivers, cockroaches I don't mind as long as they are on the floor. Hope this makes up for the missing pictures.

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Comments

[Veronica Condon]

Settling in
Your stories are fascinating, May. I salute you. I couldn't even start out never mind do all this. What an adventure. Continue to enjoy and we will cont to enjoy your updates. Take care. V x