Gill and Sarah (SDF webmaster) both spent a great deal of time online with me teaching me how to produce the updates If anyone out there has ever tried to train and support someone online from the other side of the world, then you will know that this was a long and protracted exercise. But before I knew it, I was up and running and sending emails to sponsors by August. (Hello out there to all the sponsors I correspond with now!)

As soon as my finances would allow, I was back on a plane to Phuket in April this year to continue doing my part for SDF. I went there purely to volunteer. No beaches, no shopping, no Thai spa and massage packages, no sightseeing. (Makes for a very cheap holiday if you don’t do any of these things.)

I was pretty excited that I was finally going to meet my sponsored dog, Long Legs who lives at Wat Kuku Prompang. I hadn’t visited him last July as, the day John was going to feed, I was very sick and holed up in my hotel room. So, here I was, almost three years after beginning my sponsorship of him, meeting him for the first time. I had a bag of liver treats all saved up for him and his mates at Kuku2, my camera and a lot of enthusiasm.

There he was – part of the welcoming party for John’s car. I tumbled out of the car juggling my camera, the treats, my sunglasses, my bag etc. What a sight I must’ve been! John got the food out of the car and started feeding while I was of absolutely no earthly use to him because I was too busy cooing over Long Legs and Clarence and trying to mete out treats to all the dogs, plus take photos at the same time.

Annabel and Denis in Switzerland who sponsor beautiful Clarence had just returned from Phuket and I had emailed them and asked if Long Legs was a friendly dog or not. They had replied and said that he would more than likely be friendly when I first arrived, but would then probably disappear after the initial greeting was over. They were 100% correct. Before I knew it Long Legs had disappeared from my camera viewfinder and was lying over underneath the monk’s house. I was slightly peeved as I wanted him to be as excited about meeting me as I was about him. John just laughed! So did I. Long Legs really couldn’t care less about me. He didn’t care if I sponsored him. He didn’t care if I paid extra so he could have Frontline treatment to kill the fleas and mites that make his life a misery. He didn’t care that I had been looking forward to meeting him for a year.
So I walked across to the monk’s house to take some more photos of him and to give him a bit of a stroke and a belly tickle. Thank goodness he did go to the monk’s house because when I went over to take more photos of him, there on the ground under the house was a small puppy – he couldn’t have been more than six weeks old – looking very sick and sad. He had a swollen belly (a sign he had worms) two misshapen front legs (a sign that they had already been broken) and he had bad mange. So young and so many health problems. I gently picked him up and took him over to John who took one look at him and said that this little boy should go straight to the vet. He then took the poor little scrap of nothing and put him in the back of the car where he promptly chowed down on some stray dry feed that was rolling around the back. Thank goodness he still had an appetite...one good sign.

I spent the remainder of my time at Kuku2 playing with Clarence who is such a friendly dog. Annabel and Denis sure picked a winner when they chose Clarence to be one of their sponsored dogs. He’s just gorgeous. (Are you listening Long Legs?)

As soon as we left Kuku2, we went to the vet to hand over the sick puppy for treatment. John has let me know since that he is apparently doing ok. (As ok as you can be when you’re only six weeks old with two broken legs, mange and worms.) You can only imagine what this poor pup’s life would be like without SDF. No one would have treated him and he would have died in a few short weeks in pain. His life so far had already had enough pain and sadness. Thank goodness for SDF. Now he has a chance to be healthy and pain-free.

During my stay in Phuket I was fortunate enough to meet Claudia and Tatiana from Switzerland. Claudia sponsors at least three dogs (that I know of) at SDF – Joya, Opus and her new little dog, Cini. They were often at the shelter at the same time I was and they were having love-ins with Claudia’s beautiful girl, Joya. Claudia took her to the beach and spent a lot of time with her. Joya is a lucky, lucky dog.

One morning, John took Claudia, Tatiana and I temple feeding with him. We visited Wat Nai Yang first where John has to feed the dogs in two different places. I can’t remember why...I think it’s territorial, but I could be wrong. When we first arrived, we three girls took lots of photos and played with the dogs while John was getting down and dirty preparing the food for the dogs. This meant he was dipping his hands into huge buckets of food from the hotels and putting it out on trays for the dogs. A very messy business! While John was busy doing that, Tatiana noticed one pup who didn’t seem well at all. He was covered (and I mean covered) in fleas and he also seemed to have something wrong with his eyes. She showed the pup to John who decided that he really should go to the vet. Wat Nai Yang is fairly close to the SDF Centre, so we ended up taking him to see Dr Max before heading off to Wat Para where we continued feeding.

After Wat Para we visited Wat Pah Khlok where there were also a couple of monkeys as well as plenty of cats and dogs. With the exception of just one or two dogs, they were all super friendly. John is concerned about this temple as there have been some poisonings here lately. John had one or two cats and dogs to check on here, so we spent a fair bit of time here.

Then it was off to Srisoonthorn for our last stop. John mentioned that quite a lot of puppies get dumped at this temple. Sure enough, when we got there, one of the monks told John that five puppies had been dumped here and so we set off to find them. Yes, there they were – five feisty little scraps in full voice. They were quite wary of us and backed away when we approached. One of the monks caught a couple and gave one to me to hold. He was so cute. I was just checking him for fleas when I felt a warm trickle down my belly...yes, the puppy had peed all over me! Claudia and Tatiana thought that was pretty funny. I put the puppy down and was immediately handed another one by the monk. This was a little girl, feisty and scrappy, wriggling all over the place. She decided to follow the lead of her brother and proceeded to pee all over me as well. Ah, the life of an SDF volunteer is such joy – NOT.

All in all, it was great for me to visit all these different temples and meet the dogs who I had been sending updates about for the last 8 months. It’s amazing how many I recognised.

For the next few days when I was at the Centre, I was checking in on the little pup from Wat Nai Yang who Tatiana had nursed on her lap on the way back to the Centre to see how he was going. Unfortunately he wasn’t too good. I checked in on him whenever I was there and as often as I could. On my second last day in Phuket, I spent as much time with him as I could. He lay on the ground and could barely wag his tail, although he was trying. I sat with him quietly and just stroked him for a while. I honestly didn’t think he was going to pull through. I put a photo of him on my Facebook profile with a caption saying that I didn’t think he was going to survive.

I was very happy to receive an email from another sponsor, Pamela, a week after I’d returned home saying that she had just visited the Centre and this little darling was much improved and full of energy. She also emailed me some photos of him and he definitely looked like a different little dog.

Unfortunately there are still a number of dogs at the Government Pound who we would like to ‘rescue’ and look after at the new SDF shelter. The staff at the Pound are reluctant to release dogs to SDF and it’s very frustrating to know there are dogs there who need medical treatment or who just need to be with us and SDF can’t get them.

We did manage to rescue one pup from the Government shelter though - a small pup who was all by himself in a huge run. He couldn’t walk. It turned out that he had been hit by a motorbike which had broken his pelvis and dislocated his hips. He was taken to the Government Pound where he had been ever since his accident. He had had no treatment, no pain medication. All he was given was food. By the time we got him, his broken bones had fused and he couldn’t walk without dragging his legs behind him. Tatiana fell in love with him and promptly named him Sweetie.

Char Gray of the Eveson Hotel, a great supporter of SDF, saw Sweetie and also fell in love with him immediately. You will now find that Sweetie has been renamed Fitz and is proudly sponsored by Char, Henry and Floyd Gray. Finally this little pup’s luck has changed. Check out his photo on the ‘Sponsored at the Centre’ page of this website.

I also took the opportunity while I was at the Centre to choose a new dog to sponsor. Unfortunately Diamond, the little dog I sponsored last year, could not conquer her health issues and sadly she passed away earlier this year. I had spent quite a lot of time in the mange dogs’ compound. They seemed to be such friendly dogs. Some were a little shy, but still friendly. There was one dog, Dominic, who had black elephant-like skin. Gill explained that it was highly unlikely his fur would ever grow back now that his skin was so black and tough. He had a few little tufts of golden fur here and there on his body, but not many. He is not an attractive looking dog, but he was very friendly and I really liked him. I have chosen Dominic to be my newly sponsored dog.

My other sponsored dog, Matilda, also lives at the Centre. I asked Gill which compound she lived in and I was told A2. I made way into A2 compound and looked long and hard for Matilda. She is a small, lively red coloured dog. (I had brought lots of treats for the dogs and decided that Matilda would probably get a few extra mouthfuls.) As everyone who has been to the shelter knows, there are a lot of red dogs. I targeted one little dog who I was SURE was Matilda. This dog was the recipient of many dog treats and love and affection. Gill came into the compound to do some microchip checking and she said to me ‘That’s not Matilda!’ Gulp! Really? No, Matilda was over the other side of the compound! All that time I had been lavishing affection and dog treats on someone else. Never mind. Next time, Matilda will get lots of treats and love...if she is not adopted in the meantime. I hope she is adopted by someone. She is a really friendly dog.

I thoroughly enjoyed my time with SDF and all the dogs and cats. I can recommend it to anybody who would like to visit Phuket and help make a difference in the animals’ lives.

Thank you to everyone out there who has donated money for the new shelter and for sponsoring the dogs and cats. If only there were more people out there like you. I only wish you could all see what a difference it has made to the animals’ lives.