Success! What a little TLC can do for a homeless dog

We deal with a lot of homeless animals here. It is the only type of animal we deal with, actually. The state that a lot of these animals are found in is heartbreaking and since the lack of compassion that they are shown throughout their (often short) lives compels them to be distrusting of humans, it isn't always so easy to capture and help them.

Nicknamed "nong Nau" by one of the staff, this poor little creature was in terrible shape as far as overall health was concerned. She was emaciated from lack of food and was covered from head to tow in mange, ticks, and other parasites. She tried to snap at us with the little bit of strength that she had remaining when we were removing her from her place outside of a shop to bring her to our headquarters for some medicine nad recovery.

Our methods might not seem the most professional but the alternative was to simply leave her there to have her starve to death as she was slowly eaten alive by the infestations all over her body, many of which she couldn't reach behind her head and neck. As you can see she had chewed away her own flesh in an attempt to relieve the intense itchiness that was constantly attacking her body.

"Nau" stayed with us for about a month receiving topical care as well as injections for the various and quite severe skin problems that she had. During her time with us she developed some level of trust towards us but her conversion wasn't complete and needed to be muzzled any time we handled her.

By the time we reintroduced her back to her "home", and we are sad we couldn't do more, she had regrown most of her coat and had put on a few kg or healthy weight. This was about a month ago when we put her back where we found her. We went back a few days ago to check on her and make sure she was getting enough to eat and were just delighted at what we found.

She hardly even looks like the same dog. I wish I could report that she ran up to us and greeted us with kisses and was extremely happy to see us but it appears as though a month of being treated well has not erased the years of poor treatment that she has received at the hands of humans throughout her life. We were able to lure her in with some food for the sake of taking a few snapshots, but for the most part she was compelled to keep her distance. It's fine, we don't pressure her into being overly domesticated because there is very little chance of "forever homes" right now.

It's these sort of small victories that keep us going though. Nau was near death when we found her and at the moment she is one of the healthiest-looking homeless dogs in the entire area. It appears as though looking cute helps her to acquire food handouts from the locals as well. The sad reality of the street dogs is that the sicker they are, the less likely they are to receive help from locals even though they certainly need it even more.

Our total cost on rehabilitating Nau was around $40 total over the course of a month.

Having compassion isn't even very expensive.

If you would like to see how you can help out, or simply spread the word, please visit our website at

http://krabianimalwelfare.org

_{Krabi Animal Welfare is a charity run entirely by volunteers and are a registered non-profit organization in Thailand and the U.K.. We aim to relieve the pain and suffering of dogs and cats within Krabi Province.}

เป็นผู้สนับสนุนรายเดือนหรือบริจาคครั้งเดียวได้ที่:

http://krabianimalwelfare.org