Paulin protects his family from Sweetie protecting hers!

Hello all,

I hope that what I bring you today will turn out to be a little sunshine story but as yet this remains unknown. In any case what ever happens there are good parts to this story.

Say hi to Sweetie. She's a young bitch who recently had a litter in the garage of a man called Paulin. Although Sweetie is a stray dog, Paulin didn't mind her taking care of her pups in his garage, so he let her be and even brought out a little food for her every day so she could stay strong and fit. Everything was fine until the pups started moving around. Sweetie became very protective of her little ones and started biting Paulin whenever he approached her. With children in the house Paulin didn't dare keep the little family in his garage so he called International Animal Rescue and asked us to come and remove them.

Sweetie and her pups were brought to the centre and were deemed to be in good health. As the pups are only a few weeks old they cannot be put up for adoption straight away but have to stay with their mother until they're a bit older. Sweetie has already been sterilised and as soon as her pups are ready to be adopted she will be released again. I'm sure Sweetie is happy not to have to endure any more births and Paulin is probably equally happy not to have to worry about finding her in his garage with a new litter!

Bye for now,
Olive x

Clara the cow is treated after terrible cruelty

Hello hello,

It has happened again! I can't believe how some people simply have no heart and no understanding for the pain they cause. Every time I see a case like this my tummy turns and I pray I'll never have to see it again. Alas, my last prayers have not been heard and I have a feeling I'll have to endure such an experience again in the future.

The office at Animal Tracks received a call recently from a local resident in Candolim regarding a cow that had been in a road accident and had become badly injured. I've named her Clara. There were already drivers in the area and although they did not have the cattle equipment in the ambulance they went to assess the situation. They found Clara in a bad state and wondered straight away about her injuries. They didn't look like road accident wounds. They immediately called for assistance from the centre and luckily the cow was friendly so the staff had no trouble loading her into the ambulance.

When Clara arrived at Animal Tracks the vets immediately went to examine her and this is when the horrible truth became known: she had not been in a road accident but had had acid thrown all over her body! Do you remember from one of my previous stories how I told you that some people use this despicable means of torture to get cattle off their property? We have seen several cases where cattle have been brought in to us in such a state that they had no chance to survive.

We all hope that this case will have a happy ending. Clara's wounds, although bad, have a good chance of healing providing the vets can keep any infection at bay. She's receiving heavy antibiotics and the wounds are cleaned and dressed regularly. As always I make sure to pop round the cattle pen daily to give the patients a little pep talk and although I’m not convinced they all understand me I’m sure it help anyway.

Love from me,

Olive x

Pepsi is so sweet he's bound to be to someone's taste!

Dear friends,

We have entered the second half of the monsoon now and this means that there is light at the end of the tunnel. We're a bit funny over here you see. Just before the beginning of the monsoon we are all so fed up with the heat that we can't wait for the rain to come but at the end of the rainy season we are all dying for some lovely dry days with plenty of sunshine. I have a feeling this attitude is shared by most species.

We have encountered yet another classic case of abandonment. We see this way too often and it breaks my heart every time. This time it was this lovely dog - we've named him Pepsi - that was left outside our gates because obviously whoever owned him didn't want him anymore. At first our little centre dog gang gave him a rather chilly welcome. We don't like uninvited intruders so we tried to chase him away. Then we discovered that he was actually a helpless soul who had been dumped through no will of his own. A member of staff discovered him and realised that this was a situation where the poor fella needed help. He was not so easy to catch though. It took several attempts and methods of persuasion before he agreed to be caught.

Pepsi was in good health and spirits and he is now in our kennels waiting for a new home. Meanwhile our volunteers take time to exercise him and play with him. Needless to say he'll have to put up with the minor ordeal of being sterilised and vaccinated before he can leave us but I've made sure to tell him that it's not so bad.

Promise me you'll all keep your fingers crossed that we find a family for Pepsi. I hope to be able to bring you the good news soon that he has gone to a lovely new home where he never has to live with the fear of being abandoned again.

Love from me,

Olive x