Centre Parcs was a great weekend away with Cords, Noah, Craig, Jodie and Henry. It’s a resort that offers the chance for babies/toddlers to be completely unleashed amidst hundreds of other babies and toddlers, which means Mums (Cords and Jodie) can relax and Dads (me and Craig) have license to release the inner child. I had a brilliant time in the soft play centre for the under fives. Loved it – except crawling through the tunnel was a bit of a tight fit. But it was totally accepted I had to supervise Noah – loads of Dads were in there – men were virtually grabbing random children so they could have a go in it. Craig and Henry were in the thick of it too and Noah loved rampaging through the obstacles, although he was much quicker than me in getting round the course so I didn’t see him much. Outside, everyone races around on bikes (car free zone) with babies/kids strapped on the back, there are huge swimming pools, water slides, swings, slides and climbing frames at every turn and it was in short, a winner trip....Continue reading
Located on the outskirts of Chiang Mai, the hotel is surrounded by lush rice fields and deep green mountains. It’s a great place, the scenery is outstanding although there is a lot of rain and it’s incredibly humid. Today was our first day at the shelter and Karin, Emma and Ally are doing a fantastic job. The biggest thing that struck me straightaway was the happy vibe of the 130 dogs at the shelter and that Karin has gone to the huge effort of trying to ensure each pen has enough ‘activities’ to occupy the dogs. I think dogs like height and one aspect of the big pens is that they all have raised platforms which the dogs can climb up or go under according to preference. Too many shelters or pens are all on one level and a split level is definitely the way forward....Continue reading
The Thai people we have met so far have been brilliant people. Big smiles, very calm and although there is a lot of work for organizations such as Care for Dogs to do with regards animal welfare, I’m really enjoying this trip so far. ...Continue reading
We’ve started filming in Thailand at the Care for Dogs shelter in Chiang Mai. It’s a sweet little place that is only really let down by the stench of dog faeces everywhere – although I’m sure this is partly to do with the humid Thai weather....Continue reading
Another epic, knee-tucking economy long-haul flight for us. Well, by ‘us’, I mean Nathan and myself. Scottie, the cameraman, made his way to Thailand straight from his home, New Zealand. Luke, or should I say the ‘talent’ flew Club class. There is no ‘I’ in team, but there is definitely a M and an E!...Continue reading
Instead of me checking out – the hotel have taken steps to remove the nudist from room 302. I found out this morning that we have all been upgraded free of charge. Our rooms are now well out of view from the main dining area and we’re all convinced this has something to do with my nocturnal antics in the window....Continue reading
Luke is attempting (and I use the word attempting as the imperative word here) to take the series on a new tangent and introduce a hint of humour into the show. This is in the hope that it will make him a real “character” and extend his career in TV – I presume he wants to get an invite onto Have I Got News For You. The only problem is that his comic timing is a little bit amiss; yesterday whilst taking a severely injured dog to be x-rayed he decided it was the right time to make a “funny” comment, claiming that it was “good that somebody else was doing the work for him”. Absolutely “hilarious” I assure you…...Continue reading
A big op day today which was great. Had to remove an eye from a very sweet little dog that was having some problems, tumour removal, a few medical cases, some warts, and a pts on a dog with a horrendous anal fistula. True to form the Care for Dogs team have been trying to treat and help this dog but it simply couldn’t be surgically excised and repaired and I had to make the decision. I worked with Soraya a lot today – she is the Thai member of the committee and was very brave helping me remove Billy’s eye. It is a gruesome operation and Billy didn’t have the best ketamine recovery. For the uninitiated it doesn’t get much more hardcore than eye surgery and she was a real help....Continue reading
What a hard day it has been for all of us, not least Luke; we spent the morning chasing our tails in a vain attempt to get some sick animals from the local farmers that Luke could look at. I can’t help but feel that it was a bit of a waste of time; the best we could muster was a dog (yup another one) whose tooth was rotten and his penis was covered with a TVT (transmittable venereal tumour). We were all pretty tired by the time afternoon came around and with a huge operation awaiting us it was pretty important that we regained focus. And we did....Continue reading
Slow start at the hill tribe but incredible scenery. Nestled at the top of amountain overlooking Chaing Mai, we passed through some low lying clouds on the drive up. The people living there speak a slightly different dialogue than those in the rest of the region and were fairly non plussed as to why I was pitching up to treat their animals. I struggled to get a vein on a collapsed pig that we found half dead in a ditch and treated a few dogs but the most interesting case of the day was meeting a Buddhist monk who has lived at the top of the mountain for the last three years and looks after injured chickens that he rescues after chicken fights in the villages.
I removed an imbedded claw from the chest of one of the chickens – it was completely walled off inside it and I’ve never seen anything quite like it. I was absolutely amazed at what I removed and at first I didn’t want to cut into the swelling because I was convinced it must be a bit of bone from an old break. The monk knew otherwise and encouraged me to do so – he had seen it before. Realising he had probably treated many chickens in this condition, I trusted him and incised down to the mass. The reason he couldn’t remove that particular claw was when they were deep in the muscle he had no way of closing wounds afterwards and lacked the forceps to probe around. I donated a pair of crocodile forceps to his cause and a few meds suitable for chickens. As a devout Buddhist he is forbidden from showing emotion but I think he was pleased.
It has to be one of the most remarkable cases I have come across and it’s fantastic to meet people like the monk who really do care and have a personal quest to do what they can in hard situations.
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