Asia & Australia : Cats and Dogs and Working

I am sure I have mentioned that there are over 600 cats and dogs living at the nature park. Some roam freely (and are "assigned" to rooms, like Titi here who napped daily with us) and some are kenneled. The dogs are quite rambunctious and need socializing, so volunteers are encouraged to walk them and play with them often. I never ventured into the Cat Kingdom, just walked by, so not sure why some of them lived caged - but most of the cats are sooo friendly, they meowed as you walked by and rolled over to be petted. Not one seemed skittish or ran away from people - wish my cat acted like that...lol The cats had platforms built and about 6 cats to an area. They slept where they pleased, but beds and baskets were always available.. All the animals are treated for fleas and most seemed to be quite healthy. I was constantly thinking of my friend, Pascalle, and how much she would love it here, as would any cat lover. Maybe we should build some platforms at my place, and make a cat kingdom...lol

cat platforms

happy kitty in a basket

B has a climber

never found this in my locker at school

G and friend

the cat "designated" to our area

We had to clean out dog pools one day, scrubbing them to remove algae and refilling. Boy, could they use some pressure washers here... It was a grueling task with brooms in the sun... but the dogs were happy, so all was good...

Ian checks out the drain

Gill, Wat and others scrub - I take photos...lol

happy dogs

the chief dog inspector supervises our work

More dogs about camp...btw, all these animals are rescued and some are even available for adoption. It costs about $700 to bring a dog home from camp, but one of our volunteers fell in love and will fly one home to Canada with her in June...

Mahout and his dog - these dogs were not unfriendly, but working animals so we were told not to touch

this must be the "head" dog...lol I had to use a different bathroom

"let's swim in the river, then play chase on the dirt mound" "sounds like fun!"

living together in harmony

I know that I covered some of the work that we had to do, but want to add some more photos. Hope I am not duplicating... Labor was intensive, but is short spans - about 2 hours long. Elephants stalls ALWAYS have to be mucked and they always need food so volunteers is a great way to go. They get the work done, we get to help with the animals and everybody is happy... We were in Group A and most days stayed with them - when the jobs were too much for us old folks, we usually went to food prep. One day we peeled bananas for hours and filled up one bucket - then "mama" came along and almost filled her bucket in 15 minutes...agh! and I was feeling so successful...lol