My Mangey New Child

[Originally posted to Tumblr in "Solving Cubes" on Feb 12, 2013]

So I think I’m becoming a mother.

This is Fletcher. He’s feral, and he sticks around a particular corner down the street from my apartment in Thailand.

This is Meryl. She’s also feral (feral Meryl!) but lives amongst some other dogs at Hua Hin Vinyard. She’s particularly good at begging for food outside the (overpriced) restaurant.

Problem is, the tourists and retirees visiting the place, if they’re willing to share food at all, are typically only inclined to share ice-cream-soaked waffle cones. Hardly the stuff of a healthy canine diet. I saw Meryl win two.

So I spent about $2.00 on a pork barbecue shish-kabob and dismembered it in a relatively private place. After waiting for it to cool for a minute or two, she swallowed the three pork chunks whole and even snapped up a green pepper slice. The Thai visitors sitting nearby thought it was funny. They took pictures.

On the way home, I started thinking about all the dogs I see walking around Hua Hin and Cha-Am, likely with nothing to eat besides the rice and noodles thrown to them and the tainted water the locals won’t even drink. Maybe carrying around little baggies of dog food would be a fun little project – hungry dogs could get a healthy meal out of it.

Just kinda how it is here

- fao.org

So I bought dog food and some baggies (baggies are not packaged the way they are in America – the search was strenuous), and the first dog I fed was Fletch, since he’s always in this alcove when I’m on my way to dinner. He wasn’t too sure about the food at first, but he ate about half of the small portion I gave him.

From up close, his ribs, hip bones, and atrophied thigh muscles are apparent. The pink hanging out from his mouth is not his tongue, but a swollen, bare patch of his lower lip that looks to be missing teeth. He has minor scars on his face and elsewhere, and he has bugs hanging out on him all the time. The most energy I’ve seen him expend is what it takes to jump off the table he sleeps on and shake the bugs off. He’s a pretty lethargic puppy.

But so sweet, and beautiful!

Meanwhile, for the past few weeks I’ve been looking all over the internet for rescued Thai animals to symbolically adopt, as my boyfriend and I thought it a nice idea for something we could split and gift each other for our Valentine’s Day apart.

But I can’t seem to get straight answers (or answers at all) to my questions from the organizations in which I’m interested. V-Day is in two days, and here I am falling in love with this guy.

Might this be my new adopted son? I’m certainly treating him that way, since the feeding project has come to be dedicated exclusively to him.

The problems are pretty obvious. One is that Fletch needs serious veterinary attention – he’s dehydrated, malnourished, slow and buggy, and he shows several signs of heart worms. If he does have worms and what I’m seeing are symptoms, then he’s pretty much beyond help, from what I’ve read.

To reiterate that nematodes are bitches.

- wormsandgermsblog.com

The biggest issue is that any care I give him while I’m here won’t be available when I head home. That is, unless I somehow find a better place for him to be.

Which is likely very doable, now that I think about it.

Maybe the staff or faculty on campus would be interested in taking him in. I’ve visited and been in touch with Wildlife Friends Foundation of Thailand, who have healthy, happy dogs all over their wildlife sanctuary, with a veterinarian to boot. A little research would likely turn up other promising options, too.

I’ve fed Fletch for the past three nights. He’s eating very little still, but he’s drinking well, and he’s starting to seem more excited by the presence of food. If my friends and I can get our hands on a bucket and a leash, and if he behaves well, we hope to give him a bath (and maybe some flea and tick treatment) on Thursday. As fuh-up as this little guy is, I feel optimistic about him.

I mean, he wagged his tail at me twice today.c