New Year's Day 2008

Woke up on New Year’s Day addle-brained and furry-tongued. That must have been SOME pardy we had last night. Felt better after a breakfast of oatmeal and fruit, and so I left for the SPCA by 1130 hours.

Volunteers from the Sai Baba Society of Bangsar were repainting some of the walls at the SPCA today, as they do each New Year’s Day, regardless of whether the walls needed repainting or not. I wonder why is it that some people undertake a task in the name of volunteering without first checking if such a service is needed. There were at least 30 of them. 10 could have done the painting of only areas where repainting is needed, and the rest could have helped clean the shelter, care for sick and orphaned animals, and walk and bath dogs, but Nooooo, they ALL simply HAD to repaint our walls a bright turquoise. So now we have some turquoise dogs running around.

I walked the dogs from the Pound, bathed them and rinsed them with tickcide. A white mongrel, a recent arrival, had a huge wound all around her neck. Her previous owners, being cruel, negligent, good-for-nothing so-and-sos, had put a choke chain around her neck when she was little. She had grown, and the choke chain obviously hadn’t, and it had thus cut into her flesh, leaving a raw wound like a red bandanna around the poor dog’s neck. I got our Rescue Van driver Samy to cut the old choke chain off using a steel cutter. I held the trembling dog and raised the chain for visibility and - Snap! – Off came the chain links and the happy dog was overcome with joy, whimpering and licking our faces. I gave her a bath and anointed her wounds with Ilium Dermapred, so now it looks like she is wearing a green bandanna instead.

It was a slow day for the SPCA, business-wise. Only two kittens and one turquoise dog were adopted all day. After walking and bathing the dogs and returning them to their kennels, I cleaned the Cattery and changed all the papers in the cats’ baskets before disinfecting and washing the floor. Then I cleaned the Maternity Kennels, the Puppy Area, the front area and the office, while Mazni cleaned the Cooking and Feeding Area and Sugen did the kennels. Mazni offered to rinse the soapy floor for me so that I would have time to shower. We finished work around 1900 hours.

I went back to the Officer’s Mess, did the laundry, washed my soggy, almost-falling-apart trainers, cleaned the house, fed the cats, took out the trash and sorted out some books and magazines for reuse and resale. You know it’s a good start to the New Year when you manage to cut the choke chain off a wounded dog without taking your own finger off in the process.

Good work, Commando!