Meet Monster. He was certainly our hilarity for the day yesterday. He liked us our first day, but yesterday he was glued from the moment we walked through the gates. He bounded after us as we did our rounds in the cat wards and tried to poke open the wooden doors when we were inside, setting the cats on a round of hissing. Whenever we went to get anything from our bags, which were in a room where a cat lived alone, he followed after us, but decided that the cat could use attacking, so that was always a problem - sometimes he would follow us out when we left, but other times, a bit more needed to be done for him to leave the poor cat alone and he got sent to a kennel to keep him out of trouble for a bit (he certainly wasn't happy with that!). As we walked around the shelter grounds, he was very often running ahead of us, looking back to make sure we were following. When we passed other dogs, he sometimes growled at them, needing to be certain that they would leave us alone. There were certain dogs who were allowed to join his herd and come along with us, but he definitely made sure that the path ahead was clear and intervened when he thought there was a problem. When we went to work with the calves, we closed the gates, but he found another way around and soon happily bounded up to us. I was afraid at one point he was going to get kicked as he stood right behind an unhappy cow whose feet were being manipulated, but he did just fine. One of the most entertaining things to watch was his game with Chitti the monkey. Chitti was probably the one animal who outsmarted our little Monster. Monster ran after her barking and trying to catch her as she jumped from tree to tree, dangling her tail, getting close to him but not quite close enough to be caught. He's a little guy and as much as he tried, could only stand up so tall. He thought that he could win this game like all his others, but Chitti was having the time of her life taunting him and Monster had no such luck.
At the end of the day, we gathered our things and walked out, shutting the gate behind us. Most of the dogs run free and there are a lot of ways out besides the gate, so the moment that I opened the car door, Monster was beside me and jumped right on in, surprising the driver a great deal, but it was no great surprise to us that our little shadow had found a way to try to come home with us. I picked him up and put him outside of the car, but the driver's door was open so half a second later, he was back in the back seat. We booted him back out and tried to drive away, but he ran with the car, eventually running a ways ahead of us so that he could keep up. We had to get out and walk with him back to the shelter and get someone to keep hold of him so that he didn't follow us all the way home. This morning, Monster came bounding up to us the moment that we walked through the gates. We were really happy to see him as well - it was ridiculous how bonded we had become to this dog in just a day. He followed us through the beginning of our morning routine, torturing the cat mildly but coming with us when we left the room. A sweet little black and white dog wanted to join our shadowing crew and she was permitted to, but he firmly asserted that he was in charge. He stood waiting for us outside of the first cat ward, but after that he disappeared. As the day went on, we still didn't see him and had no idea where he had gone. Eventually found out that he had only been staying at the shelter temporarily - he had been brought in for the animal birth control (ABC) program. Sometimes animals are kept at the shelter after being neutered and we had assumed that was the case for him, as they are usually returned to the streets after a couple of days. It turns out that Monster was from a steel plant that was a ways away and they simply just hadn't been able to return him there until today. He's a really smart little guy and will do perfectly well on the streets, but we are missing him terribly and wish that we had at least been able to say goodbye!
My other little friend from yesterday was an adorable three-month-old calf whose mother had died on site so she's been raised by the shelter staff. We fed her milk from a syringe, which needed to be refilled repeatedly, but she never wanted to let go of the syringe. Once her belly was full, she still wanted to eat and decided that our hands were very good for suckling. It's a very strange feeling to have half of your hand in a calf's mouth.
And my favorite creature who I got to know today was Chitti the monkey. She was rescued from being a show monkey on the streets, where she was found wearing a harness far too tight that it had grown into her and gotten infected. She now has free reign on the shelter, though mostly hangs out in the area with the other monkeys. She had a lot of fun taunting a male rhesus through the bars of her cage, they had quite the wrestling match going, though she's less than half his size. Once I found out that she was social with people, I went over to her and she climbed onto my head. Her favorite thing to do was squeeze my nose with her hands, but like all monkeys, hair and hair bands are wonderfully fun to play with. I always have been one for monkeys, both watching their many expressions and behavior and letting them climb on me.
We spend a lot of time in the cat wards, observing them for any medical problems, treating them, and socializing them. There are four different cat rooms, each filled with a ton of cats, probably 30some in the bigger rooms and 20some in the smaller rooms. They actually have really awesome places to hang out, tons of stairs to climb and beds and boxes on multiple levels, beams to walk across, plenty of places to hide. The cats in the biggest room are the most social and are always very happy to see us, even the ones with medical issues who we are constantly tormenting. This is the only room with cat bite wounds because there's one tough guy who beats up on everyone else - we are working on convincing the staff to get him a private room somewhere so that he stops wreaking havoc on everyone else. It's definitely fun to sit with what seems like swarms of cats, especially as they warm up to us. Though some of them are absolutely terrified and that may never change..
We luckily bought separate shoes for our shelter work that we leave there so we don't track cow poop all over the place.We come home each day stinking of cows, it's a really hard smell to wash away. At least they are adorable, I love all the tiny calves especially. I'm sure we get some strange looks, but we get those anyway for wearing scrubs and being almost the only females staying at the hotel. People certainly know who we are here.
The weather continues to be boiling hot with the added humidity making it extra challenging. Yesterday the monsoons threatened but unfortunately did not come. It did give us some much needed relief, though, with wonderful winds to cool us down, nearly blowing over my bowl full of (liquid) vitamin for the cows. There were thunder and lightning in the distance and we were hoping for a nice big storm, but unfortunately it blew the other way. Today it did start raining while we were at the vegetable market, but only a tiny bit. Hoping for a nice big storm sometime soon to cool things down plus to experience the craziness of rain in India (but avoiding any flooding of course).
My other little friend from yesterday was an adorable three-month-old calf whose mother had died on site so she's been raised by the shelter staff. We fed her milk from a syringe, which needed to be refilled repeatedly, but she never wanted to let go of the syringe. Once her belly was full, she still wanted to eat and decided that our hands were very good for suckling. It's a very strange feeling to have half of your hand in a calf's mouth.
And my favorite creature who I got to know today was Chitti the monkey. She was rescued from being a show monkey on the streets, where she was found wearing a harness far too tight that it had grown into her and gotten infected. She now has free reign on the shelter, though mostly hangs out in the area with the other monkeys. She had a lot of fun taunting a male rhesus through the bars of her cage, they had quite the wrestling match going, though she's less than half his size. Once I found out that she was social with people, I went over to her and she climbed onto my head. Her favorite thing to do was squeeze my nose with her hands, but like all monkeys, hair and hair bands are wonderfully fun to play with. I always have been one for monkeys, both watching their many expressions and behavior and letting them climb on me.
We spend a lot of time in the cat wards, observing them for any medical problems, treating them, and socializing them. There are four different cat rooms, each filled with a ton of cats, probably 30some in the bigger rooms and 20some in the smaller rooms. They actually have really awesome places to hang out, tons of stairs to climb and beds and boxes on multiple levels, beams to walk across, plenty of places to hide. The cats in the biggest room are the most social and are always very happy to see us, even the ones with medical issues who we are constantly tormenting. This is the only room with cat bite wounds because there's one tough guy who beats up on everyone else - we are working on convincing the staff to get him a private room somewhere so that he stops wreaking havoc on everyone else. It's definitely fun to sit with what seems like swarms of cats, especially as they warm up to us. Though some of them are absolutely terrified and that may never change..
We luckily bought separate shoes for our shelter work that we leave there so we don't track cow poop all over the place.We come home each day stinking of cows, it's a really hard smell to wash away. At least they are adorable, I love all the tiny calves especially. I'm sure we get some strange looks, but we get those anyway for wearing scrubs and being almost the only females staying at the hotel. People certainly know who we are here.
The weather continues to be boiling hot with the added humidity making it extra challenging. Yesterday the monsoons threatened but unfortunately did not come. It did give us some much needed relief, though, with wonderful winds to cool us down, nearly blowing over my bowl full of (liquid) vitamin for the cows. There were thunder and lightning in the distance and we were hoping for a nice big storm, but unfortunately it blew the other way. Today it did start raining while we were at the vegetable market, but only a tiny bit. Hoping for a nice big storm sometime soon to cool things down plus to experience the craziness of rain in India (but avoiding any flooding of course).
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