I thought it would be nice to touch on some of the domestic animals experiences that I had while in Thailand.

Let me preface by saying that, as a predominantly Buddhist country, Thailand’s view of animal care is much different from ours, as a whole.

As expected, Thai people have a strong respect for animals. Most of the animals that we saw were in fairly good condition for outside animals, and we’d noted many times how impressed we were by the lack of hit-by-car animals that we saw, particularly the dogs. Somehow, over many generations, they’d seemed to have learned to look both ways before crossing. I saw several dogs guarding the entrances of their properties by sitting literally two feet from the highway, but not once did I ever see a dead dog. Could be evidence of animal learning, or it could be evidence of the deep remorse that Thai people feel when they accidentally kill an animal. It was truly surreal.

Because WFFT is located on Buddhist temple grounds, it isn’t exactly legal for animals to be euthanized, even during their worst suffering. This surely poses complications for the WFFT veterinary team. I spoke briefly with the WFFT’s founder, a well-educated former fashion designer from Holland, on this subject. I am not at liberty to indulge in specifics, so I won’t. However, I’ll assure you that our beliefs are in-line with one another.

The sanctuary is home to about 20-30 residential cats and dogs, but many of the neighboring farmers’ dogs tend to wander over to steal the fruits from the unattended elephant feeding buckets and vie for territorial rights. All of these animals are free-roaming outside animals. While sterilization isn’t typically a popular option in Thailand, specifically amongst farmers that consider their dogs to be livestock and protection for their farms, the sanctuary offers extremely affordable medical care and sterilization options for the village. Spaying is the more popular option and the sanctuary’s veterinary team offers ovariohysterectomy surgery for about 200 baht (approximately $6 USD).

Though neuters are considered the easier sterilization surgery, the founder of WFFT believes that spaying does more good than neutering because no puppies can come from spayed females, regardless of the number of neutered males around.

Because there were so many dogs on the sanctuary – many of which had Thai names – we took to calling all of the dogs “Kevin,” which was the American name given to our favorite dog by the sanctuary staff. To further distinguish these dogs from one another, we prefaced their name with their notable personality or physical attributes. Among the more memorable were Diabetic Kevin (RIP), Cookie Kevin, Brindle Kevin, Ancient Kevin, Angry Kevin, Rusty Kevin, and Lazy Kevin. Original Kevin was lovingly referred to as OG Kevin. This was the source of much amusement for our group, and quickly became our inside joke. Some of the long-term sanctuary volunteers were not so amused, but for the most part, the joke was passed to others with good humor.

The cats on the sanctuary are all extremely laid back. They were also excessively fit, unlike our typical housecats in America, and I attribute this to a mixture of having to hunting for food, more opportunity for regular exercise, and lack of neutering.

The cats were allowed in our rooms, so Gina and I insisted on stealing the cats and bringing them to our room at night. We assumed that they’d be great pest control, but mostly they just ended up being great companions. Some of them pretty much refused to leave after a taste of inside life!

I also noticed that many of the cats (and dogs) had shortened tails. It is still up in the air whether this is a genetic mutation or the result of docking. I saw no other evidence of docking, and the midpoint of the tail would certainly be an odd place to dock. I also don’t believe that the sanctuary would participate in docking, but many of the cats there were either from the neighboring farms or were rescued from the village.

As a veterinary technician in this country, I regularly encourage my clients to keep their pets inside where it’s safest; however, I feel that my trip to Thailand gave me a different perspective on keeping pets outside. I’m not sure that I can quite comprehend the logistics of this, especially since it seems that it would possibly take many generation to hone the instincts that it takes to be outside-smart. It’s certainly something worth noting, though!

Photo above: Seriously, this is how planes look to me…

You know, the interesting thing about travelling to another country is that you are forcing yourself to go head-first into something completely unknown to you. You don’t know the language, the city, or the customs or standards of culture beyond what you may have learned on the internet in the months prior to you trip (seriously – how did people even do this sans Internet?!). Scary enough, right? Now, couple this with *severely* debilitating airplane anxiety (we’re talking “panic attack and crying as the plane takes off.. Don’t even ASK about turbulence” anxiety), and you’ve got a recipe for one of two things – complete and total disaster followed by mental breakdown or a life-changing experience unparalleled by anything else you’ve ever done in your entire life and a new perspective on your own strength. Thankfully, my first trip out of the country led me to the latter of these two outcomes. I decided to tackle my fear head-on, so I spent a few days before my trip learning about the mechanical workings of airplanes, what exactly turbulence was and how it can’t make a plane plummet out of the sky, and how pilots are trained to deal with even the rarest emergency situations like having both engines die at the same time. Though it seems extreme, I wanted to be mentally prepared to respond with pure logic anytime my brain decided to freak out and tell me the plane was going down at any minute. I felt worlds better already once I learned that pilots pretty much have it covered and the plane essentially becomes a glider if all engines fail.

On the day of my trip, I  prepared myself mentally and physically to board my first plane in Tampa by getting to the airport extremely early (5 hours) to avoid hiccups with security and to make sure I was well fed and settled before what might be the most terrifying experience ever. I found out shortly after that my plane was delayed six hours, so I had an entire 10 hours, then, to sit and wait for my original plane’s replacement, as well as figure out how to get new flights to replace the ones that I would be missing due to my original flight’s layover. The experience was maddening, for sure, and I had a couple of close calls that would have caused me to have to cancel my trip completely. By this point, I didn’t even have time to worry about the plane ride. Thankfully, my new friend Gina was there to lend me a hand and help me get through some of these difficult processes and keep pushing forward. It was like a boot camp for resolution and flexibility.

The good news is that the planes rides (three total) only made up about half of the time I spent getting to Bangkok and, by the time I actually got on the planes, I was so exhausted from the rigamarole of the flight changes and from sleeping on concrete airport floors for hours on end that the small, uncomfortable economy-class seats of the plane were much welcomed! I also got to watch some great movies, too! I would be lying to you if I said that I actually slept on the plane. It was more of a shutdown from stress – my body just had to reboot for the next bout of adrenaline.

I finally arrived to Bangkok after 48 hours (20 of these spent flying in an actual airplane and 6 of these spent wandering around NYC with Gina in search of a place to sleep for the evening) and I realized that I had accomplished one of the most emotionally difficult things I’d ever accomplished in my entire life. And the good news was that the trip had only just begun.