Checking in with the jungle dwellers at the Tiger Cave Temple
There are a lot of temples in Thailand and all of them seem to be a haven for stray and unwanted dogs. The Tiger Cave Temple is the largest temple complex in Krabi province as well as one of the largest temples in the entire country. There are over 100 dogs that call this place home and most of them are very docile and because of the large amount of tourists that visit here every day, they are very used to being around people. So if you ever find yourself at this temple there is a good chance that you will be approached by some animal wagging it's tail in the hopes that you are going to let it have some of your potato chips or something like that.
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The main attraction of the temple grounds is the Buddha's footprint located at the top of a very steep mountain, but the surrounding jungle areas are mostly untouched by modern times and there are a wide variety of species that live here. The dogs tend to live near the entrance of the complex, but over time some of them have decided to go to some of the more remote portions of the complex because I guess they are introverted.
The monks that go over to the less-visited portions of the complex will check in on these introverts from time to time and to give them some food but because our time is limited, we don't get a chance to go over to the other side of the temple very often to make sure they are ok. One of the monks whose duty it is to do something over there (I don't know what he does, probably maintain some religious site) recently informed us that one of the dogs that enjoys staying on that side was scratching itself a lot more than usual and he noticed that there was a lot of fleas and ticks living on him.
We jumped into action to find this doggo and help out.
They aren't very difficult to find especially since the monk informed us that he gets the dogs attention by making the sound of a bag crumpling, kind of like you are opening a bag of chips or something like that, and then the two dogs that stay over there come running. It made me laugh a bit when that is exactly what happened when I trekked over there one afternoon. They were not at all territorial and came right up to me.
Still though, and I want to remind everyone out there of this, since I do not know these dogs personally it is still very important to be very careful of how you handle a dog you are not familiar with. Dogs are mostly loving creatures, but they are capable of extreme violence if they get spooked.
I was careful, and soon both of these two were nuzzling me with their snouts and I could see that they are very used to being pet. I gave them some food and they munched it down straight away. What they didn't know was that there was a secret ingredient in their succulent meal.
I ground up some meat slop and put some Bravecto in there with the lunch. I talk about Bravecto so often that is probably seems like we are sponsored by them but alas, we are not. We do get a deal from the distributor though and for that we are grateful. This tablet tastes like meat so most dogs will simply eat it on its own. It contains a certain percentage of a medical product called fluralaner, which is an anti-parasite that is effective for all animals for up to 8 weeks. It truly is magical. Without harming the dog in any way, it makes their blood something that insects no longer want and it will kill fleas, ticks, mange, and well, anything else that is a blood parasite in dogs.
I don't know exactly how it works, I just know that it does work and we have been using it for years without any ill side-effects.
I stuck around and got to know these two doggy friends for a bit and pet them but after the food was gone they kind of lost interest in me and disappeared back into the jungle.
I will wait a little while but in a month or so I will go back and check on these two and make sure that the skin problems they were developing has disappeared. The monk has also agreed to let me know how things go and this is just wonderfully helpful for us since it does take about 30 minutes to get back to this place where they are and there is no road to get there.
It was kind of a nice little walk as well because I was surrounded by mountains on 3 sides so it stayed quite cool. Another day, another couple of dogs helped!
if you would like to see how you can help out or simply spread the word, please visit our website at
http://krabianimalwelfare.org
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