Hello All!

That was February. Gail was about, so the month was filled with many more smiles, and she gathered new supporters as she chatted and charmed her way amongst tourists on the beach.
 
This time she saved a life too.
Little Sophie could hardly move, Gail began to feed her twice a day and within three weeks she had been fully vaccinated, dewormed, defleaed and sterilized. Gail and Sanal visited the beach house and gave her post op care.
Sophie has been returned to her territory on the beach.

For the last 6 months or more homing dogs has grown increasingly difficult. We have always been fussy about adopters not tying up or caging dogs. This is still the 'norm' here but is changing. So many dogs adopted during the covid lockdowns are being dumped, Cherai beach is a favorite dumping ground, people tell themselves the dogs will be fine, the tourists rubbish will feed them.  In reality, they are mostly stoned or when lucky just threatened. Dogs live in territories that they guard fiercely against each other, their area of food supply. So dumped dogs are invaders, and few survive.

Sophie's area has a fishing community, who are not unkind to the strays. Dusty & other community dogs are quite healthy. We hope to sterilize and vaccinate the entire pack within that area. Today we are sterilizing Dusty she has had to go privately which adds ₹2000 for the travel but we can't book government vets we have to rely on them fitting is in and always subject to last-minute cancellations.


We are lucky to have a volunteer staying at the beach house for a week who'll be able to look after her post-op so we need to get it done NOW. So Worth it!  That's a minimum of 14 less pups a year, (2 litters). There will be more food and residents will be far more tolerant with Sophie and Dusty, we have the issue with dumping don't need breeding too!

So this month, Sophie, Dusty, Bubba & a community dog from Paravur, have been sterilized. They have all also been fully vaccinated as has a male dog in Sophie's and Dusty's area and Goldie.

For the last 2 months we have had Faith at the beach house.
Faith was dumped with a septic eye and a vaginal tumor. Her eye had to be removed and poor Faith had complications needed restitching and the infection took over a month to clear completely.  We had her spayed and fully vaccinated and Faith had chemo.  We couldn't put the poor girl out on the beach as she wasn't a stray and wouldn't have survived in a pack.

We got Faith a place in a sanctuary. Goldie and Brownie went too.  Goldie was adopted 3 years ago and suffered from reoccurring hours of very aggressive mange. We have had her in treatment 4  times. For the last year, we have provided her with daily meals and the adults in the family were not interested.  She is now healthy and we hope will have every chance of happiness.


Brownie was with us in the unit for far too long. He was adopted by a guy who was to build a surrounding wall 6 months ago and never did. We could not have him tied up for the rest of his life.

The sanctuary was in Thiruvilvamala it cost almost ₹6000 to get them there and Sanal kindly gave up his day to go with them.
Without Sanal giving up his time and being so kind, Faith would not have been helped, Sophie could not have been sterilized…very little would have happened. He has been amazing.
This month we also helped two of our volunteers . One has a dog with a horrific skin disease, the medicine for which cost ₹10,000 and Surya who has and does look after so many had to take a dog for emergency stitches to a hospital in angamally at night. That was ₹1700.
We also sent Obama to his forever sanctuary in Trivandrum which cost ₹8000. We are so so grateful he got this space 2 acres to run around in I shall share photos when i get them.
Red is an urgent case. I WILL NOT put her on the street to sift through rubbish, be stoned and be attacked by packs of dogs. She has had more than her fair share of that. She urgently needs a home the boarding is expensive and she's been there too long. PLEASE spread the word. We will send her any distance to a forever loving home.

At the ranch we have the builder in to tackle the rat problem which has gone haywire recently. We lost  a pup last year this time to a disease spread through rat urine and I have Bubba here it's scary.

Bubba needs a home too! He's BIG now.
And we have Rakhi so 3 URGENTLY need a home!

We are ₹27000 behind this month largely due to the travel costs and the 10,000 extra for medicine. We normally overspend by under 10,000.
At the moment we have 3 dogs who just need vaccines urgently on the beach, 2 who need vaccines and sterilization and we would like to neuter the male dog in Sophie's and Dusty's area.

Thank you,
Peshna.

Hello,

Hard times but lets hope it gets people to cooperate and fully appreciate how all life is is interconnected on this planet and how we need to sustain and  and respect this!

We continue as before, The dogs on the beach need food more then ever now as there are no tourists and no discarded edible waste. The monsoon approaches and this home, that you our donors made possible needs work to enable the pups and dogs to weather the extreme heat of April/May and the downpours of the monsoon.
We have had vipers to deal with, but so far our night shelters (which have concrete under-laid fences and the daily drizzling of diesel along the border has kept the dogs safe.

There will be more pups in need, more vaccinations and more sterilzations.  However I have started a campaign that is URGENT, we will not be able to get the builders again and with Covid 19 funding has already disappeared. WE need to be able to look after the dogs we have at the shelter, so PLEASE whatever you can give it all makes such a difference.

https://milaap.org/fundraisers/help-cherai-tails

Thank you! Thank you so much for empowering us to do the work we do. I get the joy of watching pups grow, love and be happy, none of which would happen were it not for your support.

Dear Supporters,

Miracle Monday. Woke to know we only had 180 odd in the bank not enough to buy the meat/fish for the day's meal. Plus, Polo and Rossi's wounds were seeping despite being inside with the fan on, they were sterilised on Thursday. Little Whistle who'd arrived Saturday needed the vet too.


I have learnt not to stress too much we have managed for a year and a half living hand to mouth. Your hands.

At 8.30 am, out of the blue a donation. Rs 1500 into this fundraiser from Abba who clearly has deep faith. I have never heard of this person and don't believe he/she follows our facebook page @cheraitails. A random stranger sends enough for 2 days food, vet visit and medication, in rupees which meant it cleared very quickly and was in my account.
Not the only miracle, we seem to live off them. Saturday morning a long-time follower who travels too much to have his own dog came to spend time with ours. Not afraid to love, he is such an avid follower knows as much about each individual as I do. Someone not afraid to love for loves sake. He has spare guttering and a hair trimmer that he can donate, the guttering will help direct the rainwater away from the dogs run around the house and thus reduce the number of mosquitoes.
Additionally, Another @Cheraitails follower drove for 5 hours here, to deliver Whistle. 5 weeks old, on her own on the streets, he'd been feeding her and treating her skin problem, but humans pelting her was the ultimate danger. She has not been with her own and is stressing Bubble out as snaps and gets afraid with the rough play fighting, house rules are no biting. She's been remarkably quick to adapt, is the same size as Wendy and Winston, the latter has taken a real shine to her.



Whistle far right with Wendy, Yang and Duster. The first evening she ate with the others out of the same dish, and here she is the morning after she arrived sleeping soundly and from her position quite clearly feeling safe.



The Monday before last, waiting for the builders to fix the fence after they had wasted a day and our cash as there was no electricity, which naturally the elec board had not warned us about.
The fence facing the pond has now been completed, we hope. I had two buy 2 more corrugated sheets, most was done on Monday and the final (hopefully) bits Saturday. No more sightings of the viper..but plenty of turtles have been moved pond side!!



These cute creatures are here in abundance, live in the pond. Peru is sort of used to them now although can still wake me barking if one has dared to venture into her territory. Bubble has now taken over as the turtles move down the path between the oldies section and theirs...so for the last 3 night I have been awake since 2 am, last night I got a sense and snoozed in the chair from 8.30 pm so am dead on my feet today.

So, Saturday 17th. Builders showed up (3 not 2 as expected that's another rs 850 wages), but one is an electrician/plumber. So the fence got done, 3 Barney Bennets have been made, 2 need wire mesh (didn't have the money for it), but I can put that on, and a rubbish pit was dug..which will prevent not only the eyesore created by burning the newspaper containing poo and paper waste but also keep ants etc that the rubbish attracts in one place away from us!! Tap outside the back door, for the hose & washing hands/feet, a light in the kitchen but most importantly the ceiling fan that Chris donated was fitted in the puppy area.
I plan to use the area for recouping pups after sterilisation, the fan will keep all flies and mozzie's away as well as keep them cool and when I get the cash I will put lino on the floor, cool and easy clean keep ants off. So for the new pups, we have a small BB, that they can feel safe from the larger dogs in and they will have the luxury of a fan and covered floor....help with keeping them clean and curing skin problems etc.
I will get some photos taken.
The solar panel is finally up and running it powers all the lights, fans and plug sockets (bar the fridge). This means the freezer that Aimee so kindly donated can do come in and when I get the cash will stock it with cheap fish and chicken liver reducing our daily expenses considerably.
I am using the plastic lids saved from tinned dog food to cover the tops.
All the Christmas cards sold ..and have been sent, I am putting the profits towards the pipe feeders, have two pipes need to change the bends and work out a way to keep ants from the dried food before I get them onto the beach.



While we are on the subject of food I could really do with some puppy packets and puppy dried food. Some kind soul sent no tix but with pups and them being outside we go through 2 a week so that too if anyone can please.



Rani's adopter is arranging a beach glass bottle clean up this Saturday so we can finish the fencing, Serb has already got his paw stuck in the corrugated. Here he is in his Mr Universe pose on the newly secured fence pond side..and Peru trying to make up for her height.



We are hoping to get publicity and encourage others to use or at least recycle the bottles..i shall report on how we do next update or this will never be posted.
We are in need of cash for vaccinations now..hopefully, Duster has a great adopter has said he will come on the 22nd. ! Bubble badly needs a home.