Lately it has been very cold in  Darjeeling, it seems as though it  might even snow and thus we are worried about the street dogs and the shelter dogs. We have made arrangements for the shelter dogs –  each dog gets two blankets. We tried using the plastic bowls but our dogs are chewing/gnawing at them.

Mihir is following ABC as per the new Dogs Trust Worldwide (DTW) protocol and anaesthesia that was developed with the help of Dr. Pandey at KAS. We are grateful to have received a grant from DTW which will cover the capture, vaccination and spaying of street dogs.

The team couldn’t perform many ABC’s this month due to bad weather and  the cold. The team has also performed multiple other than ABC surgeries this past week including and eye removal or enucleation surgery. and two dogs with tumours were also operated on.

The shelter receives constant calls for rescues though we try to respond to most due to lack of staff we cannot attend to rescues from far flung villages/towns. Dr. Mihir says we had to treat many dogs with distemper this year. as many owners come with their dogs showing distemper symptoms.

The five of us from Darjeeling Animal Shelter staff (Furmit, Mihir, Wangel, Naren, Nitesh) went to KAS for the annual  meeting.

A kind Peruvian lady from Dali Monastery  donated 2 heaters which we use to keep the OT warm while performing ABC’s and at times for the kittens.

We have already started working on the water source fencing and work on refurbishing the corridor behind the DAS Clinic as an holding area for dogs before their surgeries. This has been helped by Alain and Yamima Dupont, who have given a design for the water source.

Mihir and the team will be going for a 2 day ABC camp to Bijanbari on the 21st

Puppy / Kitten adoptions is also happening normally.

The Shelter vehicle has been troubling  us a lot, we are sending it again for servicing to Siliguri next week but the vehicle is old and has been constantly having problems. It is now 10 years old and really needs to be replaced.

Furmit Lepcha
DAS Manager