In November 2016, I was in Kingston, Jamaica and spent 3 days with Kingston Community Animal Welfare feeding, petting, catching, and loving the dogs and cats that live on Kingston's streets. Here's just some of what Deborah and I did during an amazing 3 days.
Our 1st stop was along Deborah's usual Friday route on her way to work. Although this Friday, she wasn't going to work, the Friday dogs expected to be fed, and we didn't want to disappoint them. Many of these dogs (at stop 1, picture below) are owned, but their owners don't think they need to be fed. They open the gate, let them out, and think they'll find their own food. Deborah has had all of them spayed (most costs covered thanks to AKI donors). She continues to talk to the owners about providing food, but they rarely listen.
While feeding these dogs, this puppy showed up! He was flea covered and terrified, but we were able to catch him. We brought him back to Deborah's small sanctuary, and later found out he had parvo! KCAW treated him and he's now doing fine and ready to be adopted.
This is Clubby and her puppy. Deborah says this is her favorite street dog (Ok, she says that about many of these dogs!). In the many years she's been feeding Clubby, Deborah has never been able to catch her, including with a trap, so sadly, she isn't spayed. She's always lived along this street and other than scrounging for food, she's entirely reliant on Deborah's feedings.
Our 3rd stop was at a vacant house, where the previous residents left their dog behind. Yes! This is a common occurrence. The dogs or cats go with the house! Of course, while vacant, no one is feeding the house dog/cat, except for KCAW! Usually Deborah hears about situations like this one because EVERYONE knows her and they know to alert her.
Our next stop was with Essine (red shirt), who was caring for 3 puppies, but her landlady wanted them out and had threatened to poison them. And that's where we came in. With Essine, we laid the plan to return in 2 days, when we'd be able to catch them and place the puppies at a foster home. During this visit, we caught them and de-wormed them. And of course, we fed those hungry pups!
Our 5th stop was at this auto repair garage (on the right side of the picture), where many dogs live. The owners of the garage and the employees essentially let the dogs stay but don't do much else. So Deborah comes by to feed them, has gotten them all spayed, and when needed, gets vet care for them (which she did earlier this year, for the black dog in the picture on the left, who had a maggot infested leg wound-we previously reported on that very difficult situation).
When we arrived at our last stop of the day, Deborah told me to stay out of the way as she opened the gate. Good advice, these dogs knew she was there, and raced out to see her. As with so many of these unloved, uncared for dogs, they care most about seeing Deborah and getting some love, and 2nd, they care about the food (as you can see in this picture with me and the dogs-their food is untouched while they get some love).
There's far too many stories to finish in 1 post! Please stay tuned for Part 2.