Feeding Dogs at Doggy Tuesday
Animal-Kind International's Elaine Law Memorial Pet Food Fund has supplied the dog food for all 2024 Doggy Tuesdays and more.
Just how much dog food is that?
In October, for example, a total of 3797 doggy meals were provided including the All You Can Eat Doggy Buffet every Tuesday, supplemental dog kibble and dog meal for Doggy Tuesday attendees to take home, and feeding inpatients at the Twala veterinary centre.
Here's another way to look at it. Below is the first half of a 2.25 ton delivery of dog food (total will be 100 x 25 kg bags of adult Forpets plus 6 bags of Forpets puppy food) funded by our Pet Food Fund.
Feeding Kids at Doggy Tuesday
In October, Twala Trust provided 384 snack packs for young dog owners. These kids often walk long distances to get their dogs to the sanctuary for Doggy Tuesday and many do that on an empty stomach. Twala Trust also gives out sweets to make the day special for these children who take such good care of their dogs.
Twala Trust also feeds their minds! The pop-up library every Tuesday provides a safe and happy space for the kids to draw, read, and be creative, while spending time with their friends and their pets.
EzyDog donated new collars and leashes to Twala Trust, which they handed out on Doggy Tuesday. What a comfortable and safe alternative to the chains, wire, cables, and tree bark leashes that the dogs usually show up with.
Giving out the collars and leashes is an important part of the educational side of Doggy Tuesday and helps owners feel proud of their dogs when they have fancy, colorful collars and leashes to show off.
Feeding and Caring for Zimbabwe's Dogs & Cats in Local Communities
Twala Trust also travels into the surrounding communities to help cats and dogs, especially those who can't make it to Doggy Tuesday. The ongoing drought has decimated the communal lands of Goromonzi and everyone suffers, but most of all, the animals and the elderly.
Fluffy and charming Danger is a wise old boy who does an excellent job of protecting and providing companionship for his elderly owner, Gogo Mairos. He needed his rabies vaccination in October, so Twala Trust picked him and Gogo Mairos up in their truck and brought them to their vet clinic for a full checkup, vaccinations, and dewormer, and Danger's least favorite part, a tick and flea bath. The prize for being such a good boy...he was invited to partake in an All You Can Eat Doggy Buffet afterwards.
And then there's little Danger, tiny but mighty. Little Danger also has the important job of keeping his owner, Gogo Rhoda, safe. They live alone on a hillside and eke out a truly bare bones existence on her late husband's minuscule state pension. Danger has a big bark when he's protecting Gogo Rhoda and he never leaves her side except when she goes in her house, and then he takes up his guard post on her stoop.
Twala Trust brought a bucket of food for Danger and told her about Doggy Tuesday. The next Doggy Tuesday, Rhoda and Danger arrived, having walked about 8 km in the heat, both tired, thirsty, and dusty.
Danger was vaccinated, had his first bath, ate a bowl of chicken almost as big as himself, and then they set off on the long walk back home with a bag of dog kibble and a bottle of puppy milk (recycled plastic drink bottles filled with dog meal and donated expired powdered milk to give puppies a nutritional boost). Gogo Rhoda and Danger have attended Doggy Tuesday every week since, a testament to the value placed upon these rural dogs who provide unquestioning protection and companionship to the elderly and young in the Goromonzi community.
Caring for Cats & Dogs at the Twala Veterinary Centre
Twala Trust does so much more for the community than just feeding animals and kids (which is already plenty!) Every Doggy Tuesday, dogs (and some cats) show up needing extra care. For example, just during October, Twala Trust treated the following veterinary cases:
Dogs:
Removal of growths - 2
Femoral head resection due to dog being hit with a stone
Injured paw - 2
Kidney failure - 1
Parvo - 2, Distemper - 3
Abscess - 2
Dog fight wounds - 8
Transmissible venereal tumors - 5
Ear infection - 1
Flea allergy - 5
Respiratory infection - 2
Autoimmune skin conditions - 2
Burns - 1
Pressure sores - 1
Severe fly strike - 5
Malignant tumor - 1
Tick bite fever 2
Biliary - 3
Urinary tract infection - 1
Trapped a feral dog who was killing livestock
Rabies vaccinations – 24, de-worming 82, Nexguard treatments 3, Frontline treatments 15
And of course, cats get help too:
2 cats treated for kidney failure
1 kitten vaccinated
1 cat treated for skin issues
1 hernia
Three dogs were surrendered to Twala Trust, including an elderly Doggy Tuesday regular named Cheese who is now a retiree in Twala's Waggley Tail Club.
Of course, Twala Trust also stays busy spaying and neutering cats and dogs in the communities and at their sanctuary. Fox, who was also treated successfully with chemo for a venereal tumor, was recently spayed:
Keeping Twala Trust Mobile
Twala Trust's Sarah updated us about the tuk tuk they purchased with AKI funding: "The 3-wheeler motorbike donated by Animal-Kind International is doing around 750 miles each month, collecting animal feed, transporting all the equipment to Doggy Tuesday, ferrying firewood, and it also makes a great staff taxi! It uses about a third of the fuel that the other vehicles use, so it's a huge savings and extremely versatile and reliable, with cheap and readily available spare parts making it very easy to maintain. What a wonderful asset it is for the sanctuary!"
Even with all the good news from Twala Trust, feeding and caring for cats and dogs in Zimbabwe is never easy, but it brings happiness to so many. Sarah wrote to us that "Things in Zimbabwe are chaotic at present, with very little electricity available and soaring inflation on top of the food insecurity from the drought. For us to be able to take care of the community's dogs is such a positive and uplifting thing for everyone, at Twala and within the community. The gratitude is heartfelt and widespread."