Goodbye Andrea!

Andrea, who has been at the KAT Centre since last autumn, left Nepal on Sunday to go to Ireland to get a health checkup. The real sad thing is that I didn't even get the chance to say goodbye, there was a Bandha so I couldn't go to the Centre since Thursday and Andrea had lost her phone so I couldn't call her! Well, Andrea, I hope you read this, have safely arrived in Ireland and will hopefully be back soon!

Andrea will be sorely missed. She was the oldest of us girls and sometimes like a mother - we could always come to her with our little worries. She might not have been as 'active' as a lot of the other volunteers, always busily running around, but that was a big advantage - she always had time to comfort a dog waking up after operation, soothe an animal, be it dog or cat, on the drip or sit with the scared or bored dogs in the isolation. She made many dog's day brighter - and also mine.

Get well, don't forget us and come back soon, Andrea!

//Viktoria

Kali: Photos!

I'm very sorry for being late with my post (again). But with a dog and university, there's nearly no time for anything else anymore. But I promised some more photos of Kali in Switzerland & here they are finally:

By now I'm quite sure, that Kali is the most amazing dog ever! She's been toilet trained from the first day she was at our home. She's great with other dogs and always wants to play with everyone. Even with the really, really old ones. Most of the kids we meet are okay as well, as soon as they don't touch her paws, she doens't like that. Also, she's okay with traveling by car, bus and train and mostly falls asleep after only a few minutes. She's not even scared by all the people at the main trainstation in Zurich! Lately we started training her to wear a muzzle, because we will spend some of our summer holiday in Italy and there dogs have to wear a muzzle on boats & trains/buses. And after only a few days, she already fine with wearing it. We also already trained 'sit', 'down', 'jump on' and 'go to your dog bed'. :-)

The only problem we have at the moment is that she can't stay alone in Zurich yet (at our home in Savognin it's no problem though). So, for the time being, she either comes with me to university (she's allowed for certain lectures to join) or I bring her to a place that's like a kindergarten for dogs. ^^ It's not directly like a shelter; the dogs stay there in two groups, one for the big dogs and a second one for the smaller ones. Each of the groups has it's own big room, full of cusions, dog beds & toys, where they can play together or sleep. Around lunch time all the dogs are taken out for a long walk. I think it's very nice for Kali to have her dog-pack there some days a week – it's similar to the inhouse-dog pack she lived with at the KAT Centre.

And now the photos: 

Kali's flight from Doha landet in Zurich.

Customs at Zurich Airport. A horrible place, I tell you.

Kali!

One of the wheels of the transport box broke during the
transport, that's why the box is standing so tilted.

First steps in Switzerland!

Welcome!

Tired Kali... ^^

Enjoying the sun.

Viktoria, her husband Martin and her mum Dolores visited us in
Savognin and we went on a ride with the horse-sledge. ^^

Viktoria promissed to show some more photos, I'm sure she'll upload them as well.


There was snow in Savognin untill mid-April. Very, very tiring for everyone. Everyone but the dogs! Most dogs I know seem to love snow and so does Kali. She loves to run around in great circles and dive in the deeper snow. So here's some photos of Kali in her beloved snow:

The Goof.

Kali does not yet come back everytime I call her, that's why she wears that
very long leash. It's 20 meters long, but very light. With that leash, she can
round around pretty much as if she would be off-leash, but if she doesn't
listen or there's danger ahead, I can get her under control again very easy.

So, that should be enough for the moment. But I'll make sure to show some more photos of Kali, it's springtime now. :D



All the best!
//Simona





I missed one of the photos, it's from the airport when Kali arrived and thus far my favourite of the two of us together:

Cats at KAT

KAT has three lovely kittens at the moment, which came in with their mother. Two little black ones with odd white spots and a little tiger. It is a delight to see them play and jump up on eachother! This picture was taken during their nap time though - isn't that a beautiful family idyll?

The kittens are about 6 weeks old and still drinking their mother's milk. Give them another 2 weeks and they are ready to be adopted, and also their beautiful mum will need a home.

The other cat living with them is our beautiful three-legged cat. She came in with a big swollen foot and was so skinny and looked so miserable. She was also very shy. At KAT, she recovered quickly, gained some weight, got nice shiny fur and became my personal favourite, since she loves to cuddle and be with you. But the foot didn't get any better and our vets diagnosed that it is some kind of tumor and if the leg is not taken off, it will spread - so it might be better to euthanise it. We all thought about it and decided to give that cat a chance. Her leg was taken off about a month ago, and the first few days she was truely miserable. I cried everytime I saw her and I thought she would never be happy again.

But it is amazing to see animals adapt to different circumstances, we people could really set them as an example: She started walking and climbing and is now as happy as ever! She is truely beautiful and loves to sit on your lap and purrs wildly! I love her so much and I would be so happy if this cat finds a home - she should be an indoor cat though, because without her fourth leg, she can't run away quickly from dogs or cars. She is the perfect companion so if you're looking for a cat, consider her - her inner beauty makes up for the missing leg!

//Viktoria

Adopt a white Beauty!

Two very pretty white pups arrived at KAT recently.

The little boy was found by Andrea at Bhatbhateni Supermarket in Chakrapat where he was being kicked around by street children. Andrea took the little guy home, gave him good food and a bath, and brought him to KAT a few days later. He was named Paddy after the national saint of Andrea's home country Ireland.

Paddy was a pretty quiet little thing, I guess he was very happy to be able to relax at KAT and not have to worry about being hit, run over or tortured for fun. He always looked a little sad though, and that makes me even more happy to report that he has found a home! A friend of Pratik's, one of KAT's long time supporters, has adopted Paddy today.

Look at Paddy waiting for lunch to be ready!

Our second white puppy is Beauty, a little girl true to her name. She is very, very cuddly and loves to be with people. She is a very gentle dog and would suit perfectly into a family with children, but also for any other person that is willing to give her attention and love. She is about 5 months old and looking for a home!

Look at this pink nose! Don't you think she is a cutie?

Help us spread the word about Beauty and the other puppies that are up for adoption at KAT! Ask your friends and family if they might be able to give a home to a dog - the love they get in return is worth it!

//Viktoria

News!

Hi everyone,

the blog has been quiet for quite a while now, but don't think that this is also the case at the KAT Centre - the opposite is quite true! We have all been very busy at the Centre, and that's the reason why nobody had time to write a blog post.

First of all, in case it slipped anybody's mind, yes, we still have dogs and puppies for adoption! One of them is Mia, at the KAT Centre only since a few days, an adorable little thing which looks like a worn out little teddy bear, but is recovering from her mange very quickly and loves to play with the other dogs in our isolation unit.

Then, we have had a lot of great volunteers in the past; Yaiza and Ala are still with us, but we had several young people from Germany and Switzerland and Natalie, a great vet from USA, with us for a few weeks. Also Adrian, a young irish man whom you see in one of KAT Centre's new promotion videos is at the Centre for 4 weeks and doing so many good things for the dogs and cats.

Also, we have started to sell home-made muffins and cupcakes at the Farmer's Market at the 1905 Restaurant on saturdays, which has brought a lot of funds urgently needed. A few people even approached our stall with the wish to adopt a dog! So if you want to have a sweet bite, you find us there every second Saturday (next one is on the 14th of April)!

Another problem which needs to be solved is the food quality for the dogs at the Centre. Up to now, they are getting rice with lentils and vegetables and chicken scraps. The problem is, that the meat we get consists of a lot of bones, and poultry bones can be very harmful. We have approached a poultry farm in Kathmandu which is also selling dog food meat but without bones at supermarkets to buy it from them or get it maybe even donated. Let's see if that works out! If you know any other meat factories that would sell their scraps like intestines to us, please let us know! 

And since Sebastian, a very nice German gardener, has cleared up the down-hill area of the KAT property, we are thinking what we should do with that additional area. We would need more space for cats and also a bigger isolation unit, where the dogs have more area to move and run around would be a good idea! We are deciding on that at the moment and I will tell you about it soon.

So, you see, things at KAT are moving. If you see anyway you could help us, please do. If you're in Kathmandu, maybe you want to give some time to the dogs or help us with the fundraising, maybe even adopt a dog, and if you're abroad, you can still raise awareness and ask your friends and family to support KAT. Or maybe approach animal magazines and tv shows to make a little report about KAT (for example, there is an article about KAT in the German dog magazine "Partner Hund" and somebody who has read it wants to donate an X-ray machine!). You see, there are many things you can do to help us! Every little bit counts!

//Viktoria

A new sponsor for our new Facebook Campaign

Sidhanta Shrestha who works for IT company called  Procit in the Netherlands, to be a sponsor of our new Facebook campaign for rabies vaccinations (which we will start soon). Procit generously donated 100 euros! He has also raised funds from his colleagues here in Nepal. Thanks to Procit, Sidhanta and IT himalaya for their love and support to KAT.

We need more sponsor for this campaign, so will  you ask your employer, friends, or family to sponsor the campaign?

Support us make this campaign a success, together we can make a difference.

Thanks
KAT Centre

Kali: Traveling to Switzerland!

Namastè!!

Kali is already in Switzerland for about two weeks now, but I didn't really have the time to tell you everything, sorry 'bout that. But now she's sleeping, snoring and dreaming next to me on the sofa and I have time to write a post here. ^^

But let's start from the beginning. Some of you may allready know the first part of Kali's story, the ones of you who don't can read it all here: Kali: The Story

That last post ended with the very great news that we had found someone who would accompany Kali on her flight. But then again, there were problems with the airline and we had to cancel it. So the search began again... And it was a desperate search.

With every passing day and week it seemed more unlike that we would find someone to accompany Kali and so we started to search for other ways to let Kali travel. And we found one in Qatar!

Qatar Cargo Airways transports probably everything you could transport with airplanes: vulnerable goods, dangerous goods, fresh food and - live animals!
We contacted them right away and asked if it would be possible to send Kali from Kathmandu to Zurich in Switzerland. Luckily the answer was yes and we started to organize everything.

After that we had some minor problems with getting all the right documents and some other smaller or bigger problems. A few examples? ^^

Qatar said, they would need an import permit for the dog from the Swiss customs. So I sent the vets from KAT to get all the documents from the official vet in Kathmandu to get that import permit. Then, I sent all those documents to the Swiss Border Veterinarians to give us the import permit. They then said, they would not give us that permit, because the transport would be done by a company (Qatar Cargo Airways) and not by a private person, and that non-private transports would neither get nor need an import permit..... Yes. Such things happen when you try to send a dog from Asia over Arabia to Europe. But nevermind. =)

After having sorted out that, I started panicking, because I could not get in contact with the KAT (due to their broken internet connection) and I didn't know, if they got the transport box for Kali. Yaiza helped us a lot there, forwarding messages from me to the KAT and vice versa. Thank you!

Again, everything seemed to be okay when I got the news that Kali got her transport box. But it wasn't over yet. When I asked Qatar how I could pay the transport, they said we would have to search a handling agent. A handling agent? There were only a few days left untill Kali's flight and now I should search and find a handling agent? How was I supposed to do that? Again, the transport seemed doomed to fail.
My dad gave calls to both Qatar offices in Kathmandu and Doha and they told him, that the office in Kathmandu would contact a handling agent and that everthing was fine, and that they somehow got this wrong in the e-mail they sent us.

I must confess, at that point I had lost all hope, that this transport would work out. I became desperate. I know, I was a pain in the ass in those days to everyone around me and in touch with me. I'm sorry. =)

The day of Kali's flight came nearer & nearer and still, I could not believe that it really would work out. Nevertheless we went to buy dog beds, food & water bowls, a leash and dog food.

But it worked out and I got the news that Kali was departed from Kathmandu! Fantastic news!
I could track the flight online and so I did, all day long and half the night (I couldn't have slept anyway ^^). I've probably never been so nervous as in those hours we spent waiting for Kali at the airport in Zurich... It was horrible... ^^

After running around at the airport from one office to the next, back to first, showing everywhere all our documents (and everyone taking copies of everything) we were there; in front of that huge gate, waiting for little Kali to be brought out to us.

And then, finally, after half a year we met again! Lovely little Kali, grown a bit bigger and fatter (a good sign ^^), but still the most beautiful, happy dog. First, she didn't recognize me but after we had taken her out from her box and walked a bit she suddenly started to jump up at me, like she always did when we where still both in Kathmandu. I'm sure she recognized me then.

She found me, when she was in biggest need of help, when no one thought she would survive another night. And now she's here in Switzerland, sleeping after a good walk and a bowl of fresh meat.

It has been a hard time, since I found her at the Pashupatinth Temple, but I'm glad for it and everything's fine now.
Thank you, Kali.

// Simona

 ***

This post is already too long, so I will post photos and more stories of what Kali already experienced here in Switzerland in the next few days. But one photo just needs to be shown here: