Mad Dogs and Irish Women, By Tony James Slater.  An excerpt from The Voluntary Traveler: Adventures from The Road Best Traveled 

I was in love with Koh Phangan before I ever set foot on her soil.

White sand fringed with coconut trees and dotted with tiny wooden bungalows; the glorious coastline rolled towards me. I’d come to this island paradise, the crown jewel in the Gulf of Thailand, for two main reasons…

The first was obvious: Full Moon Party! Drunken revelry, semi-naked chicks, crazy dancing beach parties stretching all through the night - loud, sweaty and dangerously irresponsible - a monthly monument to excess and hedonism. I could hardly wait!

The second reason was PAC.

Phangan Animal Care is a volunteer-run charity with a mission: help and care for the stray animals of the entire island. Now, anyone who has been to Thailand will know of their problem with stray dogs. They roam the cities and the beaches alike, singly or in packs, fighting over scraps and garbage. They get beaten by locals and disgusted tourists, injured through fighting, ravaged by disease and flattened by the traffic.

Beach dog tempts fate

A routine quickly set in at PAC. For volunteers work days were largely spent cleaning out the cages, feeding the animals and doing the vast amount of washing the clinic generated. We had hundreds of donated towels and blankets to make bedding for animals sick enough to need to stay at the clinic. All the bedding had to be changed daily, of course, and more often if the patient was suffering from diarrhea or vomiting! There were two washing machines behind the clinic, but neither of them worked. We would alternate between them on a daily basis, always trying to coax just one more wash cycle from the battered machines. We fed the dogs. We walked the dogs. We held them steady while they received attention from the nurses. We grew to know them all. Watching their progress back to health was always a happiness.

Three beach dogs and a crab retake the Haad in beach for themselves

Every so often a traveling vet would take a day or two off their holiday and donate some time to us. Then the excitement would begin! A surgery day would be scheduled; every clamp, knife and utensil in the place would be sterilized. Spare friends would be drafted in as extra volunteers to help capture strays and aid recovery.

Then, when all was made ready, the visiting vet would arrive, don his gloves...and cut the balls off every animal in sight.

Alas, I do suffer from being slightly squeamish. So, whilst I could just about bring myself to restrain the condemned animal for anesthetic, carry them into the surgery and help tie them down, once the cutting began I just had to leave. The sobs of the recovering animals on regaining consciousness - only to realize that something vital was missing - even that was almost more than I could take!

When another volunteer, Avril had first enthused about introducing me and explained that there hadn’t been a male volunteer for quite some time, visions of scantily clad nurses vying for my attention filled my head. The reality was rather more brutal. I was outnumbered.

One time I was pacing back and forth between the kennels outside, trying to talk myself into keeping my breakfast down after inadvertently witnessing the start of an operation. The girls had been highly amused when I’d realized just what I was staring at, clapped a hand over my mouth and sprinted for the back door. I was walking back past the door for about the fiftieth time when one of the nurses called me from inside. I poked my head in to see what she wanted. “Chuck this in the bin for us would you?” She asked and threw something towards me. I caught it instinctively - and only then noticed both nurses stood watching me with identical evil smiles on their faces.

I opened my hand. I was holding a severed testicle. I think it’s fair to say there were downsides to being the only guy working at the clinic.

In the end the parties were all well and good, but what really made me feel alive on Koh Phangan was the animal rescue adventures, the seemingly impossible tasks, the sense of responsibility and identity. And, the warm, easy friendship of so many volunteers who had come and gone over the months, the feeling of belonging, to both a group of close friends and to something just slightly bigger than all of us.

Author Tony James Slater

About the author
Tony James Slater trained as an actor. Sadly, he never became famous because... well, because he was cr*p. As a result, he is about to publish his first book, That Bear Ate My Pants!, an hilarious chronicle of his three month long, near-death experience at a wild animal refuge in Ecuador.  

For more information, please see:

www.TonyJamesSlater.com

PhaNgan Animal Care (PAC) is primarily a nursing clinic, providing basic nursing care for the island’s animals. PAC’s main focus is to care for street and temple animals, but as we are the sole animal care providers on the island, they provide care for every animal brought to them. 

For more information, please see:

http://www.pacthailand.org/

Feature photo:

Travelers take over the beach at Haad Rin, on Koh Phangnan for the monthly
Full Moon Party

All photos courtesy and copyright of Tony James Slater.