Here’s a pup enjoying his first Parle-G biscuit. It seems to be going down well!

Biscuit treat in the afternoon sun

I stopped at TOLFA’s stand and found out who they were and what they did in the animal welfare world. I became interested at once and decided to apply for volunteering. I worked hard to get enough money during the summer to afford the journey; and all of a sudden here it was – September and the departure day. I arrived at Delhi airport at 4 in the morning. Some nice Indian guys helped me to get into the city centre and find the old Delhi railway station.

Our Project Raja volunteer Ziva giving TLC to a pup

My first impressions of India were: hot, wet, overcrowded and dirty! I didn’t know if it was possible to survive more than a month in this insane country. But I quickly changed my mind!

From the first day, everything passed SO quickly … at the beginning, probably because everything was so new, so different … I had to learn the way of treating the animals at TOLFA, what medicines they have, how they use them …

At the beginning I realised how difficult it is to maintain sterile conditions, but it’s incredible how few infections occur. I’ve learned that we definitely complicate too much at home about many aspects… It surprised me how many animals they manage to cure without any real diagnostic tools – no rtg, no ultrasound, even no blood tests! I saw diseases like TVT (transvenereal tumours), dogs that survived distemper, rabid dogs and calves … so many cases that you can never see at home!

Cows with their legs in casts and cleaning the wounds infected with puss and/or maggots was also an upsetting experience. I couldn’t believe that a cow with two legs in casts can actually stand up and walk around … Giving the water buffalo with chronic mastitis an intramammary injection was an adrenaline experience. And surgery, they actually let me do castrations and spays during my last week myself, not just endless watching like I was used to at home – I learned to much and was given so much practical experience.

Ziva appreciated the opportunity for some practical operating experience

And the dogs were so sweet … sometimes I didn’t feel like walking the dogs, with the sun burning in my head and trying to persuade the stubborn blind dog to get back into the kennel – but their gratefulness was enough to find this so self-satisfying. And the shelter dogs were always so happy when they got your love and attention and a tasty biscuit. I miss Shanti, Bobby, Salu, Squirrel, Panda …

I had problems remembering the names of all the TOLFA staff. If you are bad with names in general (as I am) I have to admit that I still didn’t remember them all when I left. But they were all so kind (thank you guys!!) and even the language didn’t pose a real problem. After a while you learn their accent and way of speaking. Dr. Sachin and Dr. Ashok explained everything I asked in detail and were very patient and relaxed even when I didn’t understand exactly what they wanted me to do and when I could have looked really stupid. I think that Indian people just don’t know how to be nervous.

The road to TOLFA is so beautiful with the hills around. I always felt like in a computer game, riding my scooter, avoiding all the goats, cows and water buffalo’s on the road – but it was so much fun! When we got there we usually drank chai and walked some dogs, after that daily dog and large animal treatments began, and the surgery. Lunch at 1 o’clock came in no time and was always accompanied by a Sharda’s warm smile. After lunch we did pre- (for the dogs to be given ABC the following day) and post operation checks and treated the animals that farmers brought in, walked more dogs … and of course, there was another chai time in the afternoon.

And Pushkar itself is amazing! I loved all the shops and spent quite a lot on shopping for wonderful clothes and gifts. I loved just walking around, talking with people in their shops, drinking chai, going to eat with other volunteers. I think that some kind of happy atmosphere is in the air there, maybe there is some special reason for this place being a holy town.

There are so many things to do in Pushkar … for example, I went on a 24 hour camel safari and it was simply amazing! Meeting ordinary Indian farmers and especially their children who are running with the camels and seem so happy to see a foreign tourist, eating delicious Indian meals prepared on the campfire, enjoying the sunrise and sunset in the fabulous semi desert … unreal. And as a dedicated horse lover I went on a short riding trip as well, galloping between the herds of water buffalos and on sandy dunes was breathtaking. One of the hotel staff, Ravi, was very kind and organized these trips. The Paramount hotel guys were so kind, smiling and helpful! Once they prepared a huge special Indian dinner for all the hotel guests. We talked well into the night, and the evening finished with playing drums and learning how to sing some Indian songs.

The down side were some minor health problems, I think that barely any Westerner can avoid it … I got fever for a few days and later a stomach bug after some food in an otherwise clean and hygienic restaurant.

From my arrival, I was sure that TOLFA was doing a good and important job for the animals and also people of the region every day … but this was enormously emphasised when I joined the event for World Rabies Day 2009.

Ziva joins in with schoolchildren for our World Rabies Day 2009 event in Pushkar

TOLFA organised a walk of hundreds of children through Pushkar carrying banners and distributing leaflets on rabies prevention to the townsfolk. The children attended a lecture from the TOLFA doctors and trustees after the walk – they learned how to protect people and animals from this fatal disease, about the importance of vaccination and going to the doctor if you are bitten. The only way to reduce the rate of rabies cases, which has the highest incidence globally in India, is in education of the next generation and I think that TOLFA’s approach is something that can actually help – that’s a big thing!

The time to say goodbye came just too quickly. My Indian experience continued in Delhi, Agra (of course I had to catch a glimpse of Taj Mahal ;)), Haridwar and Rishikesh (with rafting on the Ganga river – recommended!) for the following ten days. And now I’m at home in Slovenia (this is a small country in Europe next to Italy) attending my lectures and practicals in the 4th year of vet school and hoping to see India again. You just can’t help falling in love with the country and especially its people and animals!

Thank you TOLFA for a life changing experience.

Živa Černe (Ljubljana, Slovenia)

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from TOLFA

Our sick pups always need some extra heat - especially in winter time - and an electric heatpad is just the thing for them to snuggle up on. It keeps them cosy and helps them stay warm through the night when they’re not feeling their best.

Black and white puppy

It was fortunate that she brought them when she did, as we rescued a puppy that same week, who came in suffering from pneumonia requiring treatment and lots of extra warmth. Thankfully the puppy pulled through.

They’re also very useful for our other small animals; kittens, monkeys and birds.

By saving pennies with the Piggy Bank Scheme (which she said was a very easy way to raise money from all that spare change we collect), Jo managed to bring over 3 heatpads she’d bought with a generous discount from J.A.K Marketing Ltd. Thanks Jo!

Volunteer Jo with Hamish and our new heatpad

I was a volunteer at the TOLFA animal hospital for three weeks in October 2009 and helped mostly with the dogs. From the moment I arrived I felt welcome – the driver was there at the airport with my name card, one of the trustees phoned while I was in the car, and then I was joined soon after arrival by the other volunteers at the very pleasant hotel.

Jo giving lots of puppy love

As a non-vet volunteer I did wonder if I would be less useful than the other volunteers, but all were quick to assure me I was just as useful in my own way.

Rachel arrived back in India shortly after I began. I was so pleased to meet her and see her in action (and attend her wedding party!). She said the benefit of love given to the dogs couldn’t be overestimated and was an important part of their recovery and that made me feel good.

My day would start with a check of the puppy house, and a quick individual cuddle for each one, then a tour of the dogs in the section allocated to me for more ‘good mornings’ and a treat of milk. All dogs in for more treatment other than sterilisation are allocated to one or more volunteers. My block (F) had up to 15 dogs at any time.

After the ‘good mornings’ were done I would exercise ‘my’ dogs – in the hospital grounds if they were well enough, or in one of the walled yards for the less able, where they could walk a little or just enjoy being outside. For these I would sit and stroke them, brush their coats, have a play or just a chat according what they wanted – but each had some individual attention. Some we would help get back on their feet by supporting them with a towel under the tummy as they learned how to re-use damaged limbs.

Jo and doggy friends

After all my dogs had been attended, I might help with a daily task such as nail clipping, checking ears for mites, or with very basic physio for the paralysed dogs (often following a road accident). Any spare time was then spent back in the puppy house, helping them learn to accept each other, washing them if necessary ( how do puppies get quite so dirty?), and otherwise just cuddling or playing with them.

The high points were when a shy puppy began to interact with the others (Shady Lady), when a dog began to walk again, or when an unapproachable dog gradually came to trust. One such dog (Nelson) went, with treatment and patience from head in paws growling when approached and refusing to come out of his kennel, (perhaps because he was trying to hide his missing eye?) to being the most ardent sunbather in the exercise yard, and then soon became well enough to go home.

Shady Lady

There was sadness of course, when a dog didn’t recover, but we took comfort from knowing they were with people who cared and were not alone on a street.

Although I am considerably older than most volunteers I always felt completely accepted by everyone and fully part of the team, and would certainly say that age should not be a deterrent to volunteering.

Overall I felt I did make a difference to the daily life of a number of dogs, and I enjoyed myself while doing so in the company of a very pleasant set of volunteers/staff and I definitely hope to return one day.

Jo and ladies at Rachel’s Indian wedding

Jo Pilc
Project Raja Volunteer
October 2009

I thoroughly enjoyed my 2 months at TOLFA. The staff were wonderful and when not helping treat the animals with outstanding care and devotion or translating random words into Hindi, made me laugh and kept a constant smile on my face. They were unbelievably patient when teaching me surgical skills Indian style and I couldn’t have survived without them!

Imogen with kitten

The wide variety of cases that come through the door every day really helped my confidence in treating the dogs, cats, camels, cows, goats, monkeys, birds…. that came in without the luxury of an x-ray machine, the variety of drugs we normally have in the UK or a laboratory. Having just started my first job the experience at TOLFA has helped me hugely!

The TOLFA goat clinic

TOLFA does an amazing, and often thankless, job in caring for animals that would not normally have the care and attention most pets in the UK are used to. Despite this, the care and concern that the chai stall owners, market sellers and most people in general show for the dogs and other animals on their streets often surprised me and shows that with them and TOLFA it’s not all doom and gloom for the street animals of India.

Resident dog - 3 wheeler

Imogen Richens
November 2009

Some of Imogen’s favourite photographs

Cow with a cast

Puppy guards the puppy house

Dog with mange but on the road to recovery

There’s so much to be gained from doing a project like this, whether you are from a veterinary or non-veterinary background, and it is amazing to live and work in a place like India. A big thanks to everyone at TOLFA for an incredible experience, and we hope to visit them again in the future.

Chris, Laura and the TOLFA team

Our TOLFA Experience

The end of vet school was looming, and while wondering what we were going to do after graduating in July we received an email through college telling us about an Indian animal charity asking for volunteers. That was the first time we had heard about TOLFA, and after emailing to find out a bit more we soon found ourselves booked to visit India and work for 3 weeks in late August.

We spent the next few months preparing for our final exams as well as fundraising the joint £1000 donation to take with us to TOLFA. With exams passed and money raised we were very excited about setting off and what the trip would entail.

After an 8 hour flight and 8 hour (interesting!) taxi ride from Delhi, we finally reached Pushkar and were dropped off at our home-to-be for the next 3 weeks, the Paramount Palace Hotel. A very dry monsoon season this year meant the lake in Pushkar was rather lacking in water, but nonetheless the hotel’s many balconies and rooftop restaurant offered spectacular views over the town and surrounding mountains.

We were greeted warmly by Serena, a UK trustee for TOLFA, who gave us useful information about the charity and local life in Pushkar. The first full day was spent recovering from jetlag and exploring the local area for ourselves. Everything you need in Pushkar is nearby, and it was immediately obvious just how cheap the cost of living was going to be compared to the UK, on average only costing around 80 rupees (£1) for a generous meal and drinks!

The atmosphere, full of the colourful Hindu culture combined with the bustling, dusty streets and bazaars, was like nowhere else we had ever been before. Not to mention the many dogs, cattle, goats and monkeys seen in every direction you looked!

The volunteers are organized with an overlap of a few days so that the ‘old hands’ can help the new volunteers to learn the ropes before they leave. The next morning we had a quick induction in using the scooters and rode off to the hospital for the first time.

The journey to TOLFA is along a beautiful quiet pass through the mountains between Pushkar and Ajmer, and the only traffic you encounter along the way is goat and cattle herds – which is good when you’re a novice scooter rider! After arriving we were introduced to the many compounders working at the shelter and started getting to grips with everyone’s names!

Laura assisting with our ABC programme

It was great to finally be putting 5 years of hard work into practice. Daily duties involved surgery as part of the ABC (animal birth control) program, carrying out both dog and large animal treatments, and monitoring anaesthetics. We rotated between these tasks on a daily basis.

Many of the dogs required daily wound management for infected cuts, bites, and surgical sites, and other patients were suffering from fractures, malnutrition, tumours, and mange. Some inpatients unfortunately cannot be released, either due to paralysis of their hind limbs, amputation or to persistent symptoms of distemper. The aftermath of this viral disease can cause the muscles to twitch and the dogs can appear to behave strangely, which the local people could misinterpret as rabies. So these ‘bobbing’ dogs are given names and become permanent happy residents of TOLFA.

The two vets working at the charity, Dr Sachin and Dr Ashok, are fantastic. It was amazing to think that Dr Sachin had only graduated a matter of months before us but was so knowledgeable about everything, and very adept at performing flank bitch spays through tiny incisions!

Lunch would always be cooked by Sharda, a lovely lady who works tirelessly for TOLFA and her family. She has a husband and 4 children, who all sleep in one room, have one bathroom and one cooking area, and that’s it. Nonetheless our dal and chapatti would be there waiting for us every day, along with the dogs hoping for our leftovers! Before starting the afternoon we would drink chai, a very sweet, spiced local tea, with the compounders. The day would finish with us walking the dogs out around the compound and feeding them up with Parle-G biscuits, as some were in serious need of a good meal.

A 6 week old puppy, named Hamish, that was found on the streets when only a few days old had been looked after by previous volunteers. He couldn’t be looked after at TOLFA as he wasn’t old enough to be vaccinated yet, and so the volunteers before us had been feeding him milk through the night until he was old enough for weaning. Luckily when we acquired him he was onto solid food; he stayed in our hotel room and behaved how all puppies do, with mad excitement, clumsiness and curiosity!

Chris helps handrear Hamish the pup

Some days we took him with us on our scooters to the shelter as he was getting very noisy and disturbing other guests in the hotel. Hamish was a great little guy to have around and even though he nearly fell down the stairs and almost got taken by monkeys he stayed out of mischief and after his puppy vaccinations was allowed to stay at TOLFA with the other puppies.

Throughout the next 3 weeks we developed a new found respect for the amazing resilience shown by animals in the face of severe disease and suffering, and have learnt not to give up hope too easily on critically ill patients. Wild animals were brought in by the rescue vehicle after receiving calls from local people about their injuries.

One particular day, a magnificent looking large blue antelope called a nilgai came in after being hit by a truck, suffering from a head tilt with epistaxis (blood running from the nose) and minor scratches. We administered anti-inflammatories and let it wander in the large animal paddock for a few days to gather its strength, staying well away as this was a big male with sharp horns. We were all happy to see it safely released back into the wild 3 days later as it was getting too dangerous for us to go in the large animal paddock!

The unusual variety of animals we saw come through TOLFA was very interesting, and included a peacock with diarrhoea, two monkeys with dog bites, a rabbit and water buffalo to mention a few.

You cannot talk about a trip to India without mention of the infamous “Delhi belly” as the high standards of hygiene we are used to in Europe leaves us rather vunerable to picking up bugs when in India. We were rather unlucky and both of us were struck down with a more serious form of gastroenteritis, having to endure a short stay in hospital while we recovered.

However it wasn’t as bad as it sounds – Dr. Gupta, who deals with sick travellers on a daily basis, was fantastic and our stay in hospital with cable TV and air conditioning was rather luxurious compared to the Paramount! We felt so welcomed by everyone at the charity, and received daily visits from staff members who found it very interesting that we were in the hospital and wanted to check up on how we were!

On the last day of our stay we bought the staff a large bottle of Sprite and a box of chocolate éclairs to share between them. The chocolates only lasted 5 minutes! We said our goodbyes before setting off home to the hotel, enjoying every last minute of the ride back as it would be our last.

Chris and Laura
Project Raja Volunteers

Despite the office now having an actual desk and 6 chairs, in true eclectic TOLFA style, the meeting had to take place in the Cattle Shade as Dr Ashok was mid-way through saving a cow. It was also mostly in Hindi, so I was none the wiser as to whether all would progress smoothly the next day….

Promoting World Rabies Day 2009

“Meet by the Sikh temple at 8.00” were Dr Ashok’s parting words to me.. 8.15, no-one, 8.45 not a single child in school uniform, or any staff from TOLFA. Anxiety is rising. Then bang on ‘Indian Time’ Dr Ashok arrives, his car bursting with staff.

Snakes of children with their smart uniforms appear from nowhere, well behaved and serious and soon the dusty road is filled with 800 children, 2 a breast representing 8 local schools. Banners in Hindi and English are unfurled proclaiming “Make Rabies History!” sponsored by Intervet.

School children parade through Pushkar promoting World Rabies Day 2009

Caps bearing the World Rabies Day logo were supplied by Indian Immunological. The rally sets off in the morning heat through the bustling main artery of Pushkar.

TOLFA staff wear World Rabies Day caps

TOLFA staff distribute leaflets on what to do if you’re bitten – wash wounds thoroughly and seek medical attention. We pass the world famous Hindu Brahma Temple and the local media snap away.

World Rabies Day 2009 parade in Pushkar

We all assemble in a vast room and the sea of expectant faces are sitting cross legged on the green baize floor. A white robed guru from the Animal Welfare Board, Dr Swami spoke eloquently about kindness to animals.

The microphone was being temperamental, I watched nervously as the overhead projector man pushed bare wires with matchsticks into the socket, coaxing the machine into life, just moments before Dr Sachin was due to take the stage. Phew, the bulb blinked encouragingly and first image glowed on the screen.

The witty WSPA power point presentation on rabies prevention, full of cartoons, captured the childrens imagination. Dr Sachin is a natural communicator and the children sat in rapt attention.

A pile of beautifully wrapped gifts glinted temptingly. Dr Ashok’s quiz which followed, was designed to ensure the vital message had been absorbed and many arms shot up keen to claim a prize. The children even learned the emergency TOLFA mobile number by heart, so that if they saw an animal in distress they could be responsible for ensuring it went to our hospital for treatment.

School children take part in our rabies awareness and animal kindness quiz

The TOLFA staff, in their crisp uniforms served a delicious breakfast to the guests of honour, provided by Kamlesh Khatri, and we felt satisfied that another group of children were equipped with the knowledge on how to avoid rabies, and how they should help and care for the animals around them whilst sharing their new found respect for them with their families and communities.

The children in Ajmer are being targeted in the coming months with our lively lecture as we have so much hope in the next generation.

Best Friends

It’s of Kit Kat (the cat) and a cute little orphan puppy we looked after for a short time. Aren’t they adorable?

Cycling Lands End to John O’Groats

Three good friends accompanied me on a 1041 mile cycle from Lands End in Cornwall to John O’Groats in Scotland to raise money for TOLFA.

Nearing the finish line!

We cycled up and down the cruel Cornish hills, over the River Severn, skirted around the Welsh border, through the stunning Lake District, across the Scottish border, hopped briefly onto the Isle of Arran, looked for Nessie in Loch Ness, couldn’t see Ben Nevis for clouds, and then dragged ourselves up the last few Scottish hills before reaching the finish line.

Phew and ouch! I then had to get back home to pack for India!

I have recently returned from volunteering at TOLFA and would just like to say what an incredible experience I had.

Thank you so much to everyone that donated and for supporting such a fantastic charity!