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| Here's a picture from the park's Facebook page of Mae Perm and Jokia. |
The video showed cruel training practices that were used to make elephants submissive, like something called a "training crush." I couldn't even watch. I don't understand why it was necessary to show us that. To be totally honest, I feel like I'm in a training crush when everyone around me is speaking Thai. I just want to be happy and save the world - why can't I just do that?
Lek only uses positive reinforcement. She is a goddess and I want to help her. I'm going to elephant heaven now, BRB.
The sociologist in me can't resist making a metaphor out of training elephants to think they're weak even though they're powerful. The limitations imposed on humankind make us think we can't make a difference - the media, tradition, our parents, the law... IT'S ALL A METAPHORRRRR
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| Sandy |
One of the rescued dogs was watching the movie with us. After our tour I went back into my room to find a cat curled up on my suitcase. Our windows are always open - I love the spirit of coexistence here. I had nicknamed the cat Sandy earlier, although I'm pretty sure "Sandy" is three separate but very-similar-looking cats. Good ol' Sandy.
There are some dainty little cats here! It is so refreshing to see a whole community of cats living freely - they have fleas and ticks but none of them are obese. That's incredible. I think this might be heaven - cats and dogs roaming freely in a jungle village.
During our free time, I went to help at the dog sanctuary. The woman I talked to said they didn't really need help but she gave me tweezers and a can of bleach water anyway for picking off ticks and I'm glad she did because there's not much I hate more than feeling useless. I went into the enclosure full of handicapped dogs and started pulling ticks off of them. It kind of felt a little pointless because the amount of ticks was never-ending. After a while a man came into the enclosure and looked at a few dogs and then sat down to de-tick one of the dogs that he called "Boss." I was too nervous to say anything or ask if we were supposed to do anything differently when the tick was all bloated and gross. (I've only ever encountered ticks that are at their normal size at Wilson Vet.)
He said hello, though, and asked if I was with ISV (but I know he meant the pre-vets) so I sort of stammered an explanation that yes and no, I was with ISV but this was my free time so I wanted to see the dogs. He said, "Awesome! Thank you! I love you!" It was the first time I've felt helpful or appreciated since I've been here. We introduced ourselves - he introduced himself as Derrick rather than "Dr.____," which was interesting because I knew he was a veterinarian and it would be pretty strange for a vet back home to say "I'm John" or something to a goofy kid like me.
I picked ticks off of a few different dogs; two schnauzers and two long-haired little dogs and a blind, 3-legged german shepherd. The shepherd's name was "King-" something, I don't remember now, but Derrick said he picked him up from the median of a highway after the tsunami and had to amputate the broken leg because gangrene had set in. I asked if he ever operated on the dogs here - he said sometimes, but not often because they don't have an x-ray machine. Even though, according to him, his brother is a radiologist. He spoke fluent Thai and also fluent English - I found him intriguing but lacked the social skills to carry on a conversation. I couldn't tell how old he was - somewhere between 35 and 50 - it was hard to tell because he's one of those people who lives out in the wild and always looks brown and youngish. He was very tan and wore glasses and had grey hair but his features (and name) were Caucasian. I wonder where he's from. I most likely bored him with my stammering and obvious factual statements.
On an unrelated note, I had a dream with Mr. Reinhard and a combination of Dr. J2 and Joel McHale in it. And Sara Sample - she was mad at me for not sending her a fax.
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| Sandy II |
He said hello, though, and asked if I was with ISV (but I know he meant the pre-vets) so I sort of stammered an explanation that yes and no, I was with ISV but this was my free time so I wanted to see the dogs. He said, "Awesome! Thank you! I love you!" It was the first time I've felt helpful or appreciated since I've been here. We introduced ourselves - he introduced himself as Derrick rather than "Dr.____," which was interesting because I knew he was a veterinarian and it would be pretty strange for a vet back home to say "I'm John" or something to a goofy kid like me.
I picked ticks off of a few different dogs; two schnauzers and two long-haired little dogs and a blind, 3-legged german shepherd. The shepherd's name was "King-" something, I don't remember now, but Derrick said he picked him up from the median of a highway after the tsunami and had to amputate the broken leg because gangrene had set in. I asked if he ever operated on the dogs here - he said sometimes, but not often because they don't have an x-ray machine. Even though, according to him, his brother is a radiologist. He spoke fluent Thai and also fluent English - I found him intriguing but lacked the social skills to carry on a conversation. I couldn't tell how old he was - somewhere between 35 and 50 - it was hard to tell because he's one of those people who lives out in the wild and always looks brown and youngish. He was very tan and wore glasses and had grey hair but his features (and name) were Caucasian. I wonder where he's from. I most likely bored him with my stammering and obvious factual statements.
On an unrelated note, I had a dream with Mr. Reinhard and a combination of Dr. J2 and Joel McHale in it. And Sara Sample - she was mad at me for not sending her a fax.
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