My last week

Had a great week, although it was an emotional one. I headed back to the park on Thursday with a friend, Christina, and a kitten in tow. Christina had been at the park a couple weeks earlier, and had intended to stay for two weeks, but only lasted a few days due to a bad back. She's been staying in Chiang Mai for the past month or so, and was heading back to the park just for 2 days. The kitten was her doing - she'd spotted it in an alleyway near her hotel & noticed after a few days that the poor thing seemed to be sick. I'm guessing the cat was around 2 months old - overall, I'd say it looked much healthier than the other two I'd brought - although not as much spunk as Suwa Dam. The vet had checked her out, given her an IV for dehydration & prescribed some meds. She stayed in my room until Saturday night, when it looked like her eye infection had cleared up, then we took her up to her new home at Michelle's place. She was still pretty lethargic & dehydrated, but looked like she'd be ok.

Sunday night, I went back into Chiang Mai with a group of Canadians (and a couple Americans) who had spent the previous week at the park. Had a good time hanging out with them - visited the Sunday Night Market which covers around a 3km stretch of road in the old part of Chiang Mai. Had some mango cheesecake (Michelle's introduced all the volunteers to it - I swear it has to be the best dessert I've ever had!)

Arrived back at the park Monday morning to the news that the kitten hadn't made it. Karl & Michelle had arrived back at their house after dinner the night before to find her. I've lost two kittens in the past 2 weeks - this record's not looking too good. Suwa Dam's doing well, though. He's got to be the fiestiest cat I've ever seen. I've got scratches all over my hands & arms to prove it.

When I got back to the park, there was a group heading up to the Haven for the night. Hiked up to the river (half way) with them. Once at the river, you have to cross either by bamboo raft or elephant. I hitched a ride back to the park with the truck that had driven all the supplies up. It wasn't until 2 days later when everyone was back at the park, that we realized we hadn't seen one of the dogs, Mookie, since the Haven. There are 4 dogs that go up to the Haven, and Mookie isn't one of them - she's too dumb (sorry Mooks!) and small to get across the river, but she's one of the sweetest dogs at the park. I remembered seeing her on the walk up to the river, so a couple of us drove up to the nearby Lisu village to ask if anyone had seen her. Because we hadn't seen her in 2 days, and she's not the type of dog to run off, we weren't overly optimistic. The park's already lost a couple of dogs to villagers who needed something to BBQ. Couldn't find any sign of her in the village, so after searching the park once more, we pretty much gave up hope. It wasn't until lunchtime the next day when one of the volunteers turned around & there was Mookie, looking as excited & desperate for attention as ever. Pom had seen her at the side of the road when she was driving up to the park. Not sure how she ended up so far away, but she definitely wasn't lacking in attention for the next few days!