And then there was 7, No 8, 9? Back to 7

This morning we were very annoyed with our neighbour's dogs as they were barking loudly and it was before 6am. After I got up I normally check on Phayu and I couldn't find her in the usual places. Then I discovered her with 6 puppies, having given birth in the garden! I had been training her for the past 2 weeks to give birth in the box I had setup in the outside room. Within the next hour she gave birth to 2 more puppies. The last one (9th) didn't make it as it had stopped growing sometime in the pregnancy.
Unfortunately, blacky #1 didn't make it. Phayu lay on top of him while I was taking the children to school and our househelp answered the yelps of blacky too late. Phayu then started to eat Blacky before I took him away. I waited until the children came home and we buried him in our garden.

Blacky #2 with the rest of the gang.

Cleaner enviroment of the box I'd prepared (and my old mambo shirt). I don't really know how I'm meant to be taking care of these puppies. Phayu seems to be eating the poos of the puppies so the box is being kept clean? Do I put newspaper in the box and change it each day?

It seems that giving away the puppies will not be a problem. Already had plenty of people wanting a puppy. Hopefully I can help Phayu keep most of them alive until abour 6-8 weeks when they can be weaned and given away.

South African Team

We have a South African Short-term team here in Lampang for 1 week from our team leader's church. They have been running a program at a local Christian school where only a small minority of students are Christians. I helped translate for the team which was stretching at times to say the least.

Dog Bite and getting ready for puppies

I was walking home from dropping off the car for a service when the neighbour's dog ran out of their house and bit me on the leg. It was not a big dog so the bite was only very minor. However, it did break the skin and draw blood. So when I saw my neighhour I told her what happened and she said that the dog has been vaccinated (she didn't say specifically against what but I assume it included rabies). I have already had the pre-exposure shots for Rabies. If we weren't sure about the rabies status of the dog I would need to go to the hospital and have another 2 post exposure shots. But based on what my neighbour's told me I don't think I need it. Only the second time in my life I've been bitten by a dog. The first time was 27 years ago when I was in kindergarden and I still remember it.

A vet student from a short-term team which will be coming to visit us later this year has given me advice about how to prepare for the impending puppies. So I've made this make shift home for Phayu. Unfortunately, she won't stay in it. She likes the home she's dug in our front garden. I also need to find some tablets for intestinal worms just incase she has been infected with these (apparently these can spread to humans). What's the thai word for "worms" I wonder?

We're having Octuplets!

We had our fears, but they were realised today when the vet confirmed that Phayu (our golden retriever) is pregnant! In the last week I noticed how she had been getting much bigger around her waist . When she wasn't feeling well over the last two days, it was time to go to the vet and ask the question. Either she was pregnant or she had a large abscess in her abdomen. Off for an ultrasound and there was confirmation we dreaded. We were only in Chiang Mai for 2 nights and that's all it took. We didn't even know at the time that she was in heat, let alone that there was a mangy street dog who could jump the front wall of our yard. I want to get my hands on that dog (or at least close enough to hit him with a pebble). At least if he had been better looking we might have an increased chance of giving the puppies away. The vet advised that on average golden retrievers have 8-9 puppies!!! This is definately not what we bargained for. We didn't have a chance to get her sprayed (desexed) as she was already in heat when we received her. Who could have imagined this ever happening to us. I've never owned a dog in my life. And it is so painfully ironic that we are contributing to the overpopulated dog population of Thailand, something we've deplored. We are praying that Phayu's genes would overwhelm the other mangy dog's - cute puppies PLEASE! Our yard is only big enough for half a dog, let alone 9 or 10!

Jenny's Birthday

Jenny, who's come to help us in the last trimester of Lisa's pregnancy had her birthday this week and we took her to our favorite restaurant - Pizza and quite a nice T-Bone steak (very hard to find in Thailand, espeically outside of Bangkok and Chiang Mai).

Official opening of The Lighthouse

On Saturday 30th August, the vice-governor of Lampang officially opened "The Lighthouse" our outreach and ministry centre. We didn't know how many people would turn up. Our team leader had booked the catering company for 70 people, though immediately afterwards he was seriously questioning whether he should have catered for this many. Since it isn't the custom to RSVP in Thailand we didn't know whether we would have 10 people or 100. Praise God about 60-70 people came. A pastor from Chiang Mai gave a short message and our team was introduced followed by a song item by one of the local Christian who is teaching some of team Thai.

Lisa speaking to one of our neighbours and her sister

Turning 2 & motorbike

It was our second son's 2nd birthday. We celebrated with just our family at the local pizza restaurant. Unfortunately he didn't get a big party like his brother. I think we were worn out by the last party. Next year...

Today I bought a motorbike. The main reason is that I can get almost 50km per litre of petrol on the motorbike and only 10km per litre in our car. With petrol prices being so high the motorbike will pay for itself before too long. Also, there are very few places to park in Lampang (and most of Thailand really), so having a motorbike can be quite convenient. I just hope I can get the bike registered as my work permit is for Bangkok and we are now in Lampang and that seems to be a problem. The only other time in my life I've riden a motorbike was on our honeymoon and then I went around a corner too fast and fell off with my newlywed sitting behind me (admittedly that was on a dirt track). Hopefully I'll avoid an accidents with this bike. So many missionaries have accidents on their motorbikes and I don't want to be included in those statistics.

No show

Unfortunately it was an empty classroom for the beginning of our Easy English classes yesterday (9:30am and 7:30pm classes). We have two other English classes scheduled for the weekend so we hope there will be students there for those classes. We have been handing out more flyers about The Lighthouse this week and we have had calls of interest for the babies and kids programs.

Learning about dogs

When we first received Phayu (our golden retriever) dogs started to turn up to our front gate we just thought they were curious and that they were just checking Phayu out (or was it that she was just a good looking girl). Day after day though these dogs would come and whimper away at our front gate wanting to get in. We were told that Phayu had not been fixed so we were careful not to let her out in the street. We didn't want to take any chances. There was no way we wanted puppies as well as a new baby in 2-3 months. Anyway, we left for Chiang Mai for a couple of days and when we returned we had the shock of our lives when we saw this big black Doberman? in our front yard sniffing away. I thought that our househelp might have left the gate open and the animal had sneaked in but then I saw it jump over our front fence and run away. The next day the same dog was in our yard trying to copulate with our Phayu! Then it hit us. Phayu was on heat! We had booked Phayu for an operation to get her "fixed" the following week so that she couldn't have any puppies but now it might be too late already. The vet when she found out Phayu was in heat wouldn't do the operation any more but we have to wait another two months. I'm learning about things I never new about here in Thailand.

4th birthday for our eldest son

Our eldest son had his 4th birthday this week. Unfortunately, Luca was quite sick and wasn't in a very good mood and this made it very difficult and embarrassing for us as he was rude to some of our neighbors bearing him gifts. We learnt from his 2nd birthday that when he's sick he doesn't blow out the candles (that time many members of our church and Lisa got quite sick - Lisa hospitalized). We were so thankful to have Rich's parents around to help with the birthday preparations. With two sick children (our youngest was sick as well) it was very difficult to prepare and then get through the party. Our neighours were very gracious about our son's behaviour and helpful when we didn't have enough chairs for everyone (we got some from our neighours). We were amazed that all the neighours we invited came (3 families) and one woman took home some tracts about Christianity.

The next day Luca was so sick we took him to the local private hospital. The paediatrician wanted to admit him into the hospital but we were booked into hotels in Chiang Mai with Rich's parents. The paediatrician ordered a chest x-ray and then prescribed a very strong antibiotic.

Both children are finally recovering but we got the shock of our lives when we came home and saw a big black dog (doberman?) in our front yard. More about this in our next blog update.