*2019 - 2022*
AWI under the great work and determination of Dr. Sara has grown in leaps and bounds. Not only has the attitude of the locals changed in an extremely positive manner- pets are well cared for, loved and roam free on the streets of Ilha, playing and interacting with children- something that was unimaginable 8 years ago, but our clinic has the reputation of being the best for miles around. Sadly, people still bring in animals with horribly botched up operations, and misdiagnosed and mistreated ailments, but they also come specifically to have their pets cared for by Sara and her team. This is a great step forward for a small clinic like ours. Sara continues with the Rabies Vaccination Campaign, TNVR, and the daily cases that are brought to the clinic.
*2018 to 2021*
Dr. Sara Grosso joined AWI on a permanent basis at the end of 2017-we are over the moon to have her with us.
We have had some wonderful years with lots of very happy moments and some extremely sad ones. The photos in the gallery will tell the story. We hope, with the help of our very generous donors, to continue the incredible work Sara has done so far .
We would especially like to thank Ruby our guardian angel-without you AWI would never exist, The Brigitte Bardot Foundation, Minara Trust , Raptor Rehabilitation Trust Kenya, Feitoria Boutique Hotel and Project Vets. To you all a huge thank you for believing in us and for making Ilha a much better place for all our 4 legged and feathered friends.
*2017*
Sara is now with us almost on a permanent basis, which is great news. In total we have now vaccinated and sterilized 245 dogs and 297 cats. The attitude of the local population is improving, so we must be doing something right.
May- A big thank you to Sara for another successful clinic .
In total Sara spayed 6 new female dogs and 3 new males.
She did a great job on the cat population considering the short time she was with us. In total she sterilized 11 female
cats and 12 males.
New vaccinations cases 23 in total . Plus all the old re vaccinations. Sara works tirelessly, and with Tropa and Abdul she
has created an amazing team. THANK YOU!
She will be back in August for a month to hopefully really try and get the cat population under control.
We are desperately trying to entice Sara to come and live permanently with us on Ilha!
February- Sara kindly came to help us for a week from Maputo in February this year.
During her time with AWI she managed to spay and castrate 11 dogs and 6 cats. Amazingly fast . Sadly we don’t have the space to hold more animals post surgery, otherwise Sara would have done a lot more.
We hope to have Sara back in April for a longer time.
December & January were busy for us, luckily with the help of Sara and Sarah we pulled through. Thank you both!
*2016*
September- Sarah came to volunteer on Ilha for 2 whole months from September to October with her husband Ian from Scotland. It was a fantastic time. Sarah worked tirelessly, communicated with Abdul and Tropa in a mixture of sign language , English and a whole lot of gestures . But they managed and together they did an amazing job.
In total we vaccinated 49 new dogs , 38 cats , sterilized 28 dogs and 38 cats. In between the surgeries there were lots of other cases that Sarah dealt with, ranging from stitching a dog with a cut dangerously close to a main artery, puppies needing de worming and flea treatments, dogs and cats with eye and skin ailments, house calls for dogs with painful ears and many more.
As always there were incredibly happy moments, and extremely sad ones.
To Sarah a huge thank you for her enthusiasm, tireless energy and extreme professionalism.
April- We held our first Volunteer clinic in April, and it was a great success. Shona and Susan did a fantastic job, and it was a wonderful 10 days. We now have our own small clinic with our own little cat. Kailee decided she quite liked it and stayed. We went to new areas, vaccinated a lot of private dogs, had requests from so many of the locals for us to help vaccinate and sterilise their dogs. So all in all it was a great 10 days.
NEWS
* We now have a small space that we can call our "clinic" with holding cages for cats and dogs, so we can keep more of them at one time
* We have ordered 4 new cat trapping cages so we don't waste time whilst we have a vet with us. The more cages the more cats we can help.
* We saved Pippi the little ginger cat in our photo gallery, who had eaten food in a plastic bag and for 3 days all he did was vomit and poo plastic
*Gracie and Mia are now patrol dogs on the Matanushka farm, and hopefully more of our dogs will be added to the programme
BUT quite a lot of sad news too:
* Castora was hacked to death for supposedly eating a chicken, even though no one saw her do it
* Brenda was run over outside her home , on a tiny side street. Probably by the unruly visitors that swarm onto Ilha at the weekend.
* Two of the puppies we were looking after died. One of a stomach problem, and the other was probably kicked and died of internal injuries.
* Scoobie Jnr was also hit by a car. The driver didn't veer, just went straight for him. All very sad as Ilha is a tiny place, but sadly it's overrun by hooligans at the weeknd who drive around in their huge 4WD , with no respect for children, dogs or the elderly. We are trying to get speed bumps put in place, to stop the drag racing.
* Too, Leixa and Lucky all died of tick fever. Sadly the owners would not let us move them, and the compound where they lived was the perfect breeding ground for ticks.
*2015*
We held 2 clinics and a vaccination campaign this year. It's been a trying, sad but rewarding year.
We've seen a change in attitude from the local community- sadly not enough in some areas though. We have managed to rent our very own clinic space, and hopefully next year we will manage to raise enough money to equip it. As of the end of this year we have vaccinated and sterilized 116 dogs, neutered 28 cats and feed 45 on a daily basis.
Some very sad news too:
* In November, Amber from the Capitania was stoned to death. She died of internal bleeding hidden in a hole with her granny. Her sister disappeared a few weeks earlier, probably to the same fate. We know who the culprits are. They will not get away with it!
*In June we had to put Shaanti at the Hindu Temple to sleep. She was the old matriarch, loved by all. She developed some complications, started having heart problems, and it went down from there. She is buried in a corner of the Hindu Temple, and the Padre told us that for 2 night all the dogs slept on her grave and would not move! She has a beautiful frangipani planted on her.
* Our beloved Lupo, picked up at the Hospital as a tiny baby died in July. From what we will never truly know, but he was very special and will be missed by all for a very long time. A great fun, cool and loving character. He loved people, and was always in the mix of any activity, stealing what he could from the dining room table, and being chased like mad throughout the house by Spider. Luna his true love will miss him deeply.
* We picked up Poppy . She had been beaten and could not move, hence she had not been fed for 10 days. We took her home, put her on a drip, fed her and she has put on weight. She can't really move, but we hope that in time she might get up and move. Today 28th July her temperature is very low. She is not eating. Fingers crossed she makes it through the night. Sadly not to be. She died a couple of hours later.
* 2014 *
We have held 4 clinics this year and all have been a great success. In total we have spayed 31 females ,castrated 24 males neutered 16 cats and vaccinated 77 cats and dogs.
* Leika had 4 puppies- sadly one died , but the rest are all doing great. Sadly more have died. They were given away and we don't know the cause of death.
* Nevita would have died of pyometra had the vet not been on Ilha, so a happy ending to a very stressful moment. Her brother from the hIndu Temple was given away. Lets hope its to a good home as he is so gentle and sweet.
* We discovered a whole new colony of dogs living on Casuarina beach- 6 of them were vaccinated, de wormed and all had their ears treated against flies. Preta had had 9 puppies - 3 of them are still with her and in all we managed to spay and castrate 7 of them. Apart from 2 males the rest are now all fixed.
* We found Shella dying of hunger. She is now being fed and will hopefully make a full recovery. She is the gentlest and most trusting dog we have found so far, despite what she has been through. Should we ever manage to have our own clinic, she would be our in house resident girl. In the meantime we will carry on looking after her and feeding her. Sadly she has disappeared. Probably killed by a fisherman, but we will keep looking for her . We found a new colony of dogs- they all look like her- we think this is her home, so we will visit every other day to see if she is back.
* Sadly our beloved Bella was killed in a dog fight. We're not too sure what happened, but she was found dead on the beach the following morning. Mami is now alone. We took her in at New Year as last year she went missing. Good thing as she was terrified even indoors.
* Blackie went missing during the New Year mayhem. He appeared 3 days later .
* Lalla Baby had 5 puppies. After the death of her brother she will not let anyone near her. We have ordered a professional trapping cage ,so we will hopefully be able to catch her ,spay her and vaccinate all her puppies.We managed to catch 4 of them, but the mummy and Foxy are still out there. We must catch them before they come on heat and then we have a serious problem on our hands!
* Its been a great year. We managed to get lots done and help so many ailing and terrified dogs. The locals on Ilha are learning, taking an interest and asking for help more and more. Lets hope we can do better in 2015!
* 2013 *
We had some happy moments last year. Buster was adopted, Lumbo went to a wonderful new home and Kali now lives in the lap of luxury .We found Mami after she had run off scared by the fireworks display, hiding in the football field, and Bianchina had 4 lovely puppies. We held 2 successful clinics and saw a lot of lost and scared animals make a complete turn around. But there have been sad moments too. Papa, here above with Lalla , was killed by a privately owned dog, on the beach where he lived. Lalla's male puppy was killed by the same dog, in a horrible way a week later. Since then Lalla and her remaining puppy are terrified and won't let anyone near them. Hopefully we will slowly manage to get her trust back. Bandito - Bella and Mami's companion disappeared after the New Year's fireworks display. We looked everywhere for him, but with no happy ending. One of our old friends from the Hindu Temple died, as did Scooby 2. Cause of death unknown. We held 2 clinics and managed to vaccinate a lot of stray animals. So all in all a very successful year.
To you all - as always
THANK YOU FOR CARING
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