What better way to spend a sunday than the cute cuddlyness of our favorite animal!

My love for these wonderful creatures began many many years ago when i got my first and so far only dog. The labradoodle named “Olga Marie”. She grew fat old and very happy in a loving home. So since then i have always had a special affection for the dogs.

After arriving in Kathmandu, we saw the horrible conditions for the street dogs here. After some time here, i got used to the traffic, garbage and the noise level in the streets. One thing i never got used to was the huge amount of stray dogs, sleeping, scratching or looking for food. Never once have i seen any of them act aggressive. Even though people do not usually take them in for the fear of rabies, they are seen as a some kind of a godly animal. During the festival of Tihar they even have a day of celebrating the dogs and giving them a tikka . Just like the fellow to the left.

But still there is a problem in their huge numbers. At one time the numbers peaked 32 000 dogs inside the ringroad area(equal to ring 1 Oslo). So to battle this the government used to put out poison in the streets and throw the dead animals in the river. This was both inhumane and unsanitary. I wanted to write about the situation of the dogs in Kathmandu, and while researching (googling) i found and organization called KAT . I read about their work and i was very impressed. So today i hailed a taxi and went to north Kathmandu to visit the center.

Oh, hay there! Welcome to KAT! Can i smell your camera now please?

So what this center is actually doing, they capture the female dogs in specified areas of the city and bring them to the center. There they will be neutered and vaccinated against rabies. When doing this they can limit the amount of newborn puppies that will grow up to no future and no care. The dogs are then put back into their original territory, and the community is informed that the dogs are illness free. What can then be seen is that the people are more loving towards the dogs and they are not considered a annoyance.

This has in turn reduced the number of street dogs by over 10 000 in four years. So it is clearly helping.

This center is dependent on donations and volunteers that come and help. So should you drop by Kathmandu i will show you the way! As i cannot commit to volunteering here, i will instead “adopt” a dog. So a dog that is taken off the street can live and i can visit and play with it.

So if you are looking to go somewhere and find a bunch of cuddly and loving bunch that is always happy to see you, you should stop by and say hello!

 Cats are also taken in to the center. This kitten have recently been adopted and is waiting to be picked up by its new family.

The two rear legs of this dog is paralyzed after and accident. So she must jump around to wherever she wants to go. The dog is used with many challenged children for animal therapy.

The dogs are fed with leftover food given by some Kathmandus finest restaurants.

In this operating room the dogs are treated for any illness and neutered so the street dog population wont rise.

For some reason the fall/wintertime is the high season for new litters of puppies. So today at KAT i saw many small dog families.

Me, my new friend and his veterinarian.