Feeding the meows and maahs at the temple
The word for cat is "meow" and "mah" means dog in Thai, just in case anyone was confused by the title.
The temples that we work with have been helping out a lot more than usual with the feeding of all the strays that are there and I like to believe that this is at least in part because of the fact that we have been pitching in as far as medical care, sterilization, and parasite reduction is concerned. We do drop food off but we always have talks with them about how we might not always be able to bring food and perhaps this got things moving.
Monks generally subside off of donations at temples that are provided by the local community or people that visit the temple with food or other things that the temple needs. I'm not massively up to speed on the religion but monks are supposed to live as spartan a life as possible and this includes not purchasing goods. This doesn't stop them all from having smartphones of course.
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Generally monks will head out early in the morning and proceed through the community with baskets seeking gifts or alms that the devout members of the community provide. This normally consists of rice and other food but also can be toiletries as well. According to our monk friends at the local temples, they almost always end up with far more rice than they can possibly eat and this ends up being food for the stray animal population that lives there.
It is interesting to see the feeding process because the dogs and cats all gather together and patiently wait (ok, some of the cats jump up and are not so patient) for the food to be presented to them. For me this is quite the sight to see because the dogs and cats are apparently very familiar with one another and at least during this feeding time they all get along and sit in close proximity to one another.
If you have a dog at home, and I have 3, they probably would turn their noses up at this sort of meal because they are accustomed to much finer delicacies. The dogs here need to take what they can get and also don't have much to compare it to. As far as most of them are concerned this is the only kind of food that they have ever received. Before I started working with Krabi Animal Welfare I would have thought it impossible to get a cat to eat rice, but that is exactly what happens at the temples every day. Beggars can't be choosers I suppose. I would bet that this encourages the cats to keep the rodent population down near the temples because if it is meat they are after, they are not going to get very much of it from these daily meals.
I have only witnessed this feeding time on a couple of instances because it normally takes place really early in the morning. I actually was unaware that this was an almost daily occurrence and it makes me happy to see that the boots on the ground are actually doing a lot, or most of the non-medical work themselves.
If you would like to see how you can help out or simply spread the word, please visit our website at
http://krabianimalwelfare.org
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