Is it really the end of another month already? We cannot believe just how quickly November has gone but we are all working hard and feel good that AWOL has achieved so much to help the animals and in turn the family that owns them.

AWOL Head Collars

As you can clearly see from the picture here head collars leave more than a little to be desired. They are very hit or miss and often have a chain which cuts into the nose causing a constantly open wound on the donkey. We have, and still do, packed many chains with cotton wool and then wrap with bandage but really we want to get rid of the chain altogether.

Though we have found many items of tack that we can buy locally we have not found a head collar and talking to the locals it appears that they all make their own from whatever they can find. We have been experimenting with different styles and materials and it has become obvious why head collars are homemade as no two donkey's faces are the same. We cannot use metal buckles as they become too hot and also rust, plastic just doesn't last so we have to fit each one and stitch it together which does take some time. We and the donkey's are happy with the end result but we still need to find a quicker way to make them. This month on our pictures page we have focused on donkey head collars though as usual we are dealing with so many other problems.

El Marise

The more time we spend in El Marise the more people we meet as they bring their animals to us for help. It can be quite chaotic at times and even when we are tired and can do no more it is difficult to leave as there always is another animal in need. AWOL is doing some really good work but we do need our small centre to work from and a permanent vet. We hoped to have some good news on the land but our lawyer is still chasing one signature. We will keep you all advised on the progress.

On the 17th November at their Luxor headquarters Pauline, Sabine and Graham met with Dr Emad and Dr Amin of the Brooke Hospital who both welcomed AWOL and are pleased that we can all work together for the betterment of the animals and in turn the families that own them.

It was also very nice to receive a call from Kim, the manager of Animal Care in Egypt, ACE, who had a large stock of dog collars and offered some to AWOL to help the dogs of El Marise. We really appreciated this and have put many of them to good use already.

We would like to thank both the Brooke Hospital and Animal Care in Egypt and we look forward to future cooperation for the good of the animals of Luxor.

A Happy Hound

We had finished at El Marise for the day when we decided to drive along the west bank of Luxor via the desert road and on the way we came across a very distressed dog that was chained up by the side of a narrow track. We stopped and Pauline and Sabine went to see what could be done whilst Graham tried to find somewhere to park the car where we didn't block the road.

We found that the chain around the dog's neck was so tight it had cut into the back of the neck and under the chin as you can just make out in this picture. We had to get the chain off quickly which was extremely difficult as we unable to build up any trust because the animal was just too distressed. We adjusted a new soft fabric collar to about the correct size and then held the dog down, quickly cut off the chain and clipped on the new collar. We then spent some time gaining the dog's trust which allowed us to treat the neck wounds and we left a much calmer and happier animal. There were 2 other dogs nearby and we were able to change their chain collars for fabric collars before they outgrew them and thankfully before any damage was caused.

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