By Junie Kovacs | Founder
April has arrived on Koh Lanta. The island is beginning to wind down after high season, and there is that familiar, quieter energy settling in. Visitors are still finding their way to us, and we love welcoming every one of them. But March was harder than it should have been. Flight cancellations and global travel disruptions kept many people from reaching our corner of Thailand this year. We felt it. We are watching it closely, and we hope it is short-lived.
In the middle of all of that, we lost someone.
I want to tell you about Ugie.
Last month, we lost Ugie.
She had been with us a long time. Long enough that her absence is something you feel before you even think it. You walk toward the gate, and she is not there.
She was always the first one at the gate.
Every single time. Footsteps would sound on the path, and before you even looked up, Ugie was already watching. Bright brown eyes peeping through the gate, locked onto you, fully present before you had even arrived.
Ugie came to us as a tiny pup, rescued from a terrible shelter. She was adopted once, then returned after being hit by a car. The accident left her pelvis and hip damaged, and she walked a little differently after that. But she still ran. She still played. She still greeted every person who came through that gate as though nothing in her history had touched her joy at all.
In the end, it was a venomous snake bite that took her from us. Quick, and completely out of our hands. For a dog who had survived so much already, it felt cruel. But she was not alone, and she was not in pain for long.
We buried her at the center, wrapped in a pink floral shroud, surrounded by flowers and the people who loved her. Her headstone, hand-painted with her name, sits at her resting place now. One by one, the team placed yellow flowers and handfuls of earth. Then Halu, her best friend, was brought to the graveside on his lead to sniff the ground and say his own goodbye.
If you have ever watched a dog understand loss, you will know it is one of the quieter heartbreaks.
Ugie had a hard start. She had a painful chapter in the middle. And through all of it, she chose joy. She kept running. She kept showing up.
Rest in peace, Ugie. You were safe, you were loved, and you were ours.
Ko Phayam: Another Year, Another Community Showing Up
In March, our team wrapped up another mobile sterilization clinic on Ko Phayam, and the results speak for themselves.
112 dogs and 82 cats sterilized. 27 of those dogs made the journey over from Koh Chang. It was a full, busy, meaningful few days.
But what stays with us is not just the numbers. It is the community that makes it possible every single year. The Ko Phayam locals, the returning tourists who come back and drop by the clinic, the people who donated throughout the season. Together, 132,340 baht was raised.
That is not a small thing. That is people choosing, year after year, to be part of something that is making a visible difference. And it is working. Those who return to Ko Phayam regularly tell us they can see it: fewer strays on the streets, fewer injuries, fewer litters born into uncertainty. The animals that are there are in better condition. Sterilization does that. Quietly, consistently, over time.
We are grateful for every single person who showed up, gave, or simply cared enough to spread the word.
A Note on International Adoptions
March brought something we had not anticipated. Flight cancellations and travel disruptions across several key routes meant that some of our international adoptions simply could not go ahead. Dogs who were ready, families waiting, left without a travel date through no fault of anyone.
Joseph knows this feeling better than most. He got close. A flight volunteer was lined up, the paperwork was done, and then the flight was cancelled due to the ongoing disruption in the Middle East. His adoption fell through, and he is still here, waiting patiently for his chance to come around again. If you would like to meet him, you can read his full story here.
It is one of the harder parts of this work. The animal is prepared, the family is prepared, and then something entirely outside our control steps in. We keep those dogs settled and cared for, and we stay in close contact with their families. But the waiting is hard on everyone.
We are hopeful the disruption is temporary. And we will keep working through it.
In the meantime, if you or someone you know has been thinking about giving a dog their forever home, we would love for you to take a look at who is waiting.
Links:
By Junie Kovacs | Founder
By Junie Kovacs | Founder
Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.
Support this important cause by creating a personalized fundraising page.
Start a Fundraiser
