Narla and Mia are just puppies - but they're big puppies!
Narla is an American x Boxer and Mia is a French Bullmastiff x St Bernard/Boxer. They are so well behaved for puppies - and soft and silly and cute as!
I was introduced to Lily and Pepe a couple of weeks ago and they were so happy to meet me! Lily is a very pretty shihtzu cross and Pepe has some stately salt and pepper colouring to his little Chihuhua cross coat. Lily and Pepe's parents welcome other pets into their home that need a half way house until they find they're real homes - they are very special people!
A walk in the park showed their true character quirks - Lily is obsessed with honkey nuts and Pepe likes to think he is a big guard dog!
Floyd - named after Pink Floyd - is a blue heeler cross spaniel. He managed to get all the blue heeler colouring with the spaniel's super soft ears!
And what a character! He lays down to drink, loves his ball, does a funny jump and tuck with his back legs when he settles on his favourite pillow and he's super fidgety for a dog!
Isn't he just beautiful!
Part proceeds of this photo session goes to the Rainbow Bridge Fund run by the Pet Doctor Hospital in Bibra Lake for the adoption and rehabilitation of abandoned dogs and cats.
Amee and Jeremy are the proud parents of four young girls.
Jeremy is truly a man surrounded by his princesses!
But what can you do?
Sigrid Blot of Emma Page Jewellery is offering to donate all profits from sales to the Bali Street Dogs.
You just need to get together a group of people and host an Emma Page Jewellery Party at your place.
I normally get to photograph the bride getting ready but this time I got follow the groom instead!
It was easy to see how close Jayson is with his family and mates - it was a pleasure to spend time with this lovely down-to-earth family.
The reception was held in the lovely rural backyard of Jayson's family and it was as picturesque as a reception should be.
Follow Up
It’s been a few weeks since I came home and I hold a lot of my memories of this last trip as very special.
I had prepared myself and hardened my heart against the sights I knew I would see and in retrospect coped very well. Until I started culling and editing my photos the other day. As I separated my 1000 plus photos into different folders tears blurred my vision at the horrible condition these dogs were in.
When I first started looking into how I could help the dogs in Bali my first thought was why don’t the Balinese like dogs? Since then I’ve found that they have a very strong respect for all living things, good or bad, as they believe everything has a right to be in this world. They share their space without complaint. Yes some dogs are killed for food, yes some dogs are used as sacrifices in ceremonies and yes some dogs are beaten cruelly for no particular reason but this isn’t the norm. Mostly they just don’t know how to care for companion animals. They know how to carve stone and wood, grow rice and make clothes but these skills are part of a subsistence living. Caring for companion animals will take education.
Before this trip I had wondered what type of animal Bali’s street dogs were. Are they a species of wild dog? They are certainly very similar to Australian dingos and even have a high percentage of dingo heritage in their gene pool. I watched them run in packs and squabble with each other on the beaches of Kuta and Nusa Dua last time I was there. They seemed to have no interest in “making friends” with me or any other person that I could see.
But it turns out they are just stray domestic dogs. They would gladly become best friends with a good person – okay any person with food and a place to rest in the shade without being chased away. But even a stray can be dangerous, easily surprised, expecting a kick, suspicious, hunger gnawing day in day out, constantly itchy – hell that would make me dangerous! As with any domestic dog, they just want food, good company and a home - actually these dogs crave it.
While I was only taking photographs, this trip made me feel so helpful and proactive and fulfilled. It has been a once in a lifetime opportunity that I hope to repeat many times! To actually feed malnourished dogs, medicate sick dogs and save starving dogs made this whole trip so worthwhile. And while I was only taking photographs, recording everything I saw felt just as proactive. Some of the photos will go in a fundraising exhibition, some of the photos will be given to BAWA for any awareness marketing they can use them in and some of the photos will be used on the PAVVA website for volunteer vet nurses.
One of the biggest problems for visitors is that they feel so damned helpless or frustrated that there’s nothing they can do. But all visitors to Bali can help the dogs they see or find. The Bali Street Dog Fund (the Australian fundraising organisation for BAWA) has an information pack for travellers that gives them phone numbers to ring and other advice on what to do when they find a dog in urgent need of help. This information as well as collections tins and merchandise will be available at the exhibition and all supplied by the Bali Street Dog Fund – www.balistreetdogs.org
If you are in Bali and you see a dog that needs help OF ANY KIND
Ring the BAWA Care Centre on 0361-981490
or Janice on 0811389004
I have now been overseas six times, once to Thailand, once to Fiji and Bali now four times. This trip was the first time I felt like I had experienced a culture from the inside, instead from the outside looking in. I kind of felt I belonged, like a bit of a local and it was an amazing feeling. I hope to spend a few weeks there next time and take classes in Indonesian but even with my spattering of Balinese, I am amazed at how much of a conversation you can understand watching body language and listening out for “anjing” (dog).
Now I need to prepare for an exhibition later this year. I need to print and frame some 20 or so photos, get public liability insurance to exhibit in major shopping centres and pay for mall space – at least $3000.
A vet nurse from Perth whom I met recently is also an Emma Page jewellery consultant – and an amazing woman with a big heart. She donates all the profits from her Emma Page business to animal welfare. Sigrid has offered to donate all of her profits to sponsor my exhibition! What a brilliant idea – not everyone feels the same depth of commitment to animal welfare so what better way to get those people to help – they get to buy jewellery! I will be inviting all my friends, associates and customers to have Emma Page Jewellery Parties and would like to organise a bit of a presentation on the Bali Street Dogs for each one.
I need to make sure this trip gets back what it gave to me.
As well as the exhibition, the information I gathered on accommodation, restaurants, laundry services, etc all needs to be collated and put onto a website that vet nurses can use to find BAWA and volunteer their time to help.
A system needs to be put in place for an easy way to ship medical supplies to third world countries quickly and regularly without putting young women at risk for “smuggling”.
More overseas welfare clinics need to be contacted and asked if they would like to take part in our program.
Unfortunately I can see a lot of red tape ahead of me but after being on the front line, seeing so many unhealthy dogs and participating in an invaluable program with limited resources, I will never lose sight of the fact that PAVVA (Pathways for Veterinary Volunteers Abroad) is for the ANIMALS.
Wednesday
Ketut met me at the hotel at 9am and we went next door to the BAWA office and spent an hour looking at the photos I had taken trying to work out where we had found these particular dogs. As a photographer I pay attention to backgrounds and I move around my subject as I photograph it so I was able to say “there was a temple to the left”, “that was a three way intersection”, etc which helped jog Ketut’s memory. Janice has lived in Bali for over 20 years and knows the names of many of the streets around where the “big tree” is and which direction Denpasar and Ubud lay which gave us the “big picture” directions. I was very pleased to find that between the three of us we were able to remember where each dog was found. That being said, now BAWA have to find the dogs. They certainly won’t be sitting in exactly the same place waiting for them to come pick them up! It may take a day to a couple of weeks to find them and even then, maybe not.
Ketut then drove me to his family’s two businesses, wood carving and silver jewellery. Today is my last day and I was sitting quietly in the van revisiting my experiences (as you tend to do on last days) and Ketut thought I looked too serious and even sad – and he wanted to do his best to make me happy again! He made his brother drive so that he could talk with me without having to watch the traffic and cheer me up! Ketut is a devout Hindu, he believes his good actions will repay him with good karma and he needs good karma to help him up out of his poverty stricken life. “Ketut” means fourth son, so his family is large, more mouths to feed, more jobs to find. His family is generations of carvers and he showed me his slightly deformed and calloused hands. Ketut has decided he no longer wants to be a carver, his work takes many weeks and the monetary return is very small. He wants to be a driver for tourists and also do airport transfers – the pay is much better. He believes that as I have a good heart for wanting to help the dogs, I will have very good karma. And he will get good karma because he is helping me! To give karma a fighting chance he has asked me to pass on his name and number for any of my friends needing a driver in Bali. So if you are reading this:
If you are travelling to Bali
And need a driver
I highly recommend
Ketut Godoh
Phone: 081 999 898 251
Please tell him Gabby sent you!
We arrived at his family’s wood carving shop and I received some quite royal treatment in being shown around by a relative, describing the wood types and the length of time it takes to make each piece and how the skills are handed down many generations from father to son. The nice man thought I was much younger than I am and didn’t believe I was “very young” when I had my children! I had plans to buy myself my feng shui animal (a monkey) and one for my girlfriend as well (a horse which ended up being fumigated for borer beetle by customs when I got home) so I picked out two pieces and received a very good price because I was a special friend of Ketut. While I was waiting for them to be wrapped Ketut pointed out his specialty carving – traditional masks. He is very, very good! More impressive is that each piece is carved from imagination and not from a picture.
Our next stop was to be his family’s other business but as we went through his village he asked if I would like to see his home. Partly out of curiosity and partly out of respect I said that I would like it very much. His very traditional Balinese home had a very western toddler gate blocking the entry that we stepped over. As his family is large they all live in the same compound but one two roomed building belongs to Ketut and his wife Ketut Julie, a very slim and tired looking young woman and their two small children. I was “introduced” to his mother in law and sister first. Both were on the little tiled verandah of Ketut’s home. Mother in law only had a strip of material around her bosom which covered little but was cool. Sister was born deaf and mute and perhaps retarded as well as she lay on the cool tiles of the verandah drooling slightly, arms and legs slightly pulled in towards her body as palsy kids do, with mother in law keeping her company.
I sat in Ketut’s “lounge room” with their battered lounge and small tv and accepted the traditional custom of the offer of a drink. I was introduced to his two small children and took their photos which really made them laugh when they saw their images on the back of the camera! I promised to email him a copy of them when I got home. We only stayed for a few minutes before we headed off to the jewellery shop as I only had limited time before I needed to pack for my trip home.
A sense of déjà vu hit me as we entered the front yard of the building. I had been to this shop once before, over 16 years ago on my very first visit to Bali with my best friend and her cousin (who I later married)! Such a small world! Even Ketut was surprised! After spending some time seeing the process of melting and shaping and watching a woman glue some incredibly small beads to an earring, I looked at the many items available for sale and chose some pretty earrings as a present for my daughter.
We headed back to my hotel so I could pack and do some last minute present shopping for my husband and son. Ketut’s last job of my visit was to take me to the airport where I nearly missed the plane for not “seeing” the check in desk!
And now back to reality, family, new business venture and some more animal charity work back home.
I put a call out recently to anyone interested in a street fashion photo session. I am fascinated by street fashion, what they wear and why. Everything from the shiny bits on belt buckles, to hair, tattoos and jewellery - it all makes for great photos!
Vivien answered my call for a photo session. She is in two bands, has some really awesome guitars, great hair and a behind that looks fantastic in both dresses and jeans!
