A felicitation

Yesterday was the fourth birthday party of the Kathmandu Animal Treatment Centre, a super little NGO which is now supported by its own UK registered charity. This is the one of the few other charities that I choose to support apart from of course The Esther Benjamins Trust. In spite of its acronym, KAT exists mainly for the welfare of dogs and the humane control of the Kathmandu stray dog population. Historically this problem has been "managed" (by others) through the widespread indiscriminate poisoning of dogs but this cruel practice achieves only a temporary reduction in the population. The KAT approach has been to pick up bitches off the streets and spay them, an approach that has had a documented long term benefit in other centres. Yesterday a spokesman for KAT said that they had over their first four years spayed 5,733 dogs preventing the birth of an estimated 55,000 puppies. That represents a real impact. KAT helps other animals on modest scale, including most recently one donkey (see my earlier post on "The Working Donkeys of Kathmandu", 9th April 2008) and has introduced pet therapy to a major children's home (our facilities don't need that kind of support as the refuges are already crawling with rescue dogs that my wife Bev has picked up off the street).

Yesterday's occasion turned into a "felicitation" for the organisation's delightful founder, artist Jan Salter who hails from the West Country in the UK. This rather quaint, antiquated term refers to an exercise in the erection of a gawdy tent and in fawning, lofty speeches that are usually rounded off with the presentation of a "token of love". The latter is usually a gimcrack of a statuette or picture of some description. A felicitation tends to be launched as an ambush on the unsuspecting recipient. I have been caught like this a couple of times and there is no escape from the onslaught. You just have to sit there with a fixed smile and curled toes while you take the compliments; on one occasion I was even referred to in a speech as "God's Wondrous Creation". The truth of the matter is that God's Wondrous Creation would rather run a mile than be part of such a ceremony. I am bemused by those who mis-read me so much to think that I might get any kind of a buzz from such public acknowledgement. Not only am I inherently quite shy, but the buzz that I get comes from making the Trust's whole operation work for the kids - and to find the funding for it to be sustained. That's quite enough for me.

Anyway, the event went as well as these things ever can do. It was rather a paradox though to have heard animal welfare speeches being made to the background chorus of howling dogs that were indignant at being put in their cages for an occasion that was being held in their usual exercise compound. Two of the longer speeches in Nepali were really useful for me as during these I managed at last to read a really interesting article on podcasting, this being my latest interest for improving the Trust's communication strategy.

As for Jan, she took the whole process in her stride even if she did fluff her acknowledgement speech in her uniquely dotty way. Bev and I are proud to be supporters of KAT and to have Jan as such a colourful friend in drab old Kathmandu.