Shelter days last from sun-up to well past sundown, with hundreds of animals in myriad stages of recovery. Animals are vulnerable in a post-disaster landscape — where Parvovirus, Coronavirus, distemper, mange, blood parasites and many more diseases spread rapidly among abandoned populations. Animals also sustain injuries in the floods or chaotic human traffic. We see dislocated pelvises, broken legs, gashes, eye wounds Volunteer veterinarians and techs divvy out meds for the mixed-bag ailments that spread in disaster shelters. Dr. Emma Sant Cassia, a British vet, creates ID charts affixed to every cage. Each chart specifies medical and dietary needs, along with other checkmarks such as the animal's daily poop/pee output. All animals are vaccinated and ultimately undergo spay-neuther procedures.

Cages. Bowls. Buckets. By the hundreds! Any inch of shelter unoccupied by an animal contains supplies. And somebody's gotta clean them, again and again. They are disinfected and rinsed, then left to dry in Thailand's hot sun. To streamline these tasks, Grady Ballard (Kinship Circle director Brenda Shoss' husband) develops an assemblyline system. Every morning, he commandeers the cleaning area with soap, hose and scrub brush to sanitize cages and food/water bowls. “The job is not glamorous like field rescue, but it needs to get done,” Ballard says. More animal flood victims arrive each day. Some are temporary surrenders until their people can care for them. Others go home with resettled familes. The Walkers literally wander in to shelter grounds. Thailand has no animal control infrastructure or euthanasia. So stray-animal populations are huge. With shops and homes flooded, normal food sources are scarce. The Walkers show up for the grub, we figure, and we're happy to feed and shelter them. Poopy cages and crusty bowls accumulate in towering piles.