A nurse beyond borders

I remember the first time I came face to face with a moon bear. It made me cry. 8 years of hard work, all boiled down to them eyes. Eyes that looked deep into my soul and said "its okay, I'm here now". Fur so soft, movements so gentle, noises so soothing, it would be easy to forget that these bears could kill me if they wanted. And who would blame them?
After everything mankind had done to them, who would blame them for ndver forgiving us. But its like they knew as well as I did, we were never going to hurt them ever again.  Don't get me wrong, I met some grumpy buggars! But Prince, Freedom, Douglas, Asia, Kevin, Blu, Woodley, Jasper, Banjo, so many bears with genuine love in their hearts.

I wish they'd had a better start in life, as I wish I'd had a better start to my trip. I arrived during a bear funeral. A bear called Honey, God rest her soul, who was in heart and whose symptoms could no longer be controlled. It was a beautiful service, I felt like I was intruding but I'm glad I could say a prayer for the girl I never met. Everyone threw flowers down onto her body, you could see how each bear lost cut everybody deeply.

The first couple of weeks were incredibly hard for me. I had never been anywhere without my family or my boyfriend of 6 years, so home sickness was overwhelming. The only thing that got me through it is the bears. Those big, beautiful, peaceful bears. They were the only medicine that soothed my aching heart, and soon time was flying and it was the countdown to the day I left, I needed to slow time down. 

My role as a vet nurse volunteer was that of assisting, because at the end of the day - I had no idea what a bear's normal heart rate was! The day

started with medicated shakes; we had 30 minutes at 8.00am each morning to blend up apples and bears with the different medications the bears were on. Each bear had a numbered cup. Once the shakes were taken off to the bear houses, it was time to set up for the next day, laying out all the cups and preparing all the medications so it went as smoothly and as quickly as possible the following morning. Then there was the dog walk! Local dogs lived on chains outside houses, not because the owners were cruel, just because their dogs were their only line of defence to protect what little they had. I loved the dog walk, it was nice to stretch your legs and watch the dogs enjoy themselves. The Animals Asia staff had made a dog park - a fenced in area where the dogs could be let off the lead and be, well, dogs! It was too risky to let them off the lead outside the dog

 park.

On Tuesdays to Thursdays there were bear health checks. These were the best days :) Bears would arrive in the hospital the afternoon before where we'd bed them down for the night so they could have their anaesthetic in the morning. Bears would be anaesthetised by the resident vet and nurse; it was a tense time, that moment when you open the door on their transport cage, hoping the sedation had done its job and the bear wasn't just playing asleep! Once the bear was definitely asleep, they were intubated and hooked up to an anaesthetic gas machine. Then the work begins! It was my job to collect hair and blood samples, maintain

the bear's temperature, and anything else required of me. I clipped their nails, cleaned their ears and applied the mittens that 1000s of volunteers around the world had knitted to keep the bears body temperature up during the anaesthetic. The resident nurse would closely monitor the bear's heart rate, respiration rate, blood pressure, oxygen and anaesthetic levels. The vet would carry out a thorough examination; no anaesthetic is wasted! They carry out eye exams; because a lifetime on a dark farm can have a detrimental affect on their sight, an ultrasound exam; because liver cancer is one of the biggest killers amongst ex-farm

bears, full body x-rays; because those coffin like cages cause severe joint problems, and finally - the dental work! I didn't assist in a bear health check that didn't require major dental work. Either bears had their teeth smashed out by the farmer or they're destroyed their own teeth through incessant bar biting. It was exhausting work, bear teeth don't come out easily, the vets would spend a long time extracting rotting teeth, it was back breaking work. 

One health check will forever stick in my mind; Monkey. It was going routinely, and then Monkey's abdomen was clipped for the ultrasound exam. And that's when I saw it. Monkey's fur was hiding the scars of his sad past. Scars from one side of his stomach to another and a mess in the middle. Monkey had had a cholecystotomy; his gallbladder had been removed then he was first rescued. But the extraction point the farmer's had used was a mess; it wasn't a perfect surgical scar, the scar tissue was massive. It looked like he'd worn a metal jacket at some point, although I can't remember if this was definitely the case. I lay my hand on the scars and felt like crying. This poor poor bear, what horrors must he have been through to get here. Thank God Animals Asia found him. Thank God Jill started Animals Asia. Thank God for the vet team and the bear workers and the office workers and for every single volunteer all around this planet. And thank God for every person who put a penny in an Animals Asia pot, because without all that coming together, Monkey would still be in a cage, still be in a metal jacket, either that or he would have died in that cage. 

I loved my time in China, not just because of the bears, but also because of the people. The vet team were a mixture of British, Australian and Monica who was a bit of everything ;) Wendy, Karli and Fiona the vet nurses, Monica and Jen the vets, Nic and Sally the bear managers, and the translators and the bear workers. All amazing, beautiful people. I was joined by different volunteers; Hannah and Bear, Thomas and Amy. All these people loved them bears just as much as I did and fought for them every single day, it was wonderful to be surrounded by it. And of course Jill. The first time I met Jill, it was like meeting the Queen for me;

I was terrified. But she was just as wonderful as I imagined, down to earth and keen to be as hands on as possible. When there were bear health checks, she would come and sit on her laptop on the floor, just to be in the room, to be with her bears.

Its funny, 3 years on and I still miss it, waking up to the sight of those bears, noodles in the village, dinner at the garden restaurant, pancakes with the vet team. I still play my part, my friend Annie - another vet nurse vollie, created the Heart of England Animals Asia Support Group to
raise funds and awareness in the Midlands. We both enjoy the work, we never forget our bears.

The end of my trip in China was marked by another occasion in my life. On my journey home, I had to catch a connecting flight to Birmingham at Amsterdam. I wandered off my plane, clouded by jetlag, to find my boyfriend stood there. Confused was not the word, that was until he got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. I said yes of course. 2011 was the year when more dreams would come true than I expected. Although he made me swear I'd never go away again :)

If these words have touched you, please make time to visit Animals Asia's website and learn about their amazing work, not just with bears but in the fight against the live cat and dog meat markets and to improve the lives of animals in captivity all over Asia.