A Remembrance by Carol Twombly

Former Treasurer, DWG Representative & Much More

My Ten Years With PAWS

I first came in contact with PAWS in the later part of 2000 after I had moved from Abqaiq to Dhahran. I was taken to a meeting being held at Melanie Dreiman's house because one of my new friends decided I needed to get out of the house, meet some nice people and find something to do besides work and vegetate at home. Since I had a cat and liked animals she thought PAWS would be a good fit.

At the meeting I met a number of the people who made up the core of PAWS; Melanie and Tom Dreiman, Tootie Schan and her husband Ro, Ron Heginbotham and his wife Bonnie, Lani Marchal and Merle Hoover and Jerry Hurych as well a number of other people. I was surprised at the amount of work being done by this small group of people and was impressed by their commitment to help the animals in the Eastern Province.

Over the next several months I got my feet wet with PAWS by helping out with a number of garage sales. I quickly learned there was no such thing as a cool breeze even at 6:30 in the morning, not to stand in front of the gate when the sale started if I wanted to live, the electronics always went the fastest, everyone wanted 'the best price' even if they were only paying SR 2 for a pair of jeans or a really nice dress, never listen to what the buyer said about the 'lady told me the price was….' without checking, the gardeners and other workers needed special consideration because their salaries were almost non-existent (if they were actually paid), the most amazing things were donated, someone was always collecting items for the sale, Melanie's garage was always full of PAWS stuff, the garage sale wasn't cancelled for sandstorms and clean-up always took longer than the set-up regardless of what the clock said.

I also learned about the plight of the strays on Aramco camps as well as those in other compounds. It was amazing to learn there were only two western veterinarians in the Dammam/Al Khobar area (population over 500,000) and that most of the area's population did not obtain vet care for their pets due to lack of knowledge or apathy. My eyes were opened to the significant cultural differences regarding the care of animals, neutering and spaying, that dogs were 'bad' and should be used only for work and were not pets, while cats were considered to be 'good'.

While working with PAWS I had a myriad of jobs besides just volunteering. I was the PAWS Representative to the Dhahran Women's Group (DWG), dog homer for a while and ran a PAWS Fungo (Bingo) game for over a year. I was on the call roster to help field inquiries from people who wanted animals, people who didn't want the animals they had, people who needed information on services provided by PAWS/the local vets or practical suggestions on the care of animals and those people who wanted PAWS to do everything while they did nothing. In 2003 I volunteered to take over as Treasurer, a position I held for the next 7 years.

I think the most worrisome time I experienced while a member of PAWS, besides the times when the PAWS Treasury was almost empty, was when the government shut down the Jeddah and Green Crown vet clinics due to paperwork issues. The calls, we all received from people desperate to find a qualified vet to care for their animals, were heartbreaking. As was our fruitless search for a Saudi vet that would provide the quality and type of services needed such as the health certificates needed to take pets out of Kingdom when people were exit only. I really believe it was only due to Molouk's article in the newspaper (which I still have) that pushed the government into allowing the veterinarian clinics to reopen.

During my tenure as Treasurer, I was able to see the financial effects on PAWS when a member of the core group left the Kingdom or had to decrease their participation in the organization. And, I was always astonished to see those holes filled with people willing to take on extra work or new people who were just as committed to the animals. There are many people who were willing to help but there will always be a few who truly stand out in my mind.

I always thought the level of commitment Melanie and Tom Dreiman demonstrated was incredible and wondered where they found the energy and the time to do all they did. For over 9 years they were the heart and soul of PAWS; always on-call often answering phone calls or providing services well after 11 pm. They took in and cared for all the animals abandoned on their doorstep as well as newborn kittens which needed bottle feeding. They saved PAWS thousands of riyals by allowing the organization to use their garage to store the garage sale items while their car sat on the street. As well, they opened their home and their yard on a monthly basis for the garage sales. In a seemly endless ability to juggle her time and tasks, Melanie was also responsible for planning, decorating, running many of the PAWS events during this time.

Jerry Huych is the oldest member of the core group still active. You would think living in Jubail would put a damper on his ability to support PAWS but nothing could be farther from the truth. Once he adopted his first cat, he was hooked and made the trip from Jubail to Dhahran/Al Khobar on many occasions to attend meetings and events. Jerry helped to organize the PAWS efforts in Jubail and acted as the PAWS representative in that area. He helped to establish a veterinarian clinic which provided services there for a number of years. He actively homes cats and dogs, and has the distinction of never winning at Quiz Night. Since he is still playing, he probably is eligible for even more coaster booby prizes than I am.

The first thing I thought when I met Joy Neumann was, 'Good heavens! How can anyone talk so fast and loud?!' But not only does she talk fast, she works hard and fast as well. Joy became one of the Garage Sale Coordinators but even before that she spent her time collecting garage sale items on Aramco most of the week as well as saving/homing cats, bunnies and anything else that comes her way. I will never forget seeing her standing on the top of her truck in the blazing sun unloading entire suites of furniture, with Stanley's help, to ensure the flexivan was emptied in time for the garage sales. She helped with the organization of the dog walks, hosted meetings, ran animals to and from the vets, took in and cared for strays and was the PAWS spokesperson for information/educational events. She was also able to affiliate PAWS with the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts and arranged for members of those organizations to help at PAWS events.

I remember when I first met Louise O'Loan and Terry Fields and listened to the wealth of ideas they had on events that could be done to raise money. It was truly amazing. Louise organized and ran many events as well as facilitated the compound representative's role. She was instrumental in setting up the neutering and spaying programs within many of the Al Khobar compounds which included organizing vet care, taking animals to/from the vet and providing care instructions. She also worked to improve relations with various groups of people to ensure PAWS was welcome almost anywhere and helped to attract newly arrived people to PAWS events. Louise was instrumental in formalizing some of the educational information provided by PAWS including such things as tips on how to safely and humanely disband a feeding colony. She was also able to bring PAWS to the attention of the international animal rights group WSPA.

Jill Barrows joined PAWS and immediately began to work with Louise to organize events. When Louise left, Jill shouldered the burden for planning and hosting most of the non-garage sale events held in the last 2 years and has been greatly responsible for keeping PAWS solvent. She acts as the PAWS Cat Homer and has been extremely successful in homing stray cats.

When there was a lack of coordination for the garage sale due to the previous organizers not being available Siham Jones stepped up to help. Siham organizes the collection of garage sale items from compounds other than Aramco and arranged for the event to be held on several of those compounds. Siham arranged for the truck which was used to take the garage sale items from the flexivan to the garage sale sites thereby decreasing the time it took to really set up for the sales while increasing the amount of items available for those events. She also was able to coordinate with the Aramco education program to have PAWS events counted as community service credit for pre-college students which was a win-win situation for both groups.

The visibility of PAWS and the wealth of consistent information provided by the organization would never have been possible if it hadn't been for Tammy and Ahmed Al-Farmaoui. When they joined PAWS they brought with them years of IT and technical writing skills. Within a year, PAWS had a stunningly beautiful as well as extremely functional website and newsletter. For the first time people could actually see pictures of the animals up for adoption and information about each adoptee. Educational information on animal care, seasonal health tips, current events, cartoons and links to other animal organizations were also readily available. Not stopping there, Tammy became the Dog and Miscellaneous Animal Homer and is responsible for the successful homing of numerous dogs, cats, birds, as well as other animals.

Of course my best memories of PAWS aren't related to the people but to two very special dogs, Elvis and Dottie. I brought them both home to Texas with me when I left the Kingdom in December 2010.

Elvis was a desert dog found by the side of the road after being hit by a car in late 2002. Taken to the Jeddah Vet Clinic he was found to have multiple injuries including a broken pelvis (hence the name) and a badly deformed foot. No one wanted to adopt him and the man who initially said he would gave Elvis back because the 'dog was crippled and brain damaged'. So I took him home to foster (he was 'mine' in less than a day) and found the man's statement couldn't be farther from the truth. All this damaged and obviously abused dog needed was some peace, quiet and love. He went from a dog huddled in fear at the bottom of the fence to the defender of the yard within a year. His deformed foot didn't cripple him; it just made his gait a little odd when he flew through the dog flap in the back door, through the kitchen and living room to the front door in seconds to greet any visitor who rang the doorbell.

Dottie is my 'Velcro girl'. She is a Dalmatian found on the side of the road near Ras Tanura. Rescued she was fostered for several months and then went to her first 'permanent home'. Unfortunately this home wasn't the right match and she went back to the vets for boarding until another home could be found. Feeling sorry for her and to get her out of the kennel because it was costing PAWS a bundle and since she was rapidly accepted by Elvis during their introduction at the vet clinic, I brought her home for fostering (that also lasted less than a day). It turns out Dottie had several health issues and a pronounced Dalmatian characteristic known as a 'Dalmatian smile' which negatively impacted her ability to fit in at her first permanent home. Once the health issues were corrected, the curled lip 'smile' of submission was explained by the vet, and I learned not to overfeed her (she will eat anything and everything) it was smooth sailing at my house. Dottie turned out to be an extremely sweet and loving dog that likes nothing more than to be close to you all the time (hence the nickname) and to be petted.

Thinking back over the last ten years I remember I found the jobs I held with PAWS to be frustrating, worrying, irritating, time consuming and never occurring at a time convenient for me. But those same jobs also brought me a great sense of accomplishment and pride especially when another animal was homed, I saw the numbers of animals PAWS helped as I reviewed the vet bills, an event was successful or even when the Treasury books actually balanced on the first try. Now that I'm home in the US, I will miss those jobs but more importantly I will miss the people I worked with and their years of commitment to a cause that is just now being recognized in the Kingdom.