The clock hits 03.30am and one of Warin's associates is already preparing the ingredients for cooking the dogs' meals.
Unfortunately there is no kitchen and they have to make do with what they have.
Huge cooking plates on an old-fashioned wood fire with 70 kg uncooked rice, a real challenge and something I have never seen up close, despite my many years in this country, and wonder what motivates someone to do this on a daily basis year after year.
The stirring tools do indeed look like oars and many liters of water disappear in the big pot.
I'm not really used to getting up at these early times, or in the middle of the night, and watch these activities with party eyes but I am amazed at the ease with which the "cook" does her job.
I am not at all familiar with his way of caring for animals, but after I have been watching for a while, I am getting a lot of respect for these people.
The water seems to refuse to boil, but perhaps my impatience and cruelly disturbed sleep is to blame.
A few dogs watch from a distance and know a lot better what is going on here - a ritual which is repeated every night to feed the ex-stray and temple dogs.
By the end of the night, around 7 am most of the work seems to be completed and they can start drying the cooked rice.
Finally all water has evaporated from the rice. The cook adds some fish waste in order to provide the dogs with some nourishment that is close to protein. But according to western standards, this can never be complete healthy dog food.
But for the lack of better, it seems a well-chosen solution. Animal protection is an unknown concept on this side of the globe and survival is only for those who are the fittest.
After this, the many buckets are filled with the mixture, and from a distance I can hear the howling of 230 ex strayers who know that it is time for breakfast.
The howling increases and is almost deafening. I wonder how this will affect the neighbours in the long run, because in the Netherlands this would not be tolerated because of the noise. The project would be closed by local government and I am wondering if Warin would have got permission for the center in the first place over there.
Warin has already showed up around 5.00 am (still night time in my books) and is busy arranging things. She is clearly the general of this small but strong army consisting of 5 soldiers who take care of the daily care of this shelter and also of the dogs who stay at the neighbouring temples.
After the dogs within the center have been fed, the buckets of rice that were set aside earlier are loaded into a kind of "sidecar moped" that serves as a means of transport to the temple and the adjacent beach where many stray dogs are already waiting for Warin, her assistants and the food of course.
The picture of Warin riding a loaded sidecar moped with buckets of dog food has become a familiar sight Huayang. I'm staring my eyes out and think, in spite of my admiration, secretly "why would someone start a shelter for stray dogs?" Warin however seems to enjoy this heavy task every day, because as she says: "someone has to take care of these dogs" and it shows clearly that that "someone" is her!!
Arriving at the forest next to the temple, the stray dogs arrive in large numbers and falling over themselves to secure their share of the rice which is served in aluminum bins.
One would expect with these large numbers of dogs that one loses count and that one cannot tell one dog from the other, but the opposite is true in this case because Warin recognises them all and each dog has its own name which is usually related to their appearance
Eg. one dog is called "Den" which means "red" in Thai language and another "Leuan" which is a kind of skin fungus that the dog seems to suffer from
The wild dogs on the beach look awful. Warin explains that the chance for a cuddle of these dogs is often zero. They will be likely to attack because of bad experiences with people in the past.
Well, I would not even think of trying to to pet them so I watch this spectacle from a safe distance.
After a while, Warin and her assistants retire to the shelter, where many tasks are still waiting to be completed. Such as cleaning the cooking utensils and dog feeding trays.
Cleaning the kennel area, washing some dogs, caring for injured and sick dogs and buying food for the coming week.
For the people in the center the day ends at 6 pm. A paralysed dog is still fed by hand, after which he is taken to Warin's house to spend the night safely.
I am happy that I can be of some assistance in the end with the more simple task that I have taken on myself
The fire red Asian sun begins to set while the heat is still shimmering and the mosquitoes slowly begin to attack anything that moves or breathes.
At this point I humbly remember that I would not be able to constantly do what Warin does, but I also realise that if I were a stray dog or was born again as a stray dog (which could happen according to the Buddhist faith] I would be ever so lucky if Warin would find me !!!
Updated 4 March 2019.