Volunteering

The above photograph is an Ixcuintla, a Mexican hairless dog, who one of our Canadian friends own.

Today we volunteered at the travelling spay and neuter clinic for cats and dogs in nearby Playa Los Ayala. This a free service, provided by volunteers and travelling Mexican veterinarians from Mexico City (who are paid $500/month for travelling around to many communities each month and providing the service). Many of the gringos brought in their Mexican neighbors' cats and dogs and some of the Mexicans brought in their own pets, or "pets" that are in actuality street animals.

We signed up for the morning shift, from 8am-noon. Luke signed up for post-surgery recovery, where you monitor the animals vital statistics such as body temperature, pulse rate, and breathing. Emily signed up for instrumentation and sterilization, where the instruments and gauze/wraps are prepared and sterilized for the vets (see photo, you can also see in the background that surgery is underway). Everything has to be cleaned and sterilized in an autoclave.

Unfortunately, upon arrival, Luke somehow also managed to volunteer to help groom, which really meant tick removal. Luckily for Luke tick duty didn't last too long, and he was quickly moved over to recovery because the pets started rolling in after surgery. After about 3 hours of prep work, Emily then moved to recovery with Luke, where she was needed to assist Luke and Jeanie (see photo), who were the primary people taking the vitals. Typically there were 10 animals at a time in recovery. The cats were in recovery the longest because it take several hours for them to come out of anesthesia. Dogs usually came out right away, within a half hour or so. No animals died, but two or three were in serious condition and one had to be resuscitated by those volunteers and vets while in surgery. We ended up staying way past our shift because it was so busy. All told, in one day, there were 40 cats and dogs that were spayed and neutered, and we went home at about 7:30pm. There was one cat left in recovery (the one who had to be resuscitated) when we left at 7pm, but many other animals were also left to be kennelled overnight because their owners did not come to pick them up yet. We hope their owners pick them up. Some of them might be street dogs, that they just put back on the streets after they've recovered. There are also sessions on Thursday and Friday, but we aren't sure if we are going to attend yet.


On another note, Luke has been baking "no-knead bread" lately and yesterday we made garlic whole wheat. You let the dough sit for 12-18 hours and then put it in the oven (in a dutch oven) for about 30-45 minutes, without a kneading process. It has turned out great (see photo). This morning Emily's dad made jugo verde (green juice), which we try to get on the street every time we see it available, it is really good and very healthy. It is made with orange juice, celery, cilantro, cactus, and some other veggies or fruits (see photo of cactus and cilantro).

Lastly, my dad took this photo on Monday, when we were in La Penita, at the carneceria (meat butcher shop), of the skinned cow. I am not really sure what else to say about it, but the tongue (lengua) is in front of the face, and apparently they are tasty. I think you can try it at Taco King in Fairbanks if you are interested. I guess it is nice to get your meat local. Luckily this picture wasn't taken at the sterilization clinic today...