The Wonders of Volunteerism

I just participated in a Neuter/Spay Clinic for cats and dogs here in my local area. It was about the 3rd clinic set up in our area since November, to spay and neuter pets and stray animals in the towns for free. There are so many homeless animals that something had to be done. Many people can't afford the cost of fixing their pets, so more and more babies are left as strays. Sometimes a litter of them is found on a doorstep, or just dumped anywhere. It is really sad so, up and down the coast here, in many towns the people have gotten together and set up free clinics. It is absolutely amazing what can be accomplished. The vets at this one, came down here two hours from Tepic, Nayarit. Other volunteers came up here from Bucerias, an hour south. Some are volunteers that work at clinics whenever a town has one. Many are locals like Victor and I who want to help. Wednesday was setup day, where all the supplies, equipment, medicine, cages, tables, everything was brought to a vacant house with 6 rooms and volunteers set up all the rooms in preparation for the 2 day clinic to follow. At 7 a.m doors were open and people started bringing their animals. By 10 a.m. each day, people had to be turned away as there were too many pets to be fixed and not enough time or doctors to fix them all in the two days. Hopefully, another clinic will be done this summer to take care of all the animals unable to be fixed last week in La Colonia, the neighborhood it was in.

It was my first time working at the clinic and I wasn't sure what I would be doing. I was a little nervous, as I didn't really want to handle the animals. I thought I could do paperwork or reception. But I was needed to write down the stats as they were done on the animals in recovery. Cats were laid on the tables in the small room and dogs on the floor. I helped with cats and soon I was doing the vitals myself, as there wasn't enough people to get the job done. I did rectal temperatures, checked respiration and used the stethoscope for pulse. We tried to take vitals every 10 minutes, but couldn't keep up as more cats were brought in to our room. We had to turn the cat over frequently and if the temp was low, warm up socks filled with ? in the microwave to put next to them wrapped in a towel. If the cats eyes were open but they were not awake, we had to massage the eyes to keep them moist. If the cat started to wake up some, we had to massage it and keep an eye on it so it didn't jump or fall off the table. It was a bit much at times, trying to keep your eye on 5-10 cats all at once! I managed to get out to eat lunch for 10 minutes and then back to work. It got so hot and stinky in the room I had to run out and get fresh air and drink some cold beverage. By the afternoon late I was exhausted, but we had to keep going as the doctors were still doing the operations. On friday night Jeanie who was in charge of recovery, didn't leave til 10pm as one big cat just wouldn't wake up. Some big cats take 5-6 hours to come out of it.

Victor helped by carrying the animals from surgery into the recovery room, and some of the dogs are heavy. At times he took vitals on the cats. There were all kinds of jobs to be done, and he helped wherever he was needed.

My two cats that we adopted recently, who in January at 4 weeks of age were dropped off at a neuter clinic, were spayed too (they are 4 months old now). Here they are just out of surgery. That is tape over they eyes put on for surgery.


Here is Sarah and daughter of a volunteer comforting the dog having its vitals taken. Volunteers also went into the neighborhood school that morning to talk about the importance of neutering and spaying the animals and how to care for your pet. Coloring books were given out and later some of the children came by the clinic after school and were given a tour. They were so excited to see the animals and learn about it all. Another benefit in fixing the dogs and cats, is how much better pets they will be.

One job was for someone to pull ticks off the dogs and some dogs have hundreds on them. Fleas is another big problem, so they were sprayed for that. Deworming medicine was given to nearly all the animals. The people who brought a pet in also can have the pets vaccinated by the local vet for free.

It was amazing to see this clinic happen: set up, function 2 days, and take down, all in 4 days. The workers were all volunteers, and the supplies all donated, in addition to cash donations to buy more supplies. Every time a clinic is done, it is done better and gets more organized.

As in the title of this blog, the "wonders of volunteerism", now I know how powerful it can be. What can be accomplished when a group of people set out to do something and have enough manpower to carry it out and enough contributions from people who have the money to help, is truly a Wonder.