Working with Animalandia

The next day our friend Misty came to pick us up as planned at 8:00am in her trusty old red pickup. We clambered in and headed for Animalandia picking up Nancy and Alex at the Desert Inn at the way. Animalandia is a clinic that was started by one of the locals Lucy, who has a tremendous heart and generous spirit. She had worked with an American veterinarian to start helping with spays and neuters of local animals and after funding from numerous donors and donation of the land by the town of Loreto, a clinic was built several years ago. It has three anesthetic stations and an outside area where dogs can be temporarily housed in cages and kept after surgery for recovery. We spent a bit of time trying to get organized, a team to premedicate the animals, another to start inducing and prepping for surgery and of course the doctors who were all biting at the bit to get started on the surgeries.

Dr. Stacey had a fair amount of experience with spay/neuter clinics she runs for the local shelter in Ocean Shores WA, and she had her team that she brought with her. She set up in one corner, and had a steady stream of patients all day. Dr. Dave, grabbed a corner behind a table where he was able to do surgeries if a bit crowded with the help of his headlamp - a great idea since the lighting was variable at best. Dr. JF enjoyed the one true surgical table which was nice to be able to adjust the height for large or small animals. His first patient was Parasita, and she also had her rear dew claws removed, a bonus. And Dr. Dana, grabbed a table by the fridge to do injectable anesthesia on neuters.

It took a while to get into a groove, we tried to do all the cats first, they tended to freak out the most. We had to euthanize a few animals that had severe transmissable venereal tumors, spread via virus during mating. Still we did about 60 surgeries, a great start for the week. We had a wonderful lunch provided by Linda Nichols, who coordinated the food through the week. Sumptious fruit salad and cheese and pastries.

That night we headed a bit sweaty, bloody and very dusty to the house where we had dinner. It was the home of Christine and George, in the area called Napolo. We had removed two bad teeth on her 14 year old dog that morning. Fortunately, Pepsi seemed to be doing just fine, alongside his sister Peanut. The food was incredible and the atmosphere so warm. Tuckered out, we headed home soon after after a chilly ride in the bed of the pickup on the highway. I was not about to complain to my family in Spokane WA that I was freezing in Mexico.

---

---