On Sunday March 22nd my mom and I travelled to Margarita for the second sterilization campaign. We took a ferry in Puerto La Cruz and took Katy with us.
On Monday, we met with Alicia from AAMOR to finalize some last minute preparation things. Alicia was extremely collaborative and helpful the whole time and kindly arranged to bring a lot of supplies including tables, kennels, lamps, surgical material. Later that day, I walked around village talking to the people about the clinic, explaining why to sterilize and making appointments to bring their animals.
On Wednesday, on our way to El Espinal, at a bus stop in Pedro Gonzalez we found a dog that was absolutely covered with mange. He was just a puppy, a very sweet puppy that had been suffering probably all his short life. He was extremely hungry so we fed him and my mom put him in the car and we took him to the AAMOR clinic in Conuco Viejo.
It breaks my heart to see a dog in that state knowing that this is so preventable and easily treatable in the early stage. He probably had a home one day but when he started getting "ugly and sick" his "owner" probably abandoned him in the street.
Later that day, I continued walking around the village to speak to the rest of the people about the clinic.
Thursday, the spay clinic began! We arrive to the location very early to make sure everything was ready for the vets to start the surgeries. We received some animals and very soon all the vets were set up and working on the animals!! That day we sterilize 10 female dogs, 7 female cats, 2 male dogs and 2 male cats.
Friday, on our way to spay clinic we found a dog limping by the road. We stopped to check and found that his leg was completely broken and an open wound on his hear infested with worms. As soon as I reach him, he laid on the road exhausted, like saying "please help me". We immediately put him in the car and drove to the spay clinic. Soon after we noticed that he had die. We were completely heart broken. We believe that he was abandoned in that road as it happens frequently, and who knows for how long he was only waiting for his owners to come back.
That day, a lot of people brought their animals, a total of 14 female dogs, 6 female cats, 1 male dog and 1 male cat were sterilize including a young guy that brought a crossbreed pregnant dog with an open wound in her abdomen. She had apparently hit or kicked in the abdomen and the leg of one of her puppies was literally out of his mom's abdomen. It was shocking to her and her puppy like that, it must have been so painful for both of them and we didn't even know for how long they had been like that.
We immediately took her and one of the vets sedated to begin the surgery. Amazingly, the puppy was alive and ready to continue fighting for his life. It was so beautiful to see the puppy who we name Ody, free from that horror that he had been through to the point where one of the vets fell in love with him and decided to keep him if he survived.
The mom also did great and she has been under the AAMOR staff care until she fully recovers. I am very happy to report that Ody is doing great, he is eating lots and growing fast!! the vet that performed the surgery took him with her and has been dedicated to him for the last few days.
Saturday, the day began with pouring rain and not very people were bringing their animals. So we decided to bring some strays ourselves. We were also notified about a pit bull that had been abandoned tied to a tree in a nearby road only three days before. We immediately went to look for the dog, we drove the entire road but sadly found no signs of him. However, in this trip we found 3 female dogs in a fishermen village so we took them to be spayed, as well as 2 other partially stray female dogs from a nearby brick plant. There we found 2 male dogs and 3 female dogs, one of which had given birth recently. We took all of them except for one of the male dogs. One of the female has a Sticker tumor that will be treated with the invaluable help of AAMOR particularly Alicia. Two of the female dogs were sterilized at the spay clinic while the mom was taken to the AAMOR shelter along with the litter which was very malnourished and infested with fleas. The mom is the sweetest tiny dog, she is absolutely adorable but is very malnourished and she has also a little bit of mange so we decided to treat her and try to find a good home for her. I spoke to Alicia (AAMOR) yesterday (04-04-09) and she told me that mom is doing really good so we hope that she will recover and find a wonderful family. At the end of the day we had done 11 female dogs, 3 female cats, 3 male dogs and 2 male cats.
The total of animals spayed in Margarita were 62: 35 female dogs, 16 female cats, 6 male dogs and 5 male cats.
As I reported in the previous post the total of animals sterilized in the first location (Puerto Ordaz) was 29; therefore the total of animals sterilized in both locations is 91 animals!!!!!!
I am immensely grateful to all the AAMOR staff particularly Alicia, MV Osdelys, MV Elizeth and MV Narvis; MV Mayora; Nancy and Rizleng; Veronica who allowed to use her house for the spay clinic; Red de Apoyo Canino; Sarah and all my friends from People for Animals for the huge support and encouragement, to Barb for all her help and to each and everyone that donated to make this happen!!!
