Baker Lake, Nunavut – DAY 6

Today was another event filled day.

Gina and Laura were working in the vaccine clinic, and the day started off relatively slowly.  So they took this opportunity to go door to door with some vaccines and to spread the word about what we are doing.  Two houses later and we had three dogs vaccinated (including two that were spayed and neutered by our team last year).  Back to the RCMP garage they headed to check on Zoe who was holding the fort, and she had a bunch of puppies waiting for vaccines, deworming and surgery.

Gina and Zoe our to vaccinate a team.

The rest of the team were waiting for the pets to arrive up at surgery, so they spend the morning practicing their yoga poses.  You never know what a trip like this will throw at you, and we all knew going into it that we were expected to be flexible… but yoga?  Hmmm. 

Yoga class in the recovery area.

A lot of what we are doing here is about population control, and that was brought to light today.  Here in Baker Lake, unwanted or unowned dogs and cats are destroyed (by gunshot) by the By-Law officer.   We have been befriending the By-Law officer and discussing humane techniques with him.  He got a call today from someone in town who doesn’t want their dog anymore because he has too much fur.  He brought him to us for euthanasia so he didn’t have to shoot him.  Of course, he came in with a super-cute, friendly, matted up ball of hair that the entire team fell in love with.  He spent the afternoon in the RCMP garage with Gina and Laura while we decided what to do.  “Hairy-Sunshine” has now moved to Sue’s house as a tempory home.   Further reports to follow!! 

Hairy Sunshine, our little man.

After the slow start for the surgery teams, we had a few groups of dogs come in together, including a Mom and her eight 10 day old puppies.  Mom got spayed and vaccined, and all of the puppies got lots of love!  Too little to be spayed and neutered this time, but at least Mom won’t have to have any more babies. 

Mama and her babies.

A box full of 10 day old puppies!

By the end of the day, we had 7 dog neuters and 7 dogs spays done, and 19 more pets vaccinated.

Archer had the day off today, and spent the day playing with Bill from Texas – our resident chauffeur and tour guide – and his yellow lab, Chase.  Archer even got the spa treatment and had a bath!   Now he smells better than some of our team in fact, since we’ve been waterless for 2 days.