Bella Coola – “Passing the Baton”

This June, we were SO happy to land in Bella Coola once again, finally, after COVID delays!    Our team was a mixture of “veterans” and “newbies” and they could not have mixed better, what a great team!   We were assisted by Rita, our indispensible, hard working animal advocate in Bella Coola, Jenn and Cat of Straight Outta Rescue Society and Pam from Pawprints helping with feral cat trapping (they worked long days and did a great job) and Joanne of Spirit’s Mission joined us to observe CAAT in action.  

We were able to sterilize 145 pets and feral cats.   The people of Bella Coola were so lovely to us, we were spoiled with home made, incredible food from the local volunteers and we were able to keep working hard all day by having the food brought right to the beautiful Nuxalk Hall we were working in.  So many people came to have their pets spayed/neutered and vaccinated.  

This visit to Bella Coola was our last one to this amazing community.   Although we were sad about not returning, we were very happy about the reason for not returning!    The community has a new veterinary hospital opening in late July!   Dr. Asha joined us every day and volunteered her time to help with exams and met a lot of the local pet owners.   CAAT is partnering with PetSmart Charities and the new Central Coast Veterinary Services to provide the services through our new spay neuter assistance program (CAAT SNAP).  We are so happy for Bella Coola pet owners to have veterinary services available for the first time in the area.