BIG TROUT LAKE!!
June 8
Big Trout Lake Day 1
This morning was an early one for us. Most of us left our houses by 5am, making our way to the airport for an 8am flight. After a never-ending check-in with lots of oversized luggage, we start on our way to Thunder Bay and subsequently Big Trout Lake.
Big Trout Lake is a fly in access community about 607km northwest of Thunder Bay. It’s waaay up there. A community representative approached CAAT just over a year ago to come up for a spay/neuter, vaccine, and general wellness clinic for the dogs and cats, to help with the high numbers of roaming dogs in the community. We are finally on our way to this northern community.
In order to meet the weight requirements for our 8 seater “Blackfly 708” plane, we had to split the team up. Two of our teammates took a regular flight from Thunder Bay a bit later, and happily enjoyed a hot brunch. We got to fly in a super cool small plane, and enjoyed Doritos and grape Crush. Breakfast of champions.
We realized at the time of loading that we were still a slight 33lbs overweight for the flight. Rather than telling us to lay off the chips, they told us we had to unload some of our gear for shipment the next day. Laura to the rescue, she took her clothes out of her bag for the next day’s clinic, and kept her pack in Thunder Bay. She assured us she also brought her toothbrush and deodorant…
The flight from Thunder Bay to Big Trout Lake was a bit of an eye opener for me; I’ve never seen such a stretch of land in Ontario so remote and wild. Living north of the GTA it’s so rare to see such a quiet piece of Ontario, so limited in population. And the lakes – so many lakes out here. The further north we flew the lakes progressively grew more abundant! On the plane I started seeing lake animals instead of cloud animals, I was following the lakes to the rivers to the streams with my eyes, getting dizzy following their paths. The lakes and the landscape kept me awake for the hour and a half flight despite the heaviness of my eyelids. What a great flight in the little 8-seater plane and a very tired team.
After setting up our clinic in the local laundromat, eating an excessive amount of treats, and chowing down on some delicious chilli, we are now ready to hit the hay and call it a night. Tomorrow we start the clinic and hope to see about 20 pets for spay or neuter. We are really looking forward to meeting the community who have started us off on the right foot thus far.
-Kris Burns, RVT
June 16
Final reflection
I totally dropped the ball on this blog thing. And it’s not even that I was too tired at the end of the clinic days to write, I just found it hard to sit down in front of a computer when there were great people I could be talking to, or beautiful places I could be seeing. So, more than a week after our return, I am finishing my blog.
The clinic days went extremely well. We ended up with 4 days in the clinic, performing approximately 73 surgeries and vaccinations. Based on the numbers we were provided prior to arriving, we were hoping to complete 120 surgeries. The final numbers aren’t the goal, though. We felt that we were able to support the community by at least preventing some of the burden of puppy and kitten season.
We met some pretty interesting people and their pets on this trip. Jake became a regular visitor to the laundromat/clinic, he was the golden retriever who came in to say hello on our set up day. He generally spent his days at the park with the school kids, and his afternoons meandering around the clinic waiting for a pat. We had a pack of three dogs who escorted us home every night, and a super submissive sweet dog named JoJo. JoJo was a heart breaker, she threw herself on her back for a belly rub as soon as she saw us. It was hard not to simply lay down in the dirt with her and bask in her sweetness. But we had work to do, so the dogs outside had to wait.
One thing that was inspiring about this community is their absolute love for their pets. There were friendly dogs, shy dogs, saucy dogs, and goofy dogs; each of whom had an owner who was willing to work with them and wait for veterinary care. We had puppies galore – really fluffy, rolly polly puppies – galore. We also had kittens and mama cats too. We provided the veterinary care at the owners’ request, and we hope to see them again in the future.
And how did our team work out? Well, our team was a showstopper. There are inevitable challenges associated with working within a brand new group of people in a high stress environment. By the end of the trip it’s not uncommon to identify people who you work really well with, and those you are glad you don’t work with. It’s life, we’re all different, and that’s ok. But this team. This team was a dream to work with, through and through. Everyone did their own thing but came together as a team as well. We had some challenging animals to work with, we had some challenging anesthesias, and everyone was there for each other at the drop of a hat. It was a well-oiled machine that I was proud to be a part of.
So now that this very first CAAT project in northern Ontario has come to an end, I am left to reflect on the ups and the downs, and everything in between. I am really pleased that this community invited us in for a clinic this year. They have clearly had challenges maintaining their pet dog population, as many communities do when veterinary care is not within reach. From our side, we see the potential relationship we could have with the community of Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug going forward. We hope they found our services beneficial as well, and we hope to see them again soon.
Thank you to the community who brought us in, housed us, fed us, rearranged their schedules to suit our needs, and to Rose who showed us a great time while bouncing around in her pick up truck. It’s the community that makes these trips happen, and we thank them for that.
Kris Burns, RVT
