NWT–Day 3

DAY THREE: August 30, 2006

With a 6:30 am wake-up time, we were ready to head out by 8:00 am, eager to get back to work in Rae-Edzo. Shortly after our arrival at the community Public Works building, Doug went out, catch pole in hand, to round up some dogs to bring in for us. Apparently the community doesn’t come alive until around 11 A.M. every morning, so we were keeping our fingers crossed that Doug would have some success with dog-catching. We didn’t need to doubt his determination or abilities because in a very short time he was back, dog or two in tow.

We worked non-stop throughout the day until 7:30 pm, stopping only in shifts for a lunch break, and even though there were several complicated and time-consuming surgeries (pregnant and in-heat spays), we managed to complete 18 spays and neuters today. We had contact this morning from our five team members in Lutsel K’e and were assured they were doing very well, were working hard and getting much accomplished also. They will be joining us this Friday, and we will travel together to Rae-Edzo on Saturday and perhaps Sunday to continue spaying/neutering in this community.

The NWT government (Health Authority) has provided us with enough Rabies vaccines for all of the animals we see this week. Wyeth Animal Health generously provided us with Distemper/Parvo combination vaccines and also some cat vaccines if we need them for this project. Bayer Animal Health provided us with deworming and flea medication for which we are so very grateful. Other than being slightly dirty, the dogs here are in amazingly good shape. We are seeing many German Shepherds and Shepherd cross dogs, lab crosses, a few Huskies, and some puppies yesterday which looked similar to Corgi crosses. Even a small poodle was brought in by its owner yesterday for vaccinations.

The surgeries are going very well – no problems whatsoever with the anesthetics or the recoveries of the dogs. Thus far, the project is very successful. There just aren’t enough hours in a day to get to all of the dogs in this community. We are making a difference here though, for both the dogs and for the safety and health of the people. It is very rewarding. We wish we could stay for two weeks and help more, but the funding only allowed for one week.

Arriving back at 9 pm to Doug’s home, we had our dinner and headed for our sleeping bags and a well-deserved sleep.