[News Boquete] Newsletter March 2020 Amigos de Animales Boquete😻

Newsletter March 2020 Amigos de Animales Boquete😻

The March Clinic has been postponed due to MINSA regulations. Where do all of the fertile dogs and cats go on the last Sunday of the month? To the Animales Animal Sterilization clinic, of course! On Sunday, February 23, we sterilized 100 dogs, 80 of whom were female and 128 cats, 82 of whom were female. Just for a second, take 4 times either of those numbers and you will quickly see how many dogs and cats we would have had without our monthly animal sterilizations clinics. Two women, mother and daughter, brought 19 female cats to the clinic(thankfully). And if they had not, there would have been a hundred or so more cats running around Volcancito in the next few months. This is our mission, this is what we do and of course we can only do it with help of our vets, our volunteers and our donors We only charge $15 per dog and $8 per cat and sometimes that is too much for our Panamanian neighbors to pay. We hope if you have gardeners and housekeepers who have animals that you will encourage them to bring their animals and help them pay if they need your help. One of our drivers who picks up animals for the clinics, Martin Guerra spoke to his neighbor about our clinic and as a result, brought her with her two cats to the clinic. Just What's App or call Magaly at 6563-8686 and get a confirmation number for your workers' and neighbors' animals. As we continue our trip through the clinic, we have visited Registration and Intake and Anesthesia. After the anesthesia is given, the animal is laid out on the floor while it begins to go under. Some take a long time and try to stand and fight the sleep that is overcoming them. This is also the time when we can tell if an owner has followed our instructions – no food and normal water 8 hours prior to the surgery. The animals who have eaten often throw up and we have to watch them carefully so they do not aspirate or choke on the food. Also, this might be the time when the animal pees or poops as they relax into sleep. Our volunteer, Carl Strunk, knows all about that and is there to position the animal carefully and he also has the thankless task of cleaning up after the animals – no one ever said that this was an easy or clean job! After the animal is settled, Pat Washko and her team give the next series of injections – pain and antibiotics. And from there is the last stop… Here the surgery site is cleaned, shaved and beta dyne is applied to the surgery area to minimize infection risk. Rosie and Cat and their crew do a thorough examination of the animal to check for fleas and ticks and apply topical sprays to keep them comfortable. If a dog has long nails they will use the dremel to grind the nails down to a more healthy length. We tattoo the ears to prevent dogs and cats from being repeat customers – seeing the tattoo tells us that the surgery has already been performed and saves unnecessary anesthesia. A small "S" (for sterilized) is tattooed on the inside of the ear. Feral or stray cats might get their ears clipped as an easy way to identify that the cat has already been sterilized – it is hard enough to trap a cat and we hate to bring them in unnecessarily. WORK AT THE SCHOOLS The Boquete schools will be starting classes again in mid-March.  Our wonderful volunteer and bi-lingual teacher, Katrina Kneebone, is preparing to get back into the schools and continue working with the students on basic animal and pet care.  She teaches them about the humane treatment of animals and basic care and feeding.  She emphasizes the importance of spay/neuter for their pets, how our clinic works, and how to get their animals to the clinic. She is meeting with the principals of the schools to get their approval for the lesson plans and to get her days set up in the classroom.  This year, she plans to visit five local schools: Palo Alto, Alto Quiel, Jaramillo Abajo, Jaramillo Arriba, and La Estrella. We wish her a very good year working on this important project of teaching the children of Boquete about their animals - what these children learn in the classroom will be taken into their homes and hopefully lead to better lives for all.   OUR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS We have missed having our high school students at the clinic while they have been out on vacation.  Two of our best volunteers, Helen and Helen, have volunteered to go to their respective high schools to advocate for devoting some of their community service hours to our clinics.  We very much enjoy having these students and look forward to another year of working with them.  This is another way that Animals interacts with the community. Animales Receives Two Generous Grants  This year we received very generous grants from the Summerlee Foundation (http://summerlee.org/) and from the SPCAI ( Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals International.) that will help us cover the costs of those who come to our clinics but cannot afford to pay the full amount. We are very grateful to Judy Sacco and these organizations for their help! CALENDAR FOR 2021 The Amigos de Animales calendar is one of our biggest fundraisers of the year.  The cost of a pet page is $150. This popular calendar sells out every year and helps support our mission of low cost spay/neuter services for the animals of the Boquete community. I hope you will consider making your pet (dog, cat, horse, goose, pig...) a calendar star for 2021. Also, we sell ads to the local businesses which gives them exposure to our 400 calendar buyers every year. Right now, we are looking for someone who could visit the businesses and sign them up for next year.  Please let me know if you are interested in having your special friend be a star or if you could help us with ad sales for the 2021 calendar. THE GREAT ANIMALES FUNDRAISER/RAFFLE IS BACK! The perfect way for anyone to come and visit beautiful Boquete; first prize includes two round trip tickets to Boquete from either Houston, Miami, or Toronto. You could win other fabulous prizes as well, like a week's stay at a villa in Bonaire or a one pound a month delivery for a year of the best coffee in the world from Panama. And since we are only selling 200 tickets, the odds are really good. So please donate by getting a ticket and helping us help the animals of Boquete and the surrounding areas.     Scan the Code and Get Your Ticket Here Copyright © 2020 Amigos de Animales, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you opted in via our website. Our mailing address is: Amigos de Animales chiriqui Boquete Panama

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