Log #82, October and November

Holy Smokies, Where'd the Month Go?!

Friday, 27 November

... To Another Mobile Mini-Clinic

Colonia of El Rocio, bring a clinic and they will come. El Rocio folks lining up to register their animals while the vets and company were setting up inside a donated community building

Prep and recovery. PATA's all-volunteer army serving the communities of Manzanillo

... And To A 3-Day High-Volume Clinic

Presenting the 700th patient of the year with the PATA appreciation award: doggy cookies. 3-day clinic, situated under the trees at Santiago's Casa Ejidal. Campo Verdi school donated the shade covering, and many volunteers.

... And To Two More Mobile Clinics

Dra. Yolanda and Dr. Ruben traveled from Mexico to help sterilize our street animals. They also volunteered to go on the road with us, so we packed up the mobile clinic and off we went, first to Armeria and next to Poncho Villa.

One solution for hauling street cats to the clinic

30 donated cages, and it's still not enough. Some folks in Poncho Villa solved the cage dilemna in their own way. Three street cats were inside, and man, oh man, were they ticked off about it.

... And Finally, Wrapping It Up

The vets from Mexico have gone up the coast to La Manzanilla to tackle that town's over-population problem, after sterilizing 133 pets and vagabonds in Manzanillo. It was a grueling five days for them, and us.

Now we're relaxing and taking our time putting things back in order, cleaning the equipment after using it in the dust and dirt (not to mention blood and guts) of three MASH locations, and re-inventorying our supplies.

The Mexico vets brought a bunch of supplies with them, which sustained us through all five days of clinics. Thank goodness, too, because PATA is now totally broke.

The only way we can scrape together another clinic is to gather some more donations, which is what we'll be doing on the 29th. Hopefully the Dog Jog will be a big success and we'll be able to fund a clinic, already planned for the 13th of December (and tapping into Friends of PATA funds, we hope).

Chaos! Pretty much how the kitchen and bodega have looked for the past two weeks. I'll get around to organizing it, someday.

A beast caught in a trap

Out in the carport, Stan washed 30 cages, a bunch of tarps and drop-cloths, packing boxes, ice chests, and the grass mats, while I was supposed to be making headway, inside. Thankfully, really, really kind souls washed a bazillion loads of sheets and towels, or we'd still be doing laundry, too.

More pictures of our month's activities have been posted on various Facebook pages. A few of them are:
Our Facebook photos
Help MX Str. Animals (PATA's) Facebook Photos
Prizzy's Facebook Photos
Dra. Gaby's Facebook Photos

Price of a Night on the Town in Colima

Thursday, 29 October

Picudos are America-Manzanillo, and they don't play in Manzanillo.

Six weeks into the season, Stan and I finally took time off from clinics and fund-raising activities to enjoy a futbol vacation with our boys ... in Colima.

Night soccer was an excellent excuse to stay overnight, so we pinpointed a couple of hotels in the tour book, and set off to find one. Even with one-way streets, we drove right to our first choice, Hotel San Lorenzo.

San Lorenzo Hotel in a typical neighborhood

For $21 US, I thought the place had a lot going for it: situated three blocks from the central jardin, plenty of secure parking, and large-enough clean rooms with firm beds, flush toilets and hot water.

The spiffy hotel decor...bedroom, bathroom, closet -- fully-equipped with lounging boy

Next time we stay there (plenty more Colima soccer games in our future) we'll ask for a room off the street. By evening, things were quiet, but our post-brew siesta was a bit raucous with the normal everyday street goings-on of a normal everyday street.

Just for grins, we tallied up the cost for our romantic getaway (in US dollars).

• $2.00 breakfast of 4 tamales (leftovers from the 'hood tamale truck the night before)
• $15 gas, roundtrip (drove the libre, so saved $20 in tolls)
• $8 lunch of 3 tacos barbacoa, 3 tacos adobada, and 2 horchatas (drinks)
• $21 room
• $5.50 beers on the jardin
• $4.50 entrance to the futbol stadium
• $8 breakfast of 2 chili pasilla tacos, a wonderful scrambled egg mixture, a quesadilla, 2 fresh-squeazed orange juices, and unlimited fresh handmade tortillas
• $6 soccer beer
• $70 total for two

Do we travel on our stomachs? Yep. Am I gloating about the prices? Un huh. Did we enjoy it? You bet!

To eat and drink in Mexico is pretty reasonable. Granted, we don't eat at grand restaurants or stay in 5-star, or even 2-star, hotels....

Sometimes we go a bit more upscale, though. After the Colima game, we rushed back to Manzanillo for a going away party for our friend, Nicole. We took her to a tourist trap for food, beer and lots of loud music. That set us back a little bit more ... but fun was had by all. Pictures on FaceBook.

Clinic on the Lagoon

Thursday, 22 October

Sometimes we set up shop (spay/neuter clinic) in the dirt with trees for a ceiling and long extension cords to run the clippers and lights, but sometimes we luck out and manage to have really good facilities lent to us. The picturesque little neighborhood of Leandro Valle offered us a school!

Location of latest clinic above the lagoon

This location was really a treat for the vets. Three of them volunteered their Sunday, and they set up in a nearly empty office at the left end of the schoolhouse, with clean white tiles, plenty of light, and electricity for fans.

Every clinic has its unexpected glitches and workarounds, and even though these were luxury digs by comparison, this clinic was no exception. Not long after we got situated, the cleaning crew locked the bathroom and went home with the key. We still had running water from the drinking fountains, so the operation didn't suffer, but I can't say as much for our bladders.

Dra. Nadia waiting for the anesthetic
to kick in, or maybe it already has

Except for the little annoyance of no bathroom, things went very well. The pace of the clinic was relaxed. On this day, three vets and our favorite nurse handled prep and surgery, four high school kids managed the recovery room, and assisted in surgery, too.

Recovery room mats spread out in the shade; Pieter, Taly and Anais waiting for their first patient - they almost had human patients when a young woman holding a baby fell off of the ledge and landed face-down in the dirt

The high school kids have clinic operations down to a science. They're very capable and caring, take temps, administer meds for parasites, pick off ticks, monitor vitals, and document all on each patient's record. And when there're no patients in recovery, they're in the OR. They take their clinic duties seriously -- a few of them will be going off to vet school in a few years.

Flaco

Over the course of the day, 15 animals were seen, one was turned away. He was too malnurished, not strong enough for surgery.

Instead, Stan went out and bought him some food. He stayed all day, ate a little food, drank a little water, and rested.

PATA signage advertising the clinic -- ARA's addition, bottom, right

An interesting after-thought was added to the bottom of one of the PATA signs ... advertising another organization (ARA) that offers free spay/neuter certificates, and the card attached from the vet who does the surgeries.

At first I thought it was weird that someone would add info about another clinic to a sign that was already posted about this one, but then Stan gave me his take on it, that it's all in the spirit of cooperation, both groups have the same goals, so why not advertise together?

Why not, indeed? Since I'm the webmaster for both groups, and have been preaching cooperation and teaming from the beginning, you wouldn't think I'd have to have my own party line explained to me....

Furniture Score!

Tuesday, 20 October

The great hall sala, bookcase dividing
the space and hiding the back door

We've been sitting on the bench seat from the Caravan for so long, we don't know how to behave with new options. But we're working on it.

Our friends from Phoenix, Debra and Candy, sold their condo and gave us some really neat stuff, condo extras. My favorite is my new throne, a wonderful slipper chair. Doubled our seating!

And that ain't all, the felines scored, big time ... three scratching posts!

Appreciating the new furniture

The chaise, with cute cushions

Another bodega in the making

In another wing, the dining table has slowly migrated out of the front sala to give way to boxes and boxes of animal clinic stuff. The whole mobile clinic (minus tables and mats) is sitting in our front room ... which just sorta evolved into storage. Tables and mats are where the 'couch' used to be, in the back of the van.

Having the whole clinic at our fingertips is convenient, since we've sorta assumed total control of the logistics operation. With everything right here, we can inventory after each clinic and have a handle on the shortfalls for the next one without having to run clear over to the real bodega in Salagua (okay, so it's only a forty minute walk...).

There you have it, new casa furniture and layout. Well, there is one more new piece (new to us, it's 25 years old), a pretty useless little microwave stand (above, left) that I couldn't pass up at Señora Guadalupe's bazaar.

It was cute, it has ceramic tile on the counter, it's just the right height for a perch in front of the window....

Three years off the boat, and we've started accumulating, again. Except for the new kitchen, we're doing pretty well sticking to my edict of recycling. So far all our furniture is used, and some of it's from really good friends, whom we remember kindly everytime we sit our butts down!

That's how I'd like to finish furnishing the house.

Requisite Cute Kid Pix

Every once in awhile we've got to post our family pictures -- and other people's families, too.

Jade came to live with a neighbor last year. She was covered in fleas, ticks and skin disease. Chantel took her in, cleaned her up, and established a reputaion for being a soft touch. Consequently, four kittens were dropped on her doorstep.

Which is how Picudo came to live with the RanaQuemadas.

     
The before and after pix ... see how they grow

Picudo is now a year old. At 14 pounds, he's the biggest, but he's still low man on the totem pole.

Chivo is very attached -- they're great buds. Little Bucky, the resident cheetah, eggs Picudo into romps around the house. Even Bucky, at half his size, outranks Picudo.

           
Little Chivo feet and Picudo clompers -- Bucky waiting her turn to whomp on the baby