Today has been a wild day. Started it with a trip to a nearby temple for a spay and neuter clinic. In addition to working with the MEF, I am working with an NGO called DogStar. Started by an MEF volunteer, DogStar works with local dogs, either stray or owned, and gets them up to date on all their vaccines, spays or neuters them, and takes care of their coats and nutritional needs. One Saturday a month, DogStar works with the local University vet students to host a clinic. My friend Elena and I were working on the recovery area, and the second the first dog came off the table we had our hands full monitoring pulse and respiration rates.
Mr. Ripley getting ready for the surgery.
Pepper getting a little woozy from the drugs.
Prepping for surgery
The surgical table
There was a trio of puppies that came through at the end. They were sisters, and temple dogs. I have never known pressure like having a Buddhist monk scrutinize me while I revive his dogs. When the three ladies finally woke up, they all stumbled toward each other and flopped on top of each other in a big pile to sleep.
The set up was crazy. Operating tables were wooden tables covered in newspaper, and newspaper covered bricks served as support to keep the dogs' and cats' legs up during surgery. We had one eventful surgery...Pepper, one of the temple dogs, had already been spayed, so the surgeons dug around for about 15 minutes looking for a uterus that was already gone! She had a rough recovery, but the next day all of the dogs were running around the temple looking great.
So after the clinic, Elena and I rode a bus into Kandy, which is a holy city about 1 1/2 hours away from the MEF. The bus ride was wild, and the bus actually started driving away while I was still trying to squeeze on. We went to see the Kandyan dancing, which is a tribute to Buddha performed by extremely talented men and women. It's super acrobatic, and very, very colorful. The men do lots of flips, and everything is accompanied by drumming. At the end they performed a fire dance, and 2 guys put fire on their arms and chests, and even in their mouths! After that, they walked barefoot across coals...it was wild.
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