Make sure you read the whole post!  I promise you at the end, the very end… it will be totally worth it!  Get ready for a massive AWWWWWWW moment!!!!

There is a LOT involved in organizing and working a campaign.  A lot.  There are so many materials to make sure you have, meds you need both for regular surgery as well as for emergencies. 

It gets pretty crazy, but in the end… preventing hundreds of thousands of lives from being born to only suffer or die makes it all worth it!  In just 3 days, that is exactly what was accomplished during this campaign.

Ill take you through what a days work is at a campaign.

First, we had to set the school up.  At this school, they had 4 abandoned rooms.  They were a mess.  The floors were black with dirt they hadn’t been used in so long!  Thankfully a cleaning company, CONFEQ, donated a great cleaning crew who got those three rooms swept out from all the garbage and those floors were once again white.  The walls were still covered with artwork from the past, one room looked like it was one used for the teachers like a lounge.  (Hopefully something they can have once again).  Then, there is the unpacking of ALL the supplies and setting up the rooms. 

The photos will speak for themselves.

All of this….

Turned into this…

And more…

All thanks to this amazing group of people!!!!  ( I really wish I got a photo of what the rooms looked like before.  I will check and see if anyone got any!)

The entire walk way for the 4 rooms was covered with huge bags, weighing about 1500lbs in total of supplies to be unpacked and sorted and put into its places so the following morning, we could all just show up and start the work.  Intubation tubes, suture, recovery supplies, syringes… you name it.  And we only had a few hours to do it in!  Everyone worked like champs and we were set and ready to go before dark!  (At least I think…)  Yes!  It was before dark because I remember all of us sitting in the grass eating pizza waiting for Pepe the dog catcher to come to take some of the volunteers out to try ad trap some street dogs.

The following morning, and pretty much every morning when we arrived at 7am… it looked like this.

On the final day, it was that AND… all the way down and around the corner.  There were so many people the volunteers asked me if we could add another day onto the campaign, but we couldn’t.  The vets who we worked with had their own clinics and patients they needed to attend to.

The lucky people lined up at all hours, got their animals in for surgery!
The first process is the paperwork and weighing the animals.  We have to get as much info on the animals and owners as possible.  For example, when was the last time the animal ate food.  This will determine at what time their animal will have surgery.  If they ate that morning, they will need to wait until the afternoon to make it safer for the animal. 

In registration, many people are filling out the information on the form, then writing the important info onto a paper collar and then putting it around the animals.  Collars and leashes were fitted and given to owners who didn’t have any and chairs were set up in the shade for them to have a seat and wait until their number was called….

Speaking about calling numbers!!!!  Back to Volunteer introductions!!!!!

Michael.  The man with the Mic!  You should recognize Michael, because his photo has been here before!  Michael and his partner Jim are the loving parents to Ms. Ears, now known as Bella!!

Michael wanted to come down and I was so happy, he was my secret surprise for Save Our Scruff.. they had no idea he was coming down until he arrived!  Haha!  It was a hard secret to keep!  Michael even flew on the same flight as many of the other volunteers, but no one knew until it was… SURPRISE! haha
Michael was a fantastic support for ALL the volunteers and the locals as Michael can speak both spanish and english.  He was such a great asset.  Michael was responsible for calling the numbers for both pre op and recovery.  You see, once the animal was finished in surgery, and the animal was examined in recovery, the owners were called in to sit with a their animals to work with the volunteers and await as they woke up.  Michael helped all the volunteers greatly to be able to communicate with all the locals.  🙂  He was a very busy man, but he’s just like me and has the gift of gab!  Haha!  🙂  BUT, do not upset the man with the Mic! lol!

Michael, please come back again!  And bring our sweet ears for a visit! hehehe!

Krista!!

Krista is a doll.  I love this woman.  Krista stayed behind longer than most of the other volunteers because she was escorting dogs back for us and we really got to know each other well!  Krista was the cat lady recovery pretty much on her own for the campaign.  Unlike the dogs, you don’t get to really sit down as often, so its a long day on your feet.  But look at that smile!  Krista did help out lots with the dogs too, so there was a few times you could catch her sitting down, but most of the time she was on her feet.  Cats are a little harder than dogs because A) They take a LOT longer to recovery than the dogs do.  B) They sleep with their eyes open, so you have to watch their eyes and apply lubricant as needed C) If they start to wake up, they can escape… so they need to be secured as soon as they start to look like they could be coming around.  They are also finicky, as we all know, so keeping a close eye on their breathing and is important when they are under.  She is also a favorite because one day, I was sending out 17 on 3 different flights and when I said I would need help, she JUMPED at the chance to hang out with me at the airport and go back and forth all day.  That wins major bonus points with me.  Its not a fun day.  But having her there with me was a great support and her smile is like Al’s, super infectious!  I will be seeing Krista again soon as she has volunteered to come down again to escort more dogs for me!  She is only coming for an over night trip too.  THAT my friends, is dedication!

PUP DATE!!!!!!
Mary Kate A.K.A Momma Angel’s pup

Mary Kate was adopted into a family of a volunteer from Save Our Scruff.  Laura Hanna, the SOS volunteer in Toronto, fostered Mary Kate for a short time and decided Mary Kate was not allowed to leave her family. Haha!!!   Her sister was looking to adopt a second dog, and wouldn’t you know it, little 5lbs Kate was adopted and has a 115lbs brother who ADORES her to bits!  Laura Hanna is down here in Mexico with me this week (of course to escort more pooches) and was telling me yesterday all about Mary Kate and her new brother.  Mary Kate was quite the instigator here, and apparently that hasn’t changed at all.  Haha!  She was always the more outspoken and stood up taller than her brothers and sisters and always got her way (she even pushed around her momma haha)  Well,  During a family BBQ, Mary Kate was instigating things with the other dog family members and any time the dogs started barking at Mary Kate, her brother stepped in between them to protect his new little sister.  He loves her so much, even though shes in the puppy stage, has no manners and LOVES to play non stop, he is super patient, loving, and doesn’t make a noise even though shes swinging from his jowls.  Haha!

Mary Kate, your sister Katie B is still here with us and we all miss you very much.  We are excited to see photos and more photos as you grow into the beautiful  dog you are mean’t to be and we are so happy you have a family of your own to do it with!!!!

Keep following!!!!  I will explain more about the clinic and how a typical day goes, introduce you to more volunteers and of course!   UP DATE you on my babies and how they all are in their new lives with their very own families!

This campaign really, was like nothing else I have experienced.  The turn out from the community really was like nothing else I’ve experienced before.   There was a LOT of buzz around the area I live in, Corales, where we did the campaign.  The people were excited. 

At one point, the campaign was under threat of not having a space.  A group here decided they were going to cancel the space we had reserved for the campaign (really stupid crap I won’t bother getting into) but literally 2 days before the campaign, the volunteers and I were out hanging up posters, talking to the local people and FINALLY we were able to tell them all where to go!  Even with having to relocate the campaign and not be able to tell them until the final couple of days where it was going to be… they came.  And they came.  The demand was wow.  The fact owners were lining up at all hours wanting nothing more than to do what was right for their animals and needed this service reinforced to me just how badly the mobile clinic IS needed!!!

The first night, the people were reporting they started lining up at 5am.  Registration was closed in 15 minutes.  On the second day, a man showed up with his animals at 2am, no one was there yet.  He returned at 3am, no one was there yet.  When he back at 4am,  he said people were already lining up!!!! 

One man, who was in the line on the second day with his beloved poodle, but didnt make it in, actually stayed all day and even slept over all night (with Marco watching over him) to ensure his dog was spayed the fiinal day!  Amazing.  I still can’t get over it!

I want to and WILL organize more campaigns, especially in this area where the people proved over and over again, they need it!  They want it!  And they are willing to do whatever it takes to ensure their animals are spayed and neutered.

Just to warn you,  I have SO MANY photos of the campaign, so I will jump around a lot in my posts, but I will be sure to cover it all!  haha!

On to two more volunteers!!!!

Holly and Tammy!!!

Holly and Tammy worked in the surgical room the entire campaign. 

Holly was in charge of ALL the surgical equipment for the surgeries.  She had a table of her own and cleaned and scrubbed the surgical tools and soaked them in cold sterile so they were ready for the next surgeries.  They were always trays of cleaned, properly sterilized surgical tools waiting and ready for the surgeons and she played a huge part in ensuring they were ready to go go go!  Speaking from someone who has done that job, its not always as fun as it sounds.  Holly was fantastic though and stuck with the job for all 3 days and always had a big smile when you poked your head in to see how she was doing 🙂  Holly said to me at the start, that she has heard about the ticks, but wasn’t too sure about being able to pick them off the dogs and I was shocked yet happy she jumped at the chance to clean surgical tools.  Not many have strong enough tummies to replace ticks for blood.  But then again, blood doesn’t crawl.   Haha!  Holly, you’re hired so make sure you come back for the next one!  😉

Tammy!!!

Tammy had a tough job all things considered.  Tammy was recording all weekend which vets did what operations on different animals and recorded the number of the animals, as well as cleaning the surgical tables between surgeries, clearing away the surgical tools and bringing them to Holly to clean, as well as, keeping an eye on the animals who were on the floor lined up to be put on the next available table.  It was pretty straight forward, but it was hectic didn’t quite work out so straight forward all the time.  Surgery can be crazy.  Many of these animals do not have steady access to vet care and some will have issues that are not found until of course, they come in for surgery.  Sometimes the vets would switch tables, or would be setting up to do one animal but then would need to change to another table making it pretty confusing at times.  But thanks to Tammy, the animals were well watched, had clean sterile tables for their surgery and she is the reason we know how many vets did how many surgeries and gave us our final total!  There were a few of course she didn’t see, as male cat neuters are SO FAST, they never made it into surgery, they were instead done in pre op and brought directly to recovery.  I am glad though.  She had enough work on her plate haha.   Thank you Tammy for staying on your feet, keeping as close records as could be kept in all the moving and switching and keeping an eye on the pooches.  Another one I would have back ANY time… in fact all the volunteers I would have back, any time, they were so wonderful, hard working and dedicated!
 

PUP date!!!!

Beckiiiiii!!!!

My darling Becki.  Without getting into it too much, I went through hell and high water with this girl!  She was with us for over a year!  A year and a half to be exact.  Between the heat embargo, and her breaking herself every time I tried to get her ready to travel to her new home, wow!  She was a challenge.  She is a SUPER sweet girl, for the 8 months or so, she ended up staying up stairs with us because of her medical issues.  At one point, Becki had the start of Cherry eye.  I don’t know exactly how to explain it, but its like a gland or something in their eye lid that gets enlarged and usually, if its caught quick enough, it can be treated with drops and avoid surgery.  BUT!  Becki, as sweet, snuggly, loyal and loving she is, she is the WORST patient ever.  Anything you do to try and “fix” her, she undoes it in seconds.  So, when we applied the eye drops, she rubbed them out in seconds.  We tried the cone, we tried petting her belly and keeping her occupied for up to 30mins hoping she would forget about the drops… NOT a chance!  One day, when I finally let her go, she scratched her eye with her paw, ruptured the tiny starting cherry eye and bled and bled and bled.  She required surgery, of course, 3 days in the doggy hospital because she wouldn’t leave alone, and when she came home, she slept in our bed with her head locked between my knees so I could keep her from using her cone to rub her face on.  Such a difficult patient but 10,000% worth it.  She really is one of the SWEETEST dogs you’ve ever met!!!!  Between the cherry eye, and everything other treatment I had to give her to get her ready… she was one of my biggest challenges but she always made up for it!  I mean look at that sweet face.  She is JUST as sweet and loving as she looks!  Becki has been adopted and is in HEAVEN.  Her new owners adore her already as much as we do!!!!  I will never forget those eyes and how they read my soul!

  Still MANY more updates to come so keep following and share!!!!  There is so much work to still be done and with more awareness and help, together we CAN change many lives for the better, forever!!!!!

(Sorry ladies, I really wanted to make the cover photo a photo of the two of you surigcal support super stars!  But I just cannot resist the eyes of Becki!  Love you ladies!!!!)

So much happened leading up to, during and after the campaign, it took me a while to be able recover (haha!) AND get all of the exciting pup-dates on the dogs! 

What Ill be doing over the next few weeks is sharing stories from the campaign, introducing you to the volunteers and what roles they had during the campaign and updating you on all the dogs who were here at my house!  It is quite a bit to cover, so I will do it spread out over a few posts.

First, thank you to EVERYONE who helped make this campaign such a huge success.  Because of your donations of cash and supplies we were able to spay and neuter 303 dogs and cats in ONLY 3 days!!!!  The community turn out was overwhelming!  On the second night, people were sleeping over night outside of the school to guarantee themselves a spot.  Thankfully, Marco, the security guard who works around the corner from me was available and he worked security overnight at the school and kept a good eye on them.

The volunteers brought down with them OVER 2000lbs of supplies and crates for the campaign!  It was AMAZING!!!

Only 4 bags of reuseable supplies and some left over supplies made it back to my house.  THAT is amazing!!  We ran out of leashes on the first day alone!  It was so wonderful to have so much to give to the owners for their animals.

Now, To some of our volunteers!!!

First up….  Emilija and Alan!  In this photo, Emilija and Alan are picking up Huggie off the street in Corales.  Huggie was really sick.  She has TVT, (a highly contagious but very treatable cancer) and pyometra (a bad infection in her uterus that would have killed her).  She is currently at Dr. Luis’ clinic here in Cancun and is a totally different dog already!!!  Huggie did have an owner, and she came to see Huggie during the campaign but asked if we could please keep her and get her treated and a home as she cannot manage.  Of course, the answer was yes.

Alan was my left hand man!  This guy was an outstanding support to me during the campaign.  I was so incredibly lucky to have him down here.  He came down a little bit earlier than the other volunteers so he was already pretty well acquainted with the area and where everyone was going.  Also, he kept me going during the campaign haha.  There was so much crap that happened before the campaign even came to be, that I was not sleeping… I had to do some major overtime to ensure the campaign still happened and this guy here… made it possible for me to make it through the 3 days of the campaign.  I do not know what I would have done without him!  Alan not only got what needed to be done, but also sees the full picture and what needs to be done in the future to stop the cycle and really make a big difference.  Al is a huge supporter of the mobile clinic and will even come down as often as possible to work it when he can.  This guy was front to back at the campaign and did everything from helping getting dogs registered, to climbing a tree after an escaped cat to get her back to her owner!  Alan wrote me a little while ago and said “Pamela, Mexico opened my eyes and changed my life.”  Alan has a new job now.  He gave up his sales position and is now working with one of Canada’s top dog trainers.  When he finishes his certification, his job will be working with the dogs in the SPCA shelter in Halifax to ready them for their new homes!  It still makes me cry such happy tears just typing that!  Alan also ended up with a 4 legged friend from here too.  His name is Cofi and Cofi was a dog that was staying with the volunteers during the campaign that was supposed to go to a rescue in Toronto.  Cofi bonded so quickly with Al, and I KNEW, this was his human.  Cofi is very happy at home with Al in Canada and his new furry brother!!!!

Emilija!  Emilija is HILARIOUS.  Her sense of humor kept us all laughing and upbeat during the campaign and after too.  Emilija worked in pre op for the 3 days – intubating animals, putting in their catheters and prepping them for surgery.  Emilija busted butt and is working hard to get accepted into the University of Guelph Veterinary program and we WANT her in there SO BAD!  It is really competitive and Emilija would be such an asset to have here and help in the community and I would LOVE to have her.  So please, send this outstanding woman ALL the amazing vibes you can because it is her destiny.  And she totally deserves it! I mean look at her!  She was bent over literally, all day working for the animals and still wants to do more of it!  And she should!!!!!!   Emilija worked along side my vet Dr. Erik and he taught her all she needed to know to make it through pre op and she rocked it.  I am so proud of her, and so grateful to know her and have connected with her.  She will be back again to do more work so keep an eye out for her!!!!

Pup date!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

After the campaign, it was 6 more days of work for me.  I had organized for the volunteersto fly back on different flights in order to move out as many dogs from the shelters here as possible, before the heat embargo started (May 14th)  After May 14th, it is VERY hard to move dogs to their placements in Canada because 1.  there is only one airline that will fly dogs over the summer and 2. not many people come down for vacation when its so nice and sunny up in Canada.  Over the 6 days, a total of 38 dogs all made it to Canada and only but a few are already in their forever homes!  This was all made possible thanks to Air Transat and Westjet.  Between the two airlines and their pet policies and waivers, the total cost for each dog to fly to Canada was only $31.90.  For the cost of a spay, they got to go to the place where they will live like the princes and princesses they always were!

All the dogs I had at my house, except feral Momma were all sent and I have updates on each and EVERY one!!!  Here is just a couple of them for today!

First up MARLEY!!!!!!

Marley was the little ball of dredlocks that Evelyne brought to me.  After a good shave and check up… he was deemed super healthy and fit!  He was friends with everyone and I just loved this guy.  He fit in so well with the other dogs here.

Well, here he is in his new home and this is what his new humans had to say about Marley!

I will be doing more updates, and showing lots more campaign photos, introductions and pup dates!  So keep an eye out!!!

Frosty.  Frosty was a sweet dog that took a lot of work to get to me and thank goodness I have amazing, hard working friends.  I found him posted in a group for Playa del Carmen by a woman begging for someone to take him in or she would have to put him back on the street.  She was moving the next day, and was not allowed to bring this darling little boy with her.  He had been picked up off the street by her only a short time before hand and I could not let him go back to the streets after being in a home… again.  So my wonderful friends sprung to action.  Between Loraina and Sherwood, Frosty was picked up, brought to Coco’s for his neuter, fostered in Akumal for a few days and then my amazing friend’s Sherwood and her husband Bob drove him alllll the way up to me!  (Sherwood also picked his name!) I am so blessed to know so many wonderful people so dedicated to helping an animal in need!

What a love button he is. Spunky, energetic… non stop player (of the toys, not the ladies!)  Frosty and Ears hit it off right away!  Those two LOVED to play hard, and hard they did play!

Once all of Frosty’s vaccines and deworming and testing was all done, he was sent up to Toronto to find his new home  through my amazing rescue partner Save Our Scruff.  While he was in foster, and at the dog park one day… he ran into a great friend of mine named Tami and her dog Socks who I doggy sat for her in the fall until Socks could make it up to Toronto to be reunited with her Momma.  Its funny how many of my pooches Tami runs into and sends me photos of.  After a short time in foster, Frosty found an AMAZING home with Olga and her husband.  They are totally head over heals in love with him!  The husband’s chair, is now Frosty’s chair and you will see why he’s claimed it – really, it is the best seat! 

Even though all my little loves get adopted soooooooo far away, I am so greatful the internet makes the world that much smaller.  Between Tami and her amazing ability to run into one of my pooches in Toronto, or know the person who is fostering or adopted one of my babies… and the internet itself connecting everyone together… I may not be able to pet him and hug him or tell him how happy I am for him, but these photos make my heart smile just the same AND I get to tell his Mom how happy I am for him and for her and her husband.  OH OH  OH OH OH!  And the BEST part!?  Ms. Ears (now Bella) and Frosty only live 10 minutes away from each other!  Friends forever they will be!!!!

Sooo…Here he is.  In all his chair and sunshine glory. 

My sweet Frosty.

Thank you to the Save our Scruff team for always going above and beyond and finding my pooches amazing homes.

Olga and family.. thank you for loving Frosty more than anyone else ever could and for giving him the home he always deserved to have.   I look forward to years and years of happy photos of sweet Frosty in his chair. 

Some dogs just steal your heart and you know from the get go, they are wise and old souls. Reggie was one of these dogs. Infact, he is the only dog so far who reminds me of my old man Simón. I can’t count how many times I’ve been asked “How do you give them up?” and not really had an answer. All I can say is “it’s not easy, but its worth it to the dogs”. This photo right here perfectly answers why and how. Thank you Reggie for breaking my heart open even more. Now, to wipe away my tears.