Carole Remy: Mexico

Showing posts with label Mexico. Show all posts

Sunday, July 14, 2013

Starting a New Dog Shelter in Mexico! #TBSU

The exciting news I hinted at a few days ago has come to pass. Shortly before midnight on July 10, 2013, I signed the papers to rent the building which will become our urban dog shelter in Colima, Mexico. The TO DO list is six pages long, and our all volunteer group is working 24/7 to get everything in place to open on 01 August.

Several friends have asked me to document the process of creating an animal shelter. We are doing everything on less than a shoestring! Total start-up cost, including a year's rent in advance, will be under $2000. Used, homemade, and donated are the mantras, except for medications which are the bulk of the costs.

We've applied for non-profit status in Mexico for our association. The shelter is one branch of our goals, which also include sterilization and vaccination campaigns, educational outreach, and promoting the many animal organizations in the state through our very active Facebook presence. The Facebook page is in Spanish, but the photos are universal is if you'd like to take a look.

Within a few days, we'll have a blog for the shelter and I'll mostly direct you there for updates. But for tonight, I'd like to share with you the excitement of our first day, working to clean out the three-year-abandoned unfinished house that will in less than three weeks be home to many rescued dogs. FYI, by policy, I don't share names or personal information about children in photos. All photos are published with permission.

First step was to clean up the street view. The house was overrun with weeds, and we figured the other houses on the street would be happy to have a more presentable neighbor! As a side note, the neighbors have been very welcoming and friendly. It helps that I live a half-block away and already know many of them. The last thing we need is complaints to the city about our dogs, and we're hoping to head those off before they occur.

We started by sweeping out the premises. Sounds simple, but three years of dust and debris filled about 12 large garbage bags! Pictured here, Marissa Lepe Preciado, is the president of our association. She's a medical doctor studying to become a veterinarian, and a driving force behind the shelter.

Some of our best workers were neighborhood children! These two lovely sisters have a boxer named Chacho who loves to participate in our Dog Agility Club on Saturdays. They were the first to arrive this morning, and worked like Trojans all day. I explained the meaning of "trooper" to them; these are two girls we definitely want on our team!

We thought we might have to stop after sweeping, since the water isn't connected yet. But one of our neighbors stepped in and let us run hoses from her house. Thank you!!

To say we all got soaked is an understatement! Luckily, it was hot as blazes, and nobody minded. We swept the soapy water into the shower drain in the bathroom. It never stopped up. Whew!

Marissa and Sol are working on the front bedroom, where we'll keep the new dogs in quarantine pens until their blood tests are complete and we're sure they won't spread any diseases.

This is the back bedroom which has about three times the space you can see in the photo. This room is our maternity ward, with room for at least four litters in spacious enclosures with space left over for another large fenced area for random puppies. A wonderful volunteer family is donating a special paint for the floor, which will help us keep the room spotless.

Turning lemons into lemon trees, this small unconcreted area in the lobby worried me a bit until we decided that it will be the perfect indoor garden!

Here the whole team is scrubbing out the kitchen area, which will be our consulting/surgery room. Our hope is to have vets onsite most of the time. We're offering recent vet graduates (top of the class!) free space in exchange for taking care of our animals and for providing low cost services for local residents. Win, win, WIN!!

This will probably be an open area for our older dogs. Our plan is to take in pregnant females, mothers with litters, abandoned puppies, and older difficult-to-adopt dogs. We want to provide the best possible start in life, and the most comfortable end of life experiences for our shelter animals.

My favorite photo of the day! Our youngest volunteer really putting her back into her work! Mexican families raise great kids!

In addition, the huge room will be excellent for spay/neuter campaigns, with space for up to five simultaneous surgeries. The lobby (aka carport) will be a great recovery space. Here are two of our young volunteers, speeding the suds and water out into the big backyard.

Tomorrow the yard will be cleared by a contractor. It's about as big as the house, plenty of play space for all the pooches. Since we also run the Dog Agility Club, you can bet we'll have plenty of play equipment out back!

Mid-afternoon, another wonderful neighbor stopped by and offered to give us plants for all the front gardens. She has an amazing nursery in her yard, and our street front will be lovely in a few days.

Next step was to tackle the walls. The main problem was bat guano. Ugh. Our young volunteers put lots of muscle into the low parts, while the adults cleaned higher up. These aren't posed pictures. In six hours of work, there wasn't a single complaint. The kids believe in the shelter just as strongly as the adults, and they are proud to contribute!

In case you think it doesn't look that bad, here's a bit of wall before!

And here's the after. Not a very exciting picture unless you just cleaned this wall! By the way, in case you are ever needing to clean off bat guano, plain soap and water and a pot scrubber work best, even better than a scrub brush. We're planning to paint next weekend, using whatever bits and pieces of gallons and colors we are donated! Should be colorful! We have a couple of artists among the volunteers. Can't wait to see what they create!

Scrubbing, scrubbing, scrubbing! The carport/lobby is on the right, and the large main room on the left.

Another one of our young, eager workers! She's wearing our association t-shirt.

And here's the whole team! Woohoo! Can you believe this many people did all that work? Huge thank yous to everyone for an awesome first cleanup day!

Do you have questions about our association, Amigos de Perros y Gatos Colima? Any thoughts or comments on our new shelter? Have you ever run or worked in a shelter? Can you give us some hints to help us avoid pitfalls and open smoothly? Please join me for a lively discussion in the comments!

Check out these related posts for more information on spay/neuter campaigns and other animal rescue activities in Colima:

Some fellow writers/bloggers/animal lovers, in the spirit of The Blog Scratchers Union, #TBSU!

Thursday, July 4, 2013

Photo Essay: Spay of a Female Dog in Mexico #TBSU

This post is a little off the beaten track for my blog, but I'm immersed in a spay/neuter campaign at the moment! If you've ever wondered what happens when a female dog is spayed, here's your chance to watch it all. We are at a FREE week-long government sponsored spay/neuter campaign in Colima, Mexico. We'll follow the beautiful golden retriever Kenya from arrival to recovery.

Kenya has been tranquilized, shaved for surgery, and at the last minute, anesthetized. Her two slightly nervous owners are on the right. The vet students who prep the animals are on the left.

Kenya's tongue is protected from accidental bites by a piece of plastic, actually the snipped end of a syringe cap.

She's on the table, and the veterinarian, Enrique Benitez, is putting on sterile gloves. Enrique is a master surgeon. Watching him work is like watching a well-choreographed ballet.

The incision is tiny, maybe an inch and a half.

Here's the first ovary.

Internal ligatures are made with plastic cable ties, snipped short.

The second ovary. The bits at the back are fat. Kenya gets a mini-liposuction!

Total concentration.

The uterus. Enrique will pull the plastic tie tight and slice above it.

Uterus and ovaries. Bye bye!

It takes three levels of sutures to close Kenya back up. The innermost level is the peritoneum and muscles. Enrique will put several sutures at each level.

The next level of sutures is through the fat.

The top level of sutures is through the skin, and these are invisible. No need to go back to get the stitches removed. Doesn't she look fantastic? Like I said, Enrique is a really gifted vet!

Kenya's owner celebrating with and congratulating Enrique! A beautiful success! Kenya is still sound asleep. The surgery only took a few minutes.

So now you know. You've just watched a skilled vet perform a spay with good anesthesia, but everything else pretty basic! We're outdoors, trying to stay cool in the shade under a tree.

Even though this post is in English and everyone in the photos speaks only Spanish, I want to take this opportunity to thank all the responsible pet owners both here in Mexico and around the world! Spaying or neutering your four-legged family member is the best gift you can give them, yourselves, and all the rest of us!

I'll be posting soon about how you can contribute to our efforts to spay/neuter, vaccinate, and control parasites here in Mexico. The Colima city government is an excellent partner in sponsoring four free spay/neuter clinics a year. Every animal adopted from Animal Control is also spay/neutered for free in the main office all year.

But even here, everyone in the campaign except the two government vets are unpaid volunteers, and many of the supplies are donated. It only costs about $20 US to spay, and even less to neuter, a cat or dog. Start saving your spare change, and next go round we'll be asking for your help! If you'd like to participate directly, I have two comfy guest rooms. Come on down!

I'll be happy to translate your comments and get answers to your questions for Enrique. Please join us for a lively discussion in the comments!

Check out these related posts for more information on spay/neuter campaigns and other animal rescue activities in Colima:

Monday, July 1, 2013

Colima Mexico FREE Spay/Neuter Campaign, Day 1

We finished a bit earlier than expected today with the first day of the spay/neuter campaign, so I thought I'd take advantage and post a few photos. If you missed yesterday's post, the city of Colima, where I live, is offering FREE cat and dog sterilizations this week, through the auspices of Control Canino y Felino. CCF is the government agency in charge of the well-being of domestic animals in the city. It's kind of like Animal Control in an American city, but with close to a 100% adoption rate of captured street animals (zero euthanasia of non-terminally-ill animals), plus free services like this week's spay/neuter campaign. Love it!!

Registration. People arrive with their pets, who are operated on in the order they arrive. Dr. Jaime Martinez Castro, DVM, the Director of CCF, is on the right.

Prep for surgery. This sweet dog has already had a mild tranquilizer, and Marissa is administering the final anesthesia before the surgery.

Surgery. Yep, the veterinarians are young and very skilled, and we are outside in a park. As you can see, the free spay/neuter is for cats as well as dogs.

Recovery time. We didn't have a lot of space, so we set up a double decker system. Each animal is monitored for temperature and heart rate until they are fully awake and can leave with their owners.

This owner is sitting with her dog while she wakes up. The young vet is giving her a shot of antibiotics.

We had fun taking photos today. The sign says, "I'm sterilized. Are you?"

Happy owners! We love that they bring in their pets. They love that the vets do a GREAT job, and that it's all free!

A little joke. The sign says, "I'm almost sterilized. Are you?"

Another happy owner!

Here are some of the team of volunteers!

Thanks for joining us today! We have four more days of FREE spay/neuters this week. I don't know if there will be time to post photos every day, but I'll be back when I can. Hugs to you all, and have a totally wonderful week! Please leave comments if you wish! I'll answer as quickly as I can!

Check out these related posts for more information on spay/neuter campaigns and other animal rescue activities in Colima:

Some fellow writers/bloggers/animal lovers, in the spirit of The Blog Scratchers Union!

Thursday, April 25, 2013

One Global Tweet, One Earth

The smallest thing happened today, and yet it altered my life. The tiny thing was that a friend was signing books at a book fair. Without giving it much thought, I tweeted a message, "If you're in Abu Dhabi, visit my friend Seumas Gallacher's book signing at the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair."

It didn't hit me until a couple of hours later, when Seumas and I were chatting about the book fair on Twitter. We might has well have been chatting over coffee at a local cafe. Our conversation felt that casual and comfortable. We signed off with hugs and sleep well's that felt like the real thing.

Earlier in the afternoon I'd been chatting with my friend Molly Wishlade. We joked about eating peanuts for dinner, peanut butter for me and peanut satay chicken for her. She was savoring a piece of cheesecake that I wanted a bite of. Thing is, Molly lives in Wales, and I live in Mexico. We were chatting on Twitter.

What struck me, and I know it isn't news, but my heart's community, the people I interact with on a real, daily, and personal level, is now global.

I'm used to the idea of a long-distance family. My children live thousands of miles away, and we talk on the phone and Skype several times a week. Same with my sisters and some cousins. About a year ago I started following Melody Fletcher's blog, Deliberate Receiving, where I learned about the Law of Attraction. We email and Skype often, and she's become a third daughter. Melody lives in Barcelona. Close connection with family at a distance isn't a rarity for me.

It's not that I'm isolated. I live on an ordinary family street in Mexico, and have conversations daily in Spanish with neighbors ranging from young children to great-grandparents. Friends invite me to dinner and we go to the movies. Volunteering in animal rescue is a social as well as a spiritual activity. I love salsa dancing! In person community isn't lacking from my life.

Today felt like something different. What struck me today is that my life has been enriched a thousandfold by my global friendships. I'm deliberately avoiding the adjective 'virtual,' because the friendships aren't virtual, they're real.

Nathalie Thompson in Ottawa is as real, alive, and vibrant a friend as my amiga Sara here in Colima. Melody in Spain, Seumas in Abu Dhabi, Molly in Wales, Lori Gosselin in New Brunswick, and many other lovely people ALL OVER THE WORLD are now an integral part of my life.

Readers come to this blog from across the globe as well, and though I don't know all your names, I feel your presence. Welcome to, at last count, 9071 readers from China, Saudi Arabia, the United States, Germany, India, the United Kingdom, Mexico, Russia, Singapore, Romania, Brazil, Greece, Italy, the United Arab Emirates, Austria, Canada, Maldives, France, and many other countries!

Shamans say that global energy is rising. That our vibration as humanity is lifting us into a new level of consciousness. Today, I felt it. With one little tweet, I realized that my heart has expanded and a whole new One-Earth has flooded in!

I wish for every one of you the same joy that I feel. I wish for you more hugs than you could have imagined for a lifetime. I wish for you sunshine and rain and green and volcanoes puffing in the background.

Thank you every single person on the planet, thank you every animal and plant, thank you every rock and every molecule of water, thank you for existing! And thank you, dear and lovely readers, for sharing the journey!

Please share your thoughts, your musings, your questions, and your hugs. I look forward to a wonderful conversation!

And if you're in Abu Dhabi, drop by and visit Seumas. He'll be at the book fair all week.

This doesn't feel like a regular post, so I'm skipping, at least for now, the usual add-ons of other posts to visit and blogs to follow. Do click the links in the post and meet some fantastic new friends!

Thursday, April 4, 2013

How to Build a $5 Dog Agility Jump in 10 Minutes

Marissa and I bought some PVC pipe yesterday, and decided to try our hand at building our first ever 'professional' dog agility jump. We figured it would take about an hour. Ten minutes later, it was ready for painting! Here are the steps.

The star in these photos is my amazing assistant, Marissa Lepe Preciado.

Step 1: Materials

We bought three pieces of half inch PVC pipe, each one meter long. We also bought four connectors. Be careful to buy connectors with no inside threads. Total cost of all materials, excluding spray paint which we already had, was under $5.

Here are the specs on the pipe we used. It's sturdy enough to withstand slight knocks, but still flexible enough to fall over rather than crack.

You'll need a saw. We happily learned that PVC cuts pretty easily. You'll also want a tape for measuring the height of the jump. A piece of string would work just as well.

We were making a one-pole jump. If you want more levels, just buy one and a half more pipes plus two more connectors per extra level.

Step 2: Design

Decide on a height for your jump. We decided on 35 centimeters, about 14 inches. This is a good height for medium-sized dogs. Chihuahuas will just run under it.

Step 3: Start Cutting

Now take one pipe and measure and cut at 35 centimeters.

Make another 35 cm cut on the same pipe. You should now have three pieces, the third a slightly different length. The two 35 cm pieces will become the sides of the jump.

Step 3: Cut Some More

The third piece becomes a base piece, of which you need four total. Measure the length of the base piece along the second pipe.

Just keep measuring and cutting the second pipe at the same length as the first base piece. When you're done, you'll have four base pieces, including the one from the first pipe, and a little bit left over. Here's the whole assembly, including the third pipe for the crossbar.

Step 4: Assemble!

Now comes the fun part! Make a base by putting two base pieces on the T arm.

Now add one side piece on the third opening.

Make the second base the same way.

Add another connector to the top of each side bar.

Attach the top bar, which is just the uncut one meter third piece of pipe.

You now have a dog agility jump! Total time for us, with NO construction experience, ten minutes!

Gemma approves! My beautiful rescue dog Gemma is twelve years old, and she doesn't jump! Each Saturday, she watches the dog agility antics of her doggy friends with the slightly skeptical eyes of an indulgent great-grandmother.

Step 5: Painting

The painting actually took us longer than the construction. First tape strips of paper to the crossbar and the sides of the jump, keeping the intervals even.

Then spray paint the crossbar and sides. Be careful not to paint across the connections, so the jump will come apart easily for storage. We left the base pieces white, so they wouldn't get mistaken for side pieces when we take the jump apart.

Here's the finished product, ready for jumping!

I'll add a photo of the hurdle in use after Saturday's Dog Agility Club event.

Marissa and I were thrilled that it turned out to be SO EASY and SO CHEAP to build a dog agility jump. Even if you don't do full-on dog agility with your pet, you could have a lot of fun with one or two of these jumps in the back yard. Kids love them too! One day I'll write a whole post about the benefits of dog agility for children. They learn so much about how to respect, to communicate with, and to train dogs.

I hope you've enjoyed this little foray into DIY! We certainly had fun making the jump and documenting the process. I'd love to hear about your own experiences with dog agility or with other DIY projects. If you have any questions, please ask. I look forward to reading to your comments.