Sometimes the ASPCA mobile clinic is incredibly efficient. You bring your cage, you fill out paperwork, and you're out of there. That was so not the case yesterday morning.
Maria and I started our day at 7AM, and picked up the last seven kitties from our holding space and brought them to the clinic in South Slope. It was pouring when we packed the kitties into the car and it was still raining when we got to the van. I had taken some extra forms from the van the day before and filled them out prior to getting to the van in the hopes that this would speed up the process even more -- nope!
We stood outside in the pouring ran as the van slowly checked each person and their cats in. There were five to six people ahead of us, and while normally it would take 10 minutes to get their cats on board and ready to go, it took almost two hours! By the time it was my turn I was soaked through my puffy winter coat, my sweatshirt, and my long sleeve shirt underneath. Luckily, we had left the cats in the car during this whole wait-and-nothing session.
My other stroke of luck was that I met a wonderful woman in line who told me she had three extra slots on the van, that she couldn't fill. Well, I actually had two extra cats with me that I wasn't sure the van was going to be able to accommodate, so suddenly all the stress I had about these two kitties was lifted. So, anyway two hours later the kitties got on board and I breathed a sigh of relief.
Despite all the delays at the van, I have to praise the ASPCA for having this clinic. It's so important to spay/neuter your animals and the fact that the ASPCA offers low-cost surgeries makes it so much easier.
Now all our kitties are fixed and recuperating. Mr. Eye's eye is still looking weird, but the vets on the van couldn't tell me what it was. They don't have the equipment to see if the eye is scratched, so they gave him some antibiotics to see if it's just an infection. We're also going to add some L-Lysine to his food in case he has a herpes simplex in his eye. That should help get rid of it. Cross your fingers that this works!
We'll be releasing the males later this week, along with the females a day or two later. I'm hoping to get video of the happy return to post here.
This is an inspirational venture. I'm Robin's girlfriend, have been watching this from afar and participating in some home care, but am a student and don't have a lot of time to get involved. Of course, watching this unfold makes me wish I could! I'm so glad these generous souls are in my hood - BEHAVING AS IF THE GOD IN ALL LIFE MATTERS - (this is actually the title of a great book)
Thank you for all you're doing, fabulous ladies!
Posted by: Alethea | December 18, 2007 at 04:17 PM