A Look Inside PEACEAnimal’s Busy Summertime Clinics Clare Leach - PEACEAnimals
May 23, 2023

My friends in the States often ask me what clinics are really like. They see the photos in the newsletter but being there is electric. Even though sometimes the team operates like a field hospital in often less than ideal places, the music plays and the mood is upbeat. In the summer the heat is brutal, and fans will be for the animals. The vet team soldiers through all the adverse conditions.

As I walk into a clinic, I am immediately struck by how in all the seeming chaos of a chorus of barking dogs and meowing cats, Drs. Anthony, Leslie and Pacheco exude calm and tranquility. Leslie is busy with pre-anesthesia for the next animals in line and then returns to a surgery table where she anesthetizes the cat or dog and places tracheal tubes in animals ready for surgery. She then passes a dog or cat to Anthony and Pacheco and starts surgery herself.

Plastic bowls full of red cold sterilization liquid are full of instruments ready to be grabbed with blue-gloved hands. Shalimar, our volunteer who is at almost every clinic takes the animals to the recovery table and gets whatever the vets need. Her smile greets everyone and lights the room. Another volunteer cleans up some vomit from an animal. Often, 50 animals are done in a day. I hear Leslie soothing a dog with her words.

Recovery usually involves three or 4 volunteers taking temperatures, listening to heart rates, and massaging the animals. After a few minutes, they flip them over to make sure they are getting a massage on both sides. The rubbing needs to be constant to help the animals wake up.

I am amazed by the tiny incisions our vets make for the surgeries and how little they bleed during the surgery. Tubes are removed and the cat or dog is put back in a crate to wake up fully and then go home with their owners. Volunteers are essential to our work. We are so grateful.

The smile and pride on the owner’s faces, when they pick up their dog or cat, is priceless. Each owner leaves with a certificate of sterilization, and directions for the care of their pet, and the kids get a coloring book to teach them about pet responsibility. A couple of weeks ago, a mother with two young sons came with two cats. When it was their turn to pick up the cats the boys looked so concerned until they saw their cats awake and then the smile widened across their faces and mom looked so relieved.

In the early days, it was hard to get people to bring their animals to clinics. Now they start lining up as early as 5 AM to get a spot and still, we must turn some away. They get the first spots the next day. I am awed by our vet team and all those who help us with clinics. They do these clinic weeks 48 times a year in all kinds of conditions and never complain. I just want to thank the vets, John, Shalimar, Angela and all our volunteers.

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