Day 8 - TUC - Across the finish line

Which turned out to be the 2nd last dog!

Elated that our final day at TUC has come to an end. Finding the absolute limits of our endurance individually and working as an amazing streamlined team. Just a huge thank you to my team members for this trip: Leesa, Helen P, Helen B and Annaliese. We are a pretty awesome team!! Our final tally stands at 320 dogs, with another 57 surgeries completed today. So we averaged 40 surgeries per day across 3 vets over the 8 surgical days. We couldn’t keep going at this pace for much longer, 4 days was really all we could humanly manage! To put these numbers in perspective, over the previous 4 years we have desexed a total of 736 animals.

Uniforms a bit worse for
wear after a long day

The day was pretty much a blur of 2 truckloads of caged dogs, so many walk ins, dogs arriving in cars, one dog on a bicycle, a dog from the previous day revisiting with a happy owner, plenty of cats early in the day, owners dropping in to seek worming or flea medication, a pig owner getting a recheck on his piglet which had been attacked by a dog 2 days earlier, more masses of school children watching on in shifts, being surrounded by huge amounts of noise from surrounding children and machinery nearby, goodbyes with our council staff members and MELAD staff members, a very late afternoon tea/supper with the Australian High Commissioner and his wife, then our drive home to pack, clean, sort and store all our gear in preparation for next year.

My favourite dog for the day!

Cooling off

Our overall highlight for this trip has been the positive uptake for veterinary services by the local people. The demand has been high, and from questioning owners, it appears that radio advertising has been a big positive factor. And collaboration with the two councils and the Department of Agriculture equivalent (MELAD) was at its strongest ever. And owners appear to be understanding the need for population control for the dogs, and that desexing their dogs reduces roaming and improves the health of their pets. We hope they will learn more about the links between dogs and human health.

Supper at the high comm

So, we still aim to one day successfully obtain grant funding for this project, but there will be a need to link the dog programme to other human education and health objectives and outcomes. However, we are always very grateful for Dr Jude Mulholland for her vision, commitment to and support for the programme. We are already starting to plan for 2019, and hoping we have enough funding to do so, pending sufficient donations.

Last morning #1

Last morning #2

Exhaustion, elation, teamwork, good, hard work, beautiful place, complicated, lovely people, feeling real and alive, crowded, needed, common problems, stakeholder engagement and cooperation, privilege, multiple skills…just some of the words to describe our time this trip.

Day 7 - TUC - Politicians and more records

Sunset on our way home, bringing in the freshly caught bone-fish

Today started at 8am with a cage of dogs to greet us before we had even set up. We are actually very grateful to the council for the truck hire and assistance with supplying dogs which maximizes our possible use of time here….which turned into another nearly 10 hour very busy day! We reached a new record of 63 surgeries for the day, including several pregnant cats and other cat desexings. So needless to say we are tired but happy again! A box of hard to find Bulla icecreams was a bonus treat on our way home, with more fish and rice for dinner : )

The day was punctuated by visits from many cat owners, a visit from the South Tarawa member for Parliament, and over 100 school children at the end of their school day crowding around trying to watch. Noisy and inquisitive onlookers!

The MP for South Tarawa and his son and puppy and the team

Helen made sure that the MP heard some stats about parasite burdens in the dogs and implications for human health, and I added some thoughts on dog management legislation to give him something to think about. We'll see. Small steps each visit.

Can't capture a photo that grasps the 100 school kid
strong crowd, but these were some of the kids hanging around
having fun at the end of the day. Note the big kid in the
teal blue shirt at the back...

Final day tomorrow. Hoping our stamina will last the distance. Another very encouraging day. Beautiful sunset on the way home as we bought fresh bone fish (minutes off the boat) for dinner.

"Chocolate Leesa" as a small feisty pup
 in 2017

"Chocolate Leesa"in 2018 all grown up!

Sunset a few minutes after the first photo above

Day 6 - TUC and clocking the double century

Walking across the channel to North Tarawa at low tide

Traditional building construction

The "old ladies"having a  dip

Walking up to Broken Bridge

We had a really refreshing rest day yesterday walking up to “Broken Bridge” in North Tarawa for a swim. Warm, but relaxing and fun to see more traditional housing and more vegetation and a sparser population. Our final leg home to South Tarawa was by canoe at night with a beautiful night sky above us.

Lucky we were refreshed because going on Saturday’s tally and council support we were expecting a busy day. We started at surgery #142….and after a very long, hot, and sometimes relentless (but still satisfying) afternoon, we finished on surgery #200!! Three truckloads and heaps of walk ins. Another day that exceeded expectations, not only in our endurance!!

Entertainment for school kids!

Highlights were: watching the very real affinity a new council worker helping us had with the dogs; being recess, lunchtime and for some kids whole day entertainment – at one stage it seemed like there were more than 50 kids crowded around our “barricade” of tables watching the proceedings; people thanking us for our services; feeling like our veterinary services were in demand and that we could barely keep up (some people waited quite a long time!); continuing to see Rui the local paravet practice his surgery skills; seeing some great dogs during the day; and yes, that last dog and 5.30pm was a definite highlight!!

Dog number 200!!

We were also spoilt by an invitation to dinner at an Aussie guy’s house where we could learn more about life on Tarawa and share a really wonderful meal made by his partner.

We are running low on supplies and hoping we can make it through the last 2 days with enough of everything – always a tricky quantity surveying problem (particularly when one is limited by luggage allowance!).

Day 5 - Super Saturday at TUC

 

New location at the TUC garage

Dogs were collected on the back of a truck from villages
along South Tarawa

 

Another amazingly successful day – far beyond expectations, and particularly given it was a Saturday. Earlier in the week we had dropped in to see the clerk at our final council location, the TUC, to inquire if our suggested schedule was okay, and whether there would be a truck available. She assured us that a truck had been hired for all 4 days, even on the Saturday. We have worked here with staff for the previous 4 years, and there is now a good collaborative relationship present when we visit.

Surgery number 100!!

We were not disappointed – we arrived at about 8.20am, and a truck with over 10 dogs arrive at 8.30am while we were still setting up! The rest of the day was a blur of another 2 truckloads of dogs, and many walk ins, seeing us set a new record of 46 dogs and 10 cats in one day. Needless to say we were pretty tired by the end of the day. A good thing that tomorrow is a rest day.

Going home

Highlights for me were working again with our very helpful dog enforcement officer colleagues, in particular with our friend Bunaua. It is also a fun place with many children onlookers, helped by the parked truck where we were working.

Me with our old friend Bunaua and
kitten patients.

Leesa with her new young friend

Grateful for a successful day, with a really excellent and competent team, with a lot of interest from local people.