Pooper and the Puppies

What a great surprise Booger! Did you drop enough hints last week? :) Loved sitting at Ivans on Friday with Kevin and Ty, what a treat, thank you! You need to bring it on this one, we're jonesin'...

High Five Boog :) You made Sandie a very happy woman, and it was a real good thing yall did there. Great report. Love and miss y'all so much.

Hey thanks for the review/pic of outdoor shower.....good lookin out

So as we are checking into Pisces for the night we ask the night guard, not Mr Lewis, if he would give us a wake up call. No problem mon......... So what seemed like 15 minutes later he is knocking on the door and yelling Pooper. Now Pooper likes to sleep, so I was surprised at how fast she jumped out of bed. I was a little hung over, but had promised her I would escort her to the school. We had arranged with Mauvette the night before to have Wayne, one of the recommended drivers for Catcha, pick us up. He was there right on the dot and soon we were off.
We pull up to the school but we only see a few locals with their pups and a couple of Jamaican volunteers. The day before must have been a long one, plus the fact the it was Sunday following up the Seastar show, so we weren't too worried. Soon enough the docs and techs started showing up and I split.

I headed back to Catcha as today was moving day and I had to get us ready for the move. I took advantage of the alone time and laid down for a bit to catch some rest. Shortly after I woke up and it was time to hit the road headed down to Blue Cave Castle. I had never stayed at Blue Cave before, however it was the first place I ever booked, but cancelled due to a date change. I was excited to see the Penthouse as I have read much about it. I hit the gates and Donald let me in and took me up to our room. The keys were hanging in the door and there was no official check in. He walked me around a little bit and took off with no mention of checking in later or anything. I liked the way this place works. Make your way down at your leisure and pay when you want. I think I made it down the second day to actually check in.
So what am I to do? I wanted to hit the beach and meet up with Rasta Dave at Seasplash so I hailed a route taxi and headed down the road. I was HUNGRY, so I stopped at Canoe to get some fries. The place was empty and I pulled up to the bar and ordered up. She mentioned that it might be a little bit of a wait as they were changing the oil out. I had zero problem with that and a few beers later my yummy Canoe hand cut fries showed up. Killed those in record time and headed down the road to the All Ages School to check in with Pooper to make sure thing all is well.

It was a nice little walk and when I showed up the place was a sea of activity. Dogs opened up on tables, dogs getting knocked out by Pooper, dogs laying on the ground a little ways away from the table still knocked out in recovery. It was like a Mash unit with activity everywhere. Diane from Moonlight was directing traffic and appeared to be the boss lady that day. Her passion for these animals is evident and she would come into the picture later in the day.
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Here is your operating room before everyone showed up and started sterilizing and prepping the area for the spays/neuters. Folding tables that you would find at your local Home Depot and cardboard on the ground to keep the moisture to a minimum. Keeping the moisture to a minimum also keeps the mosquitos away. And it also served as the base for the doggies to lay on in recovery. The table in the bottom right was used as the area where they were prepped(shaved) and stayed until a Dr called for a new one. Pooper had already knocked them out on the ground prior to hitting the table. I believe they had 6 Dr's doing the procedures at one time and for one who's not used to insides hanging out, it was quite a sight. It was amazing and overwhelming all at the same time. It was a mix of Jamaican docs as well as docs from the mainland with a bunch of techs thrown in to assist.
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Here is the recovery area that would be loaded up with dogs in a few hours, all waiting to wake up and be ready to the point that it was safe to get them back to their owners.
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Here are some of the pups hoping to get adopted by a loving owner. They were brought in by the JSPCA and I fell in love with the big German Shepherd. We lost our Shepherd within the last year and he was a rescue as well, so we made an immediate connection. Pooper was pushing me to bring him home and it was so hard to not pull thru and do it. You have to understand something about Pooper. If I let her I would have over 20 dogs at my house. She constantly comes across rescues who could use a good home and I'm not sure how she handles the emotion of not understanding where they have been and where they will end up. I simply could not do her job for many reasons, but emotionally going thru that would kill me. It takes special people to care for animals......

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Her is a close up and it pains me that some chump abused this beautiful dog. The head lady from the JSPCA assured us that she would place him in a good home. They had water bowls in their cage and they sat there watching the action awaiting their turn.

I was overwhelmed by the whole scene and had to split before I got too emotional. Good thing I had my shades on........It was truly amazing to watch and completely exceeded all expectations that I previously had. The day was young and I was off to the beach to hang with Rasta Dave.

Pulled up to the bar and ordered up a $150J Red Stripe and spotted Rasta Dave immediately. He was talking to a traveler as I made my way over and as soon as I caught his eye a big smile hit his face. It was cool to hang with Rasta Dave as he really did a great job of taking care of us on our April trip with all of our new found friends. Pooper had mentioned that she would like a soda when I was last at the clinic so it was time to head back after a few beers.

This was the day I also wore my shirt that read in big letters on the front "Don't hassle me, I'm local." It drew all sorts of laughs from the vendors/higglers and made for a completely relaxed and non pressured day. I'm taking 5 back for my next reach.

So I head back to the Best End and hit L&M for some supplies: copious amounts of beer, a couple of waters, and Pooper's soda. Just as I pull up to the counter two beers fall out of a six pack, hit the ground, and shoot beer all over a locals pants as well as all sorts of other stuff. I was ready to crawl into the racking and hide. The staff was however gracious and showed me where the baskets were so I wouldn't have to overload my arms and drop crap on the ground and their customers pants. Yep, I received shopping 101 at L&M. It would make for funny comments on each visit afterward.

Drop the beers off at Blue Cave and head down the road back to the All Age School to check on Pooper and give her her soda. Things were busy busy so I snuck in and grabbed her attention real quick and gave her the soda. The teams were running like a well oiled machine and many dogs were already in the recovery area spread out with some volunteers who were monitoring their progress. A lot of the owners were standing around taking the whole thing in and you could just see the joy in their eyes that these people were here helping them out. The scene was so surreal and for the second time in the day I had to split. I hear Pooper's passion all the time and to see roughly 30 people with Pooper's passion busting their asses on their dime was as I said earlier, overwhelming. Time to split again.

So I headed back up to Seastar and had a few beers and than headed back to Catcha to await Pooper's call to come get here. The time that she was supposed to be done had come and gone and after a half hour I decided to head back to the school. I showed up and they were still in full speed with a line up ready to go. This was going to be one long day for these volunteers. As I pulled up I heard Pooper yell out for help in restraining a big Rotweiller, so as what any other man would do when there lady cries out for help, I jumped on him and pinned him down so that they could knock him out. It was funny because she didn't even realize it was me until a few seconds later, and a big smile came across her face. Happy smile number 3............

I was geeked up after wrestling with that big boy so I stuck around and took it all in. Trying not to get in the way but trying to assist where I could. I had a runner running to get me beers in between, so it wasn't like I was missing my party. :cool:

I ended up helping relieve a doc folding surgical towels, the ones used so they could build their tool kits for the next day. Learned what an accordion fold was and built a nice stack. Sounds minor, but I was grateful to do anything to help. Assisted some owners in loading their puppies, refilled some water bowls, and pinned down a few more pups that were in no mood to get their balls cut off. Can you blame them? My point with naming what might seem like minor task is to show that anyone can volunteer and assist with these clinics. They need help and the more of the little things that can be done by volunteers the more time the docs and techs can have to do more spays and neuters.

They ended up wrapping up about 6:30, so it was roughly a 10 1/2 hour day with a few minutes taking out to eat. These people worked hard and I was grateful to be able to witness the whole scene in action and do just a little bit to help. Popper to this very hour is still raving about her experience and is hoping they ask her back to do some more clinics. If you need some additional inspiration to volunteer just check out the JSPCA website and read up on the stray animals on the island. It will break your heart as long as you have one.
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Here is Pooper taking a swig of water with the team in action in the back and the young Doc she worked with the entire day doing the sedations.

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Here's the recovery area in action. Pups in cages, pups on the ground, pups in transit. Movement everywhere and the folks you see in the background sat with each and everyone to make certain that all of them were well. Only one dog out of over 70 had complications that day and Debbie from Moonlight had her dog there to be the blood bank. Good thing because her puppy I believe saved that dogs life. So all dogs made it thru surgery and were sent home with their owners. What a freaking amazing day and this was just one of three.

I am humbled Booger and Pooper! Waking up and reading this, I know it can only be a good day. Hugs to you both ♥

Thanks for sharing this amazing adventure that involves such a needed cause. Truly heartwarming and kuddos to all those that take part in it's accomplishment.

Wow. That is all I can say.

You are a wonderful people to take spend the time and $$$ to go to Jamaica assist with spaying / neutering.

So glad you enjoyed your trip.

Pooper has a new clinic name it is QUICK DRAW cause she could get the job done faster then anyone. We were blessed to have her she stepped up to the plate like the true professional she is. We were short a RVT and Quick Draw filled in more then one set of shoes. We at the ISNN are hoping she will come back also her help was much needed and greatly appreciated. We spayed and neutered over 245 animals in the 3 days that the clinic was open. Gave out 100 collars and leashes and lots of advice. I am humbled by people like Pooper/Quick Draw and Booger who went out of there way and country to come make animals lives in Jamaica better. I looked the next day at he castle to see if I could see you but unfortunately we never hooked up again. I do know that we will meet again next time and enjoy a few drinks and a few war stories from the clinic. I will email you and let you know how to stay in touch with us. Again thank you for all you did QUICK DRAW AND POOPER...

Moonlight Villa,

Thank you for caring about animals and giving back to the community.