"We're Going to Get Tutored"

I have used this cartoon, before, when Nathan was "tutored", but today we took both Barney and Sheila to get "fixed".

There is a clinic that operates once a month in each area. Today, in Marindia, starting at 3:00 pm, the clinic performed services on cats and dogs. Since it is a "mobile" clinic, the charges were much less than getting it done at a veterinary office. It cost us 200 pesos each (about $10 US) and it was done very professionally. A lady that picks up strays and has them done regularly told us that the doctor was one of the best and Denise told me the same thing(since I really didn't want to look at anything)- that he worked skillfully and quickly.

Pictured above left is Mario & Diego (shirtless) with his dog, Kaira, Valentina, bending over her dog, Maia and us, with Barney and Sheila. In the second picture (right), Luisa is holding Valentina's dog. Luisa, our good friend, who lives nearby had called and told us about the schedule just a few days ago, in time for us to take advantage of this bargain.

Our dogs are about 6 months old. Our vet wanted us to wait until they were over 8 months, and would have charged 4 times as much. However, Denise, researching the process, found that in the US, vets have started spaying and neutering pets as early as 2 months and almost always from 4 months on. This was done, initially, because many people taking pets from animal shelters failed to comply with the agreement to have them fixed. So animal shelters started doing the operation at a much younger age than practiced at the time. However, after years of doing this, the procedure proved not only to be successful, but also beneficial, the earlier it was done- helping females to avoid some tumor problems and males to avoid prostate disease (over 80% of unaltered male dogs develop some sort of prostate problems). So we were very pleased to have Sheila and Barney fixed before the onset of reproductive activity.

The "clinic" was actually a private house and the equipment was set up under a covered patio. You got a number and waited to be called. There were dozens and dozens of pets waiting with their owners. Luisa showed up with her niece, who was having her dog spayed, and stayed with us throughout the long wait, and even went home to get a camera to record the event. You can see some of the people waiting to be served, and a few animals already "sleeping" from the preliminary sedative, given before the full knock-out anesthesia. You may also notice that one lady brought her dog in a wheelbarrow- great idea. It was 3 hours before we finally got to the surgery, but it was over in minutes and we stuffed their little limp bodies into the car and took then home to recuperate.

Now, all of our pets are "taken care of" and we don't expect to be taking a box of puppies down to the feria to find a home for them- there is enough of that already.