Apart from the four kids, we have four pets. The 2 dogs and 2 cats each have their own sad history of abandonment on the street. So now Cookie, Chongy, Rayadita and Monty form part of our family.
However given my previous blog entry, the care of our ´street dogs´ and ´street cats´ can be complicated at times, as we attempt to wisely balance the use of our finances to care for them. I constantly struggle with the inconsistency of forking out money at the Vet when I know of friends who are finding it tough to feed their kids.
This week is the perfect example. Our 2 adopted street kittens were due for castration (we don´t want to add to the already abounding local population!!). So rather than pay a $700 bill at our local vet clinic, I sought out the ´free´ municipal castration service.
For a $40 contribution per animal, the voluntary team of vets operate on 40 or 50 animals a day. As they say, it´s only a drop in the bucket when regarding the huge number of homeless and abandoned animals in this city, but at least it´s a start.
The vet team did a great job with the little resources they had. A friend helped me with the process ... delivering the two kittens in netted vegetable bags (so we´d be somewhat protected from their indignant protests!), they were anaesthetised in our laps, then taken away for surgery. We were sent home with complete instructions on what medications to buy, and what post-operative procedure to follow.
However, unfortunately one of the kittens reacted badly to the stitches, and still ended up with a vet consult today!
Posted by Julie
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