1. Remember we are a 501C3. So you can still give a donation before midnight and get a tax deduction. Here is a rundown on some of the things that a donation would pay for. $4.00 will deworm 4 puppies, what a difference that can make $8.00 a vaccine, saves puppies every day $20.00 pays for one spay or neuter, the math is incredible on how many puppies or kittens one sterilization can prevent from being born $25.00 buys a bottle of doxycycline with 500 - 100 mg. tabs. This cures ehrlichia which affects almost every dog in Mexico, and it's also good for respiratory infections. When one pup gets one of those and there are 45 other pups in the rescue, it spreads like crazy. $25.00 pays for someone to work for seven hours cleaning up after and feeding our pups $25.00 pays for one soft carrier that one of our pups can ride in to fly to a forever, loving home $50.00 pays for one medium crate $100.00 pays for one large crate Other items that we use every day like: Vitamin B12 Wound gel Metronidazole for Giardia Ear cleaner Creams for skin problems - these are all $20 to $40 a container and we go through them fast. There are many more things of course but I just thought that it would be nice to know where the money goes. Thanks in advance to everyone who helps us help them. Happy New Year. On the left is Franklin, he's new, he was hit by a car but is doing much better now, Jeff has even let him sit on the couch. And on the right is Momma Elsa, who was used for breeding, she is so pleased to be here and even gets to sleep on the bed sometimes.

2. Last weekend I went to an area called the Guatalupana. The government on the island has been absconding with property that belongs to the islanders. So a large group of Islenos squatted on a big piece of property mid island on the Carrabean side. It has been a few years now and they still don't have water, electricity or sewage. Most of the homes are shacks and many of the homeowners have dug wells or bought large water tanks that sit in their front yards. Of course there are dogs everywhere and when we have spay and neuter clinics we go there to pick up animals. And when we get donations we go there with de-wormer, collars, vitamins, food and medicine if needed. I would love sometime to be able to vaccinate all the animals but we will need a bigger budget for that as most of our funds go to the sterilization clinics. The children are wonderful and after many, many visits the people are used to seeing me hang around making a big fuss over their dogs.

3. There has been a wonderful group of people that have supported Isla Animals for years. Cheryl House has created this group and stayed with it to help us save pups and spay and neuter every cat and dog we can get our hands on. This year has been one of the best as far as donations and we are so grateful and pleased with the work it has allowed us to do. Below is the list of donors and the beautiful dog that has sadly passed but instigated such generosity. His name was Dr. Zhivago. Thank you all for your support. 2011 ROSIE'S BOW WOW CLUB The club for 2011 raised a total of $2,950. In memory of Dr. Zhivago Extra Large Bones $300 & Over Cheryl House. In Memory of Rosie Jan & Terry Gerken (Moby) Large Bones. $100 to $299 Lael House Wojcik, Honoring - Rookie Julie House Presa, Honoring - Trucco James & Kristin Yasord. In Memory of Vago John & Jean Epler Chris & Kim Cannon Roxane Osantowski, Honoring - Tequila - adopted from Plaza Almendros(AKA, Oreo, Patches) Kelly Ragsdale Valerie Kordyban David & Karen Childers Ron & Diane Seals Medium Bones $50 to $99 Karl & Deanne House Drew & Alison House Tom & Barb Carlson Small Bones $25 to $49 Mike & Tina Lawrence Julie Howard Dan Lindner Don & Jan Hardin Honoring Goldie, Plaza Almendros Cat

4. Jeff and I just got back to Mexico a few days ago. We're having a spay and neuter clinic next week and then the normal dog stuff from there. I would like to do a sweep of the island, door to door, working on vaccinations and spaying and neutering. I mean really - we've been back two days and we already have a very weak momma with eight pups. Then I got a call about another dog with eight pups and Jeff and I are about to go pick up four. This has to stop. I called my new momma - Momma Rina after the hurricane that wasn't. Here is our new mom warming up her pups after their bath this morning, such a good mom. This must be black dog week, out of the thirteen puppies there is only one white one. We are so looking forward to moving ahead this year. With all the rescue groups and people that we are working with now, we can get more done and we're hoping that we can get some help with this. Already we have some wonderful monthly donators, and it makes a huge difference. So many people ask me what they can do to help, well it's really easy. If we can get enough people donating $10.00 a month we will have a budget to work with. Ten people giving up two starbuck coffees every month can buy enough dog food for a week, or three spays or four neuters, or twelve vaccines, or five distemper tests, or four parvo tests, or two and a half medium crates, or ten bottles of specialty shampoos, or two bottles of de-wormer, or five dog rides to the airport, or five health certificates, and on and on. Every penny goes to the dogs, there is no administration, we pay Marcelino's salary (he works at the house and helps with the dogs). IT'S ALL FOR THE DOGS. We've been home three nights and already have two momma's with their pups. There is no where else for these dogs to go. We will find homes for the pups and spay the moms. Each spayed female is one step closer to a better life for dogs in Mexico. If you already donate, ask a friend to do it too, and ask their friends to do it as well. Ten dollars a month and we can make a huge difference together. I forgot to mention in this blog yesterday that the Isla Animals Website is set up to do monthly donations. If you scroll down to the very bottom of the front page there is a donate button, click on that and then there are instructions on how to continue. Thank you everybody, in advance, who donates. It makes all the difference. We are setting up for a big spay and neuter clinic today and getting ready for all the street puppies that we find.

5. We are doing another big spay and neuter clinic in Corales near Rancho Viejo which is next to Cancun. This is our second clinic in this location. Last time we ended up with over fifty puppies. We can put the dogs back on the street but never the puppies. We often re-home the dogs if we can as well. Anyway it has been the worst year for distemper that I've ever seen. Unfortunately we lost about 20% of those pups to distemper. It only takes one distemper pup to infect an entire group of un-vaccinated puppies. So this April we're going to test every puppy that comes in. The tests are two hundred pesos a piece, about eighteen dollars, we want to have seventy five available for that last week of April. I'm asking if any of you can help by buying one or two tests it would make a huge difference. You can donate on our pay pal and make a note that it's for distemper tests and that's exactly what it will be used for. This is an extra cost that we didn't figure into our budget when we were making the original plans. On a more fun note, Isla Animals has had a small explosion of puppies. First we got a litter of nine. Pepe spotted the mom and her pups next to the bull ring in Cancun and has been waiting for them to be old enough to bring here. Then we got a moma and her seven pups. Everyone is healthy, has already been tested for distemper and is adjusting well. By the way Rusty is doing much better.

6. The race was great. There's lots of room for improvement but for a first effort we are all very happy. To all of the incredible volunteers, Jeff and I are so, so grateful. And to those who helped set things up ahead of time with the city and the schools and the race route, we couldn't possibly have done it without you. We haven't finished with the tally because Jeff is still working at the music festival but as soon as we have numbers I will post them. We had over sixty runners thanks to all of you wonderful people who signed up to sponsor school kids. And for you generous supporters who sponsored teams of five, it added so much excitement. Unfortunately we couldn't fill all the teams but next year people will have a better idea of what's going on. The whole event was fun and involved the entire community. From the island government to the police department to the Navy that allowed us to run on the runway. We had help from the Red Cross, they sent their ambulance to be on standby. We had runners of all ages from many different countries. For the first year we couldn't have asked for more.

7. What could be better than getting a puppy or dog off the street. How can you beat putting meat on a starving animals bones or help out a dog before it's abused and learns to mistrust humans. It's the best feeling in the world. Help me prevent another box of unwanted pups being left on a vacant lot. I can do all that and more if I have the funds. Help us turn this Into this It's a great gift idea for the person who has everything. You can buy them a monthly donation to Isla Animals. I will make sure that every penny that you donate is put to work. It's the most wonderful thing to know that we can count on a certain amount of money coming in each month. It allows me to plan ahead in this work that is other wise, to say the least, financially chaotic. And if you are looking for something different you can donate a certain amount of spays and neuters in someone's name. The surgery averages out to $20.00 an animal and it's the bottom line solution to overpopulation and suffering of animals in Mexico. Donate and then let me know by email bayfirestd@aol.com so I can make sure that a Christmas card is sent to your friend or family member. They will love it.

8. Thank You to the Bow Wow Club For Your generous Donation!

9. Yahoo, we are now a 501(c)3 tax-exempt non-profit organization

 

 

Donate $100 to Isla Animals today and get Alison's Book "No Urn for Ashes" FREE!

 

Surgery

WHAT POTTERY STUDIO

Most people may think that my life is animal rescue but I am actually a potter. If you look closely at the pictures of the vet doing spays and neuters in my studio you can see that it’s actually a pottery studio. Not that I have time to make pots or any room between operating tables and drawers of supplies.
Arturo, a wonderful vet from Cancun, was here from 9am to 6pm and we spayed 6 females and neutered 6 males. The pups were great and we had a recovery team taking care of every one of them as they woke up.
We always use what ever we have, creating spay hooks out of knitting needles and making our own suture with needles and reels. It works.

ISLAND SPAY AND NEUTER CLINIC

We just finished a spay and neuter clinic on the island. It was great. Our goal was sixty or seventy animals and we did one hundred and two. How cool is that.
Above is our check in crew and then Bonnie, the boss, multi-tasking. We had two operating tables, one for Delfino and one for Arturo, who has a clinic in Cancun and came to work all three days.

We had tons of volunteers, Umberto did the drugs, and lunches were donated by Lolo Valentino’s, Jax, and Barlitos. Needless to say, we ate very well.
Here are some of the cuties that were brought to the clinic. It was a great three days and there will be more to come soon. Many of the supplies that we used were left over from our Cancun clinic that was funded by Jennifer Pryor and George Lopez.

YAHOO FOR SPAY AND NEUTER

What a magnificent week we’ve had. Bonfil, Cancun, near the airport where the street dog population is heartbreaking. Candi, Isla Animals and Planned Pethood did a 5 day clinic. We spayed and neutered 1,574 cats and dogs. I still can’t believe it. What a team. Everyone from Canada, the USA, different parts of Mexico, and Cuba came together to make this happen. The impact on this area will be incredible.

As usual, we don’t put puppies back in the street so Isla Animals brought home 29 pups. We only took the ones that needed help or were too young to adopt out. The rest were adopted out the last day of the clinic with the help of local animal rescue groups who helped with the clinic.

Do you know how long it takes to vaccinate and deworm that many puppies.

BOCA AND POWDER

So the story of little Boca is a sad one with a happy ending. My friend Pamela told me that there was a puppy with a broken jaw in her neighborhood. We called Pepe, the vet, and he picked her up. He had to wire her little jaw and clean up all the wounds on her head. We figure that she was bitten by a big dog because there are at least four puncture wounds on her head. But she’s back here with us again and healing very well although she looks really funny with her head shaved because the rest of her is pretty fuzzy.The good news is that she has a little friend. Pepe found little Powder when he went to one of the marinas to check on another dog. They are good company for each other. As you can see Boca’s jaw is pretty swollen but we have her on some good anti biotics.

FOLLOWING UP

When we do spay and neuter clinics it’s so important to check on the animals that have had surgery. Many of the islanders don’t have cars and most taxis won’t pick people with dogs up, especially when the animal has a big open wound. So for a few days after the clinics we visit the animals to make sure they are healing well.
It was a good thing that Bonnie checked on one pup because the pup was infected and needed to be restitched. But there was an extra bonus for me because I got some added puppy time. Across the street there was a litter of five little beauties. We took them home for a bath and deworming and we are going back when I get some vaccinations so they stay healthy.
You should have seen me on the back of Pepe’s motto with a pup in each arm and my helmet, which was too big, flapping in the wind behind me and no hands to do anything about it. I wish we had taken that picture.

ONE HUNDRED MORE

Peace, with help and supplies from CANDI and Isla Animals organized a spay and neuter clinic on Isla Mujeres from April 9 to April 13. What a great week. We did exactly one hundred cats and dogs and a few special cases.
As usual we picked some of the dogs up at the Gautalupana where the kids always help and we had great volunteers at the clinic.
We spayed my Momma Chima and her four pups. Momma decided to recuperate in one of my flower pots.

Spay and Neuter Clinics

Wow, it has been the month of spay and neuters. With the help of CANDI, (Cats and Dogs International) Isla Animals did three days in Puerto Juarez where the ferry boat from Isla Mujeres lands on the Cancun side. We did 80 cats and dogs with a minimal amount of people and fuss. It was wonderful. We have started to invite the dog and cat owners into the recovery room to help care for their pets. It’s a great educational tool as we have them cut nails and clean ears and watch us make a big fuss over every animal that comes in. Jannet and Fredrique joined us from Isla and ran a tight recovery room. And we were really lucky to have Colette and Alex there to keep things running smoothly. A special thanks to Pamela from Puerto Juarez, she did a lot of work setting things up.

Pablo Got his stitches out

Our poor little Pablo was found alone in the street using three of his four legs. We brought him to the house and even though he never complained his femur was broken. Pepe fixed him up, put a pin in the bone and he is using his leg a little more every day. He is also gaining weight, I’m sure he was last in line for any tasty garbage morsels with only three legs to get there. His is so sweet and wow, what a face.

BIG PLANS

Isla Animals and Candi (www.candiinternational.org) have big plans for the next year. We are planning a mega-teaching spay and neuter clinic for the vets in the Isla Mujeres – Cancun area. We are hoping to train 48 vets in a high volume, low cost, safe surgery technique during the first week of November.
After that we have plans for many more clinics. Spay and neuter is the answer to improving the sad state of the cats and dogs and we are determined to make a difference.

The reason I bring this up is in years past people have sent us a wonderful variety of supplies that have allowed us to operate on more animals with less money. To those who have donated in the past, thank you very much and if you can again that would be wonderful and to anyone that could donate now, it makes a huge difference.

AN INCREDIBLE WEEK

What a week. We had our clinic in Corales with local volunteers, vets and techs from Canada and the USA and of course Pepe. It was incredible. We’d planned to sterilize four to five hundred cats and dogs but with dedication, hard work and persistence we did seven hundred and sixty one. Can you believe it.

We took in wonderful pups, check out my adoption site, it’s completely updated and the adopted pups have been moved to the adopted page. I have so many more pictures, I will post them soon.