Clinic Review

December 11, 2005
Spay, Neuter and Vaccination Clinic

On December 11, 2005 Commonwealth Cats held a Spay, Neuter and Vaccination Clinic at the MSPCA's MetroSouth Animal Care and Adoption Center. We received a huge number of requests for reservations for this clinic. We stopped our wait-list reservations when we got to 100 requests and scheduled 75 cats. Fifty-one cats were admitted, including 29 females and 20 males; Two cats were sent home because one was ear-tipped already (indicating that it was already sterilized) and the other was too small for the anesthesia we use. Therefore, we were not able to determine the gender of these cats.

Our cold New England weather presented several challenges to us. Flu season is upon us and several volunteers were not able to participate due to illness. We had arranged to use the MSPCA's mobile surgery van, but we had difficulty with the heating system. While we did some mechanical troubleshooting, we made the decision to set up a make-shift surgery suite inside the shelter and everyone pitched in to rearrange our equipment. Ultimately, we were able to resolve the van?s heating problem, but our veterinarians felt that the set-up inside the shelter facility was satisfactory, so we continued with that plan. Due to these issues, we had a late start and the clinic took longer than we anticipated. Commonwealth Cats would like to thank all of our veterinarians, technicians and assistants who pitched in to help move things around and for their patience with the late start. Because of the teamwork and flexibility we were able to care for a large number of needy cats who would not otherwise get veterinary care.

Commonwealth Cats would like to say thank you to a few other individuals and groups, who were behind the scenes, and yet, critical to helping us care for the animals. Thank you to Margaret Brender and the Merrimack River Feline Rescue Society for lending us surgery instruments and to the MSPCA for the use of their equipment, facility and spay van. Thank you to Jennifer Bellrose who donated lunch for all of our volunteers (and worked at the clinic all day). Commonwealth Cats would like to say a huge "thank you" to Heather Donnelly, the Shelter Manager at the MSPCA's MetroSouth Animal Care and Adoption Center. Heather helped us for hours setting up the clinic on Saturday, did all of the transportation for the mobile surgery van (which lives at the MSPCA headquarters in Jamaica Plain), rearranged her shelter so that we would have space for the clinic, picked up lunch for the volunteers, and basically accommodated all of our needs. She and her staff have been gracious hosts at this clinic and each one in the past that we have done at her facility.

This clinic completes Commonwealth Cats' first full year of operations. Our goal for the year was to hold 6 clinics, which we did. We are happy to tell you that we have been able to help over 230 cats since we started in November of 2004. Our success is a huge tribute to our volunteer veterinarians, veterinary technicians and assistants who have put in a lot of long hours and hard work to care for the animals.

Looking forward to 2006, we hope to increase the number of clinics we run and the number of cats we help as our funding and volunteer base grows.

Thank you for your support!