It was a cool 33 C in Trinidad today (about 93 degrees F). I'm not kidding. That is actually "cool" for here.

I spent my first day volunteering at the TTSPCA. So many doggies and cats! I'm really impressed by how well the place is maintained. Annette, who is sort of in charge of managing the facility, is wearing way too many hats. She answers phones, gives tours, writes up adoption forms, calls/emails volunteers to do home visits of potential owners, directs catchers on where and when to pick up animals, etc. The only thing I didn't see her do was clean cages, but who knows?! I was shadowing a vet for the first hour until "Prof," the head of the vet school came with some students. I joined them for the tour. I will be collecting samples from the stray dogs, mostly from the ones that are going to be euthanized since they are not de-wormed at the shelter. Worms are a parasitologist's best friend (I guess I'm a parsitepidemitologist). Euthanisia is sad but so is seeing sick/dead/malnourished/dying dogs on the street. I strongly believe that it is better for them in the long run. There were two strays that came from the Tunapuna area of Trinidad while I was at the TTSPCA. They looked disheartened and sickly. Or maybe they were bummed about being locked up in a cage far from their home streets. I can only speculate as a silly human with strong opinions on the matter.

The pics today are very puppy-heavy. There are some cute ones at the shelter, few of which were going through the adoption process. One woman called in today to relinquish two of her owned dogs because they developed an untreatable skin problem. I find that really hard to believe, but I commend her for taking the steps to make sure that they at least have the option of a new home.

It's going to be an emotional 10 months.


Betty, TTSPCA office dog. What a sweetie pie!


Really beautiful lost pit mix. He'll stay at the shelter for five days as a lost dog, and then become available for adoption.


Honey! She's got one eye but more than enough bark! Already in the adoption process.


LOLZ kitty


Oh, Gertrude. Very temperamental cat. Really fat too.