I love spending my morning on the phone with the CDC, USDA, and FDA. Not In wanting to make sure an cover all of my bases for transporting my samples to the US, I spent an hour chatting with several officials at very government agencies. As it turns out, I'm going to need a permit from APHIS for the dairy cattle samples. Doh! $141! DOH! Whatever. I need them so it has to happen. I also scheduled rabies vaccination for Zara and Sparky for Friday. Things are shaping up nicely after a few weeks of major panic.

Cake and ice cream was a success! It was a great way to celebrate the end of year. Then it was off to read slides from the samples I collected in Tobago. Both the dogs and cows were pretty clean. Giardia to be determined.

My evening was uneventful. I watched an episode of The Colbert Report, read more papers on D. renale, and napped. Siestas are so important to my day here.

I thought that I would be content with sampling from 20 farms and reaching my goal of processing all of the samples before June. As it turns out, I want more. I think I'm going to bump up my goal to 25 farms so that I can sample from farms in southern Trinidad and around where I live in Santa Cruz. This will also help to balance out my rainy season and dry season sampling. I'll also take a few more visits to the TTSPCA. The greater the "n," the greater in the end: my new slogan.



Mom's great idea to donate collars and leashes to the TTSPCA on both islands of Trinidad and Tobago. Email me at mpm26@cornell.edu if interested in making a donation!