Submitted my first paper of 2011 today AND saw a rare bird for T&T, the Lesser Goldfinch! Good day. Chaunise and I are meeting up with Gigi, Anita, and James for her last  night out in POS. I hope Chaunise had a great time, despite the bugs, rain, and other island elements.

Mt. St. Benedict

Levels

Anita and James

Motmot in John's yard!

Poor stray dog in Santa Cruz

Coming back to Trinidad today! Pics to come!

Bird's nest found at Grafton Bird Sanctuary

Hot and sweaty AM birding at Grafton Bird Sanctuary

Near Fort Bennett/Turtle Beach

Chaunise and me road tripping around Tobago

Ed and me. Ed is very afraid of my bark!

Coconut  water straight from the coconut!

First bake and shark!

Giving Caring Collars and Loving Leashes to TTSPCA in Tobago.

Playing "Gimme Five" with Jean, Store Bay dog

Visit to Anjanie Chattergoon's home. I first learned about Anjanie back in October when I first started my research on roaming dogs. I started off as a critic. Why are these people encouraging the feeding and dumping dogs cycle? I am now a huge fan of hers and her daughter, Anissa. They are wonderful people with huge hearts. I have such admiration for the their efforts to help the dogs. Anissa told me that they have been going to a fishing depot in their area everyday for the past five years to feed and take care of dogs there! And it doesn't seem like they will ever stop. I applaud these women for their compassion.

I sampled from my last farm in T&T (and hopefully, ever) today! I ended my dairy cattle research in Santa Cruz by collecting from 5 cows of the 8 cows on the Stollmeyer estate. Stollmeyer, as legend has it, once owned most of the land in this area, extending close to Maracas. The cows were skinny and had ticks. It's quite likely they've got a variety of intestinal parasites.

I left the farm around 8 and headed towards UWI to process them. There was surprisingly little traffic. I was back home by 9:30 to feed my starving dogs. The plan is to rest up a bit and meet a kind woman who offered to distribute some of the questionnaires for me later this afternoon. Thanks, Laci!

Nap time.

Victor, nice man who kept me company as I waited for the cows to "go."

Ahhh, T&TEC. I'm not sure which utility company drives me crazy more (the other being WASA). Santa Cruz lost power twice yesterday, the first for more than 3 hours. Why is electricity so important? Well, it was a scorcher again yesterday and no fan equates to sweating and mosquito bites. I was in the middle of editing my paper when electricity disappeared. So I decided to leave the house for a bit. I got a letter earlier in the morning from TTPost stating that my package from Sophie finally arrived, a month after she sent it. It was off to San Juan I went to pick it up from the grocery-store-post-office. Gotta love that. Sophie, you couldn't have sent me anything more perfect! "The Epic Adventures of Sparkleberry Finn" and a beautiful green camera neckstrap were enclosed. The comic book is hilarious and a very thoughtful gesture. My "little sister" knows me so well.

I went to UWI to schedule a meeting with Prof., and headed back home. Still no electricity. Grrr. When Dad came back and found out there was no current, he bolted! I decided to take a cool bath with the hope that the lights would be back when I got out. Eureka! Within five minutes of leaving the tub, my fan started running again. An hour or so later, while chatting with friends online, poof! Gone again. I couldn't stay home and be eaten alive. As I opened the gate, Zara bolted out. She joined me for a drive around the Queen's Park Savanna and back home. The little brat sat on my lap and head her head out the window for most of the car ride. Silly doggie. There was still no electricity on our way back, but it came just before we reached the house. Thank goodness!

Exhausted. Hitting the sack early!

I got stood up twice in two days! First, by my sister, then by a bird-watching group. Avia was supposed to come over with the kids since Saturday. Plans changed Saturday so she said Sunday for lunch. Lunch came and went, then, at 5 pm, I got a call from her saying that she would call me in about an hour. It is now Monday, 8:30 pm and I still haven't heard from her. Am I upset? You bet I am! I know Father's Day is a Hallmark holiday (I worked for Hallmark so I may have a greater appreciation for it), but it would have been the first Father's Day we all could have spent together: dad with his two daughters and two grandchildren. I'm going to need a few more days to get over this one because it was compounded by the fact that I woke up at 5AM on a public holiday (today is Trinidad's Labour Day) only to be stood up at Chaguaramas. I called the coordinator twice; no response. Fine. I ended up going on two hikes by myself, passing through a golf course on the way! People were up and about at 6AM. I saw several cyclists, golfers, and partygoers who were still going from the night before. Though I was by myself, I did feel unsafe ever. One new bird to the list: the Forked-tailed Flycatcher. What a beauty! 7 more to go!

Dad and I went to Maracas for a couple hours in the late-afternoon. I was trying to get at least 10 questionnaire participants, but failed miserably. Trinis love to talk and I spent about half an hour chatting with a dog breeder. In all, I got 6 participants, 4 locals and 2 tourists. Must go faster!

My day started with an early morning trip to Waterloo with Dr. Mahase and company to provide some veterinary care to ailing dogs. It was weird going back after yesterday's pick-up. Radha even commented on how quiet it was. I was forced to lie to Balram about the fate of the dogs. He asked if I could bring Pikachu back when she was finished with the spaying. I averted my eyes when I told him "Yes." The few remaining dogs at Waterloo will have new friends and enemies soon enough. I bet the number will be back to normal before I leave, so around 20-30 dogs.

Since there weren't many dogs to treat at the Temple site, we went down to Carli Bay where, I think, the situation is a lot worse. We arrived and only saw about 2 or 3 dogs. That's because the other 25 were distracted my beach limers who had food wit them. Once they smelled to sardines and dog chow, they came a runnin' and limpin'. They came in all sizes, ages, and both sexes, some much worse than others. They were so happy to have some food laced with ivermectin. I hope their skin conditions clear up. One dog looked particularly bad but was so friendly. I wish people understood how heartless their complete disregard for the lives of these animals is. We did a good thing today, but so much more needs to be done!

Okay, enough about the dogs. Happy Father's Day, Dad!!! This is the first Father's Day I have spent with my Dad since 1988, I guess. Let's see. So I went to Waterloo for most of the morning, I helped him grateful carrots, cheese, and chrystophene for lunch, took a nap, and went up to have lunch with Dad. We waited all day for Avia, Ms. Unreliable, who still hasn't called! Sigh. Dad and I may go out for a drink and to listen to some steel pan later. In the meantime, we're both going to catch some ZZZZZZs.

Dr. Mahase and her hungry patients

Ordered chaos- feeding at Carli Bay

Carli Bay

Solemn day for me. Many of my canine companions at Waterloo were put to sleep today in an effort to stop the suffering of some of the dogs. Even two litters of puppies. In all, 18 puppies and 6 or 7 dogs were humanely euthanized. There are many thoughts, but I am emotionally numbed by the experience. I will particularly miss Chubby, the bob-tailed Rott mix, and Greedy, the pothound.

Dogs at the cremation site

This dog wasn't this bad last week. It doesn't take long in Waterloo...

First litter of puppies: 7.

Ridgeback mix with maggot wounds.

Second litter of puppies: 5

Rest in peace, Greedy.

The only reason I got out of bed today.

Didn't do a lot of physical activity. I spent the majority of the day in my bed working. I created an online version of my questionnaires that are so much better than I could have come up with myself thanks to Google Docs. You can check out the Human Questionnaire and the Dog Questionnaire by clicking on either. The questionnaires took about 2 hours to do! More or less, I spent the day on my computer posting links to the questionnaires on various websites and entering info form the hard copy version into my excel database. Computer work can be just as exhausting as running around!

Chacachacare or BUST! I was invited to join the Forestry Division on their trip to the island today. There were reports of recent iguana hunting but it's no longer hunting season. As usual, I was way earlier than everyone else. 9 AM turned into 10:30 in no time flat. The wait was definitely worth it. The island has such interesting history and a completely different landscape to the main island Trinidad. There's even a salt pond! I can only imagine what it looks like since we couldn't disembark on that side of the island due to strong currents. I identified two new birds (still working on some), walked through a haunted nunnery, and meet some great people during the trip. Thanks, Mr. Harry, for keeping your word!


I was exhausted and famished after the trip. After a bowl of soup, I passed out for a few hours. I woke up to talk to mom and Daniel. I'm going to work on my D. renale paper until it's done. Let's see how long it will take!

Sweet boat!

How could people trash such a beautiful place?

Cemetery on Chacachacare

Caring Collars Loving Leashes

I was so caught up in Afiya's visit that I forgot to thank some very special people in Malverne, NY! My mother's studentS at Howard T. Herber Middle School were relentless in their efforts to purchase collars and leashes for the local animal shelters here. Caring Collars Loving Leashes was a huge success! 144 collar-leash combinations were purchased thanks to the work of the students who went around their school and neighborhoods asking people to pledge what they could for the cause. A special thank to Ms. Trish Medley for finding the beautiful collar-leash sets! I'm sure the dogs of T&T will be happy to be walked by their owners! So far 68 csets have made it to T&T, thanks to Afiya's willingness to transport them in her suitcase. The remainder will arrive when Chaunise, another high school friend, arrives in 9 days! 33 days left as of today! The clock is ticking...

Today should be an interesting one. I am going to cousin Alicia to feed dogs in Chaguaramas. I would also like to go back to Rebirth House, even if for just a few minutes, to see if I can get crafts made as gifts for friends back home. The sun is out and I hope it stays that way! Feeding dogs in the rain doesn't seem like a fun time.

Sets for the medium and large dogs

 Sibling Rivalry

During my visit to Point Fortin for Borough Day, I went on a solo birding adventure through the forest and mangroves. I was lucky to see the Black Hawk Eagle, a rare bird in T&T. As it turns out, a Black Hawk Eagle was shot by a hunter last week and is in dire need of veterinary care. The plan is to send her to the Raptor Trust in New Jeresy. Veterinary surgeons there have agreed to repair and rehabilitate the bird at no charge! How great is it that we can come together for a good cause! If this bird does not get medical attention quickly, it will die of lead poisoning from bullets that are lodged in its body. I hope this ends well.

Just seconds after writing about the eagle, I got a phone call from a man named Neal who read my article about stray dogs in the newspaper. Huh? What article? Turns out the T&T Newsday published my Letter to the Editor. He called to say that I was doing good work. I even got an email from another woman who read the article (I supplied my email and phone numbers hoping that the Newsday would write back). Sweet! Hopefully this gets will help me get the number a large number of participants for my questionnaire study!

Here's the link to the letter.

Plans for the day: call dairy farms in Southern Trinidad, write an article for the Fulbright newsletter, and take the pups to the beach (if Dad can motivate)!

Hands of Kelton Thomas with injured Black Hawk Eagle (courtesy El Socorro Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre)

Sparky, my roaming dog. He loves to take a quick walk at night. Brat.

Playing with puppies.

Dad was "exhausted!"

Beaching

Beach pose

Beautiful moon

Dinner at Hakka