Life       Backpack

    My first day at the shelter was hectic as I was not familiar with how things were done or where things were so I spent most of my time asking questions but there were four vets including Vicky,the head vet, so there was enough staff. Javier, a Spanish vet from Galecia, had been working there for two weeks when I arrived and I started off working along side him and improving my Spanish and him his English. Maria was a vet nurse from Bulgaria who started at the same time as me. As the week passed I became more comfortable and got to operate which was one of the main reasons for volunteering.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                         

 

                                                           

 

 

 

 

 

                                                Javier and I operating

     The shelter is run by non locals and after being there I feel the shelter is run in a good manner. Not only are they concerned about the animals health but also their welfare. Something I had not seen before was that they rotate dog packs around the premises three times a day to prevent boredom and domination. The adoption rate is fairly good (100 in a year) in my opinion and the fact that they organise the quarantine and flights to transport adopted cats and dogs to various countries, which during my stay was Vancouver, UK and Holland, was particularly good. Apart from veterinary duties at times we were expected to carry out kennel volunteer duties which entailed feeding and cleaning kennels/cages. I only experienced two of these shifts (7am – 1pm) and after the buckets of sweat it made me appreciate all the hard work the other volunteers put in to keep this shelter running. Because of volunteers like them LAW are able to give the locals their service.