CAYE CAULKER, Day 5

DeAnna

This morning, Isabelle treated us to a breakfast of eggs, served in tortillas made by Idalmi, Madi’s sister. Idalmi lives across the back lane, and has prepared delicious meals for the entire group each night.

“We have a wonderful team, probably one of the best teams we’ve ever taken anywhere,” said Donna. “Everyone’s got a wonderful work ethic and a really good heart for the animals. I’m a little disappointed in the number of animals that are coming in and hope it will pick up. We’ve been keeping steadily busy. But it’s not all about the numbers. The education programs that we’ve done so far are really powerful and have made an impact and that’s probably the number one reason that we’re here because of all the abuse that goes on. If we can reach ten kids to start acting better with the animals, it’s great.”

It was one of the hottest days to date, and the team worked into the early afternoon, keeping busy with 5 cat spays, 2 cat neuters, 1 feline tooth extraction, and a cherry eye surgery, as well as 18 examinations and vaccines.

Baby, who received cherry eye surgery

“It was a good day. It went well,” said Eve. “Could have done more but there wasn’t more to do. We went through everything we had and everything that came in. We didn’t hold anything over.”

A small group of eighth grade students visited surgery, accompanied by their teacher. “The kids were very interested,” remarked Dr. Gina. “They were good kids - very quiet, and asking good questions, and really good. The teacher’s supposed to bring another group of kids around next week.”Dr. Gina in surgery

Eve & Dr. Anna in surgery

Team members working in surgery went for a swim at the Split, and on the way witnessed an eel sighting. “Its head was huge!” commented Chris. “You didn’t see its whole body ‘cause it was in the little hole and it would just come out far enough to get the fish and then it would go back out.”

Donna Lasser, Jennifer Picard and myself took a boat to the mainland to collect Laurie Sattler (Miami) and Cathy Squires (Ottawa), who are in Belize for the next five days to produce a documentary on CAAT's efforts.

The ladies wandered through the flea markets, purchased some beautiful wood carvings, and ate lunch near a lighthouse before picking up groceries in the city centre. Then they headed to the outskirts of Belize City to meet with the filmmakers, arriving on Caye Caulker via water taxi just in time to witness a feeding frenzy at the dock. Pelicans and frigates swooped and dove into the shallow water to fight over the day’s rejected fish, while our team enjoyed yet another delicious meal made by Idalmi.