Sandy and I set off early in the morning to drive to a village nearly an hour away. Today, we were picking up a cat and a dog to take them to the vet for neutering. Polga’s Fund helps people who have trouble caring for their pets by paying for their vet bills and for neutering of their animals. And this is something Sandy does very often, but it’s still quite new for me! It was interesting to see the kind of challenges you run into doing this kind work.

The road leading there was misty and you could barely see anything through the fog, but either way we made it to our first destination.

We were going to pick up a dog, owned by an elderly lady. She is suffering from dementia, but living all by herself, so life is quite challenging for her but she loves her little dog, who is her only company. The house and place looked quite run down. When we called for her, asking her to come out, so we could pick up the dog, nobody came outside, plus, there was no sign of a dog barking.

So after calling for a long period of time, and with no response, we had to make our way through her barricaded garden to knock on the door, to which the lady finally came out, but with no dog. She said the dog went out, and that she didn’t know where it was…  THAT wasn’t ideal, because we had our booked spot for her dog to be neutered at the vet today. So the search started…

Thinking quickly, we guessed the dog might have gone to the centre where it usually got fed. So we drove down, and searched around, and soon enough we found her. She was a small, plump dog with long black hair, and she was friendly towards us, but a little nervous. We stood still and  gently coaxed her and she pretty quickly came to us, rolling around, showing us her belly and barking happily. And so it was quite easy to catch her, and put her in the car.

He was a little afraid, occasionally barking or whimpering, but was doing okay.

So, having found the dog, we next headed to the second house, where we would pick up the cat.

Picking up the cat went smoother, she was already in her carrier, with a blanket draped around the cage so she wouldn’t see anything, as the ride was a little anxiety inducing for her, (and she didn’t want to have to stare at that clumsy old dog of course).

Before you set off to the vet, you have to make sure both dogs and cats haven’t eaten for since the night before . This is important because animals are put under general anesthesia during neutering, and having food in their stomach can increase the risk of complications. When they’re unconscious, they can’t swallow normally, so if any food comes back up, it could accidentally enter the airway and the anaesthetic means they cannot cough, to clear their airway. An empty stomach keeps them safer throughout the procedure and helps the vet avoid any problems.

The road to town was winding, unfortunately for the dog, because on the way there, she got a little carsick, and threw up in the cage. But Sandy said it’s good, because like I said before, they can’t have food in their stomachs during the operation. But still, not very pleasant to be in the car with.

But eventually we made it to town, dog vomit and all, and reached the vet, where they got carried in, weighed, heart rate checked etc.

We mentioned to the vet that the dog had clearly just eaten and they made sure she vomited anything left in her stomach – which turned out to be a lot.

We picked up the cat the same day and returned her home to her owner, happy and well. We decided to leave the dog at the vet overnight so she could stay warm and safe after the operation (neutering female cats and dogs is major surgery), because we had to think about the owner’s dementia and we couldn’t guarantee she wouldn’t put the dog out in the cold again. Sandy let the neighbour know the plan and he told the owner, so she wouldn’t worry and he said he’d check on the owner several times that evening, to reassure her, in case she forgot what the plan was, and wondered where her dog was. Sandy collected the dog and returned her to her owner the next morning. Another completed mission for Polga’s Fund!