During our senior year of vet school...March of 2001, Sara, Stacey, and I were lucky enough to be chosen to go on a RAM trip to the Bahamas! A total of four students, one internist, and one resident went from UT. The island was Bimini...a tiny island that you could easily jog around. The majority of the trip was funded by the Bimini Love Project while lodgings were donated by one of the locals. Our purpose was to trap the ferrel dog population (called potcakes) to spay/neuter them and control the number of free dogs on the island. A tiny island like that can only have so much food for ferrel dogs and many were starving. Puppies and adult dogs that were suitable as pets were found homes and a select few were transported back to the US.
Here is our UT group with the head of the project, Consie...that's me at the top left. The building that we used was an old medical office. The table we did our spays on was an old gynological exam table which was nice for the tie downs. Neuters were done on any flat surface. We also provided minor veterinary services and vaccinations to pets owned by the locals. These were mainly Pitt Bulls which, of course, no one let us spay or neuter...a purebred dog is a "valuable thing".
Consie watching over the day's trapped dogs.
Consie with a tame potcake.
A golf cart is the best transportation on a small island. This one was used to deliver the dogs in traps. The potcakes in this picture were all owned by someone.
Stacey getting a sedated potcake out of the trap with a leash.
Every spayed or neutered dog was microchipped to identify the ones that had been treated. You really have no control which dog gets into a trap and there were many different trips to Bimini before the entire island was captured. Each dog was given a good meal before being released. Any dog that looked like it had mange was treated for that also. We tried to get them as healthy as possible.
Stacey doing a pregnant spay while I watch anesthesia. We were lucky to have custom made isoflurane anesthesia machines...made light and perfect for traveling.
Another Stacey spay with Jennifer at anesthesia.
Jennifer getting ready for a neuter while Whitney covers anesthesia.
Me holding a potcake...can't remember why though.
Dr. Scarlet giving an IV injection to a well controlled potcake.
How many people/dogs can you fit on a golfcart? A group of us returning that day's dogs to where they were found. That's me riding in the front.
This is the same little boy that is following us on the scooter in the above picture. He loved to hang around us because we would give him food and watch him do tricks on his scooter. Here, he is eating beef jerky with Sara.
Potcakes playing on the beach.
Now...don't think we went all the way to the Bahamas and didn't do anything but work. One of the locals, the Keefe's, were kind enough to provide us with a free wild dolphin excursion to thank us for coming to their island. I forgot my underwater camera so have scanned some postcards to give you an idea on what it was like for us out there. No...the dolphins won't let you touch them but they do like to play with you by doing a "fly by".
Stacey, me, and Sara on the front of the Keefe's boat.
We also had a full nightlife. There was a fishing tournament going on at the same time so the island was hopping with people and parties. Stacey met her current boyfriend there and they are still dating almost four years later. Jeff was the captain of the SWAT fishing boat and we had a great time with the entire crew.
SWAT
Girls on the SWAT.
Everyone on the SWAT.
This local bar had a dance floor and often had a live band.
We caught the biggest fish!
Me, Sara, and Stacey at another local bar.
To earn the right to have your underwear displayed at this bar, you had to take it off there...no thanks!
I enjoy taking pictures of things I see so someone else can have an idea of what I experienced. Here is the entrance to the local bazaar where they sold the usual stuff...wraps, T-shirts, crafts. I also could not pass up taking this excellent picture of a local hooker organizing her booking. What you can't see is that Sara is just to the left of her and I was pretending to take her picture.
Of course, I always take the typical scenery shots...they are nice though.
Silly, fun shots are good too.
You know, the only way to get to Bimini is by boat. Here we are loading up to meet our charter plane on South Bimini. I was not about to let anyone stick my luggage on top of that thing. I could just imagine the weeble, wobble, plunk and see it sink right to the bottom.
Here we are in South Bimini waiting for our plane and this is what it's like to sit in an 8 seater...squish, squish.
Our tiny, little plane from the outside. Boy are these guys noisy!
