12th – 26th January 2025

Now what can I say about Amazing Aruba and Marvellous Mercedes! 😉 

So SS’s trip starts are always sleepless and anxiety filled.  Whilst Dominique and I spent hours fabricating fake invoices in case customs stopped us ( we would make awful crooks, numbers in uneven lines, as our cut pieces of paper were glued, stuck and photocopied…. I have since learnt how to use chatGPT!) the girls from the East, Suzy and Ali were spending more time in airports between planes than on them.   Finally, 7 of us met up in Amsterdam and 3 of us arrived the following day.   We walked confidently through customs with 2 x 23kg suitcases each and arrived into the warm balmy air of an evening in Aruba. 

Via Amy who was making calls to Mercedes, a man arrived and helped us with our bags, arriving at our 2 rental cars.  Mercedes, arrived in a flurry, a tall slim dutch woman not at all as her Spanish name would suggest!. 

The bags got put into the cars and her jeep, drivers got allocated and we set off to our lovely little bungalow.  At this stage there were 7 of us ( that’s 5 + 2 Mercedes!) which was kindly being lent to us by Karen, pronounced Kerin! 

It’s mad how as a team we like living together… it becomes a family of girls.  Amita enjoying her self appointed role as head chef and nobody disagreeing – Dominique trying her hand at the cooking one night just to up the standard.  Anyway communal life for 2 weeks is great and when we heard another apartment had been offered and some of the party had to go, we can only thank Amy and Veryan for taking one for the team.  They went and slept in the other apartment for a few nights.

Now the bungalow, 3 double beds, 2 puff up beds and a very comfortable sofa, hey Ali!! OK 2 bathrooms for those who wish to know and a small swimming pool, housed the 10 of us.  The great news was that it was near the clinic and so we could walk to and from daily.  Obviously involving Veryan pointing our various avian species.  This year we had 2 new girls, Simone Simpson, who improved her surgical skills massively and Malwina, a more experienced vet, who fitted in wonderfully.

When the dog is too big for the table!

Our first meeting daily at the AAWA clinic was Benii their fantastic mascot who greets everyone. 

As vets we all struggled at various points, yes, even Jill.   There wasn’t a vet in our group that didn’t have a bleed and didn’t need help.  This is the wonderful thing about SS (Spay Sisters not Simone Simpson!) there is always someone there to help and there is always something new to learn. 

Even old dogs learn new tricks, so thanks Amy, I definitely feel far more confident about accessing the right ovarian stump by pulling the duodenum across now.

After the first day, Suzy realised it was going to be impossible for her and Ali and that we would have to rearrange out normal set up.  Mercedes, was dutch and though a bit stereotypical, she was quite demanding.  She wanted individual forms completed with actual drug dosages, microchips, the operating procedures carried out, all recorded, we usually have a much simpler system.

No worries, we sorted ourselves out and in the end it was fun, we put ourselves on a rota.  6 vets operated, 2 vets pre-medicated the dogs and transported them from the cage area into the clinic whereby Suzy and Ali could continue their job.  Then the 2 floating vets also supervised the wake up and signed them off. 

So when you see 644, as a total of operated animals please realise that that was 6 vets and we worked a total of 9 days.  As always, we can’t thank Suzy enough because without her ability at animal anaesthesia and repeatedly following dose charts, we would be lost. 

Ali didn’t do badly either, managing to develop a great friendship with Rob, one of the local helpers, who provided us with very tasty home baked cakes, including a very nice vegan cake ( with eggs!!!!!!!!!) for Jill. 

It’s also necessary to mention the other 2 vets who dropped into help for a day or 2.  Susan, a vet from Massachusetts, thanks for your help and Dominique is still feeling guilty about lending you those gloves, causing your full body reaction.  Angela, thanks for your blast of energy at the end of the day and your skill at the paperwork.  

And the AAWA helpers, Anouk, Jen and Ellen, what would we have done without you? Probably laughed less, after all ‘It’s a T-shirt’ .

On the second Wednesday, half of the group, went to the local school, St Franciscus College, to give lessons to 2 classes about dogs and cats.  We explained about the need to sterilise them.  We scared them with freezer bags of ticks, fleas and worms and then we made them all hyper with syringes and a bowl of water before we left, leaving the teachers to try and regain control! 

We didn’t work at the weekends or Wednesday afternoon, so we did leave the Island with better tans and Aloe Vera products (Aruba’s 2nd source of income after tourism).  Also a big `THANK YOU`to the sponsor who paid for our 2 hours on the Jolly Pirate Sunset Sail, because despite all grumbling getting on, we got off giggling and laughing.  Was that the unlimited Pina Colada’s ? 

The trapping team of Miriam and Jac must not be forgotten because trapping is difficult and they were good :).

Lastly Mercedes, thanks for being slightly less rigid than a true Dutch and don’t worry next time we come we will let you win the so-named card game.  A very heart felt thank you, we loved the trip. 

On this trip we used:  Ketamine 390 mls

                                   Vetergesic 430 mls

                                   Domitor  320 mls

                                   Antisedan 40 mls

                                   Metacam  230 mls

                                   Shotapen 750 mls