As I mention in my previous post, I had the opportunity of helping out at a spay and neuter clinic put on by one of the veterinarians at LPCHS named Patrick. I drove to Patrick's property at around 8:30 which was a little early as it turned out however that gave me an opportunity to walk around and look at all the cool projects he has. He owns a large portion of land which he has dedicated to his farm. He has a large greenhouse, a couple yurts, a beautiful pond and stream, an extensive fish hatchery and a room in his house for veterinary practices. Patrick let me help out with the fish, including feeding them and counting out 500 for a client. At around 10 we started to prepare for the spay and neuter operations. The purpose of the spay neuter clinic was to trap feral cats and fix them before returning them to their habitat. This helps with overpopulation in the cat colonies. It was very cool to see the whole process and to help out as much as I could. There were around 15 cats that needed to be fixed. I learned that it takes much longer to fix the female cats than the males due to their anatomy. I was surprised that nearly every single female cat was in the early stages of pregnancy and it made me wonder just how many litters these animals had already given birth to. Patricks wife made us all a delicious lunch which was greatly appreciated before we finished up the last of the surgeries. After every cat had been fixed they were given some food and they were able to recover over night before returning to the wild. This was a very cool experience for me and I learned a lot about veterinarian practices as well as Patrick's unique lifestyle.
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