Rockfort Temple and more

It's been over a week since I've been here in Trichy. The animal shelter work is going really well. Each day I usually help check the animals and give appropriate medications (tablets, skin sprays, antibiotics, etc..). Then we begin the sterilizations. Here, we usually do 8-10 sterilizations each day (spays/castrations of dogs mostly). I have been assisting the veterinarians with injecting the pre-anaesthesia, pre-operations (shaving operations area, betadine scrubs, alcohol scrubs), and during the surgery administering NS (sodium chloride) drip speed, giving more Thiopentone injection when needed, checking the animals color for oxygen monitoring, etc.. It's an important job to secure the animal's condition here considering no inhalant anaesthesia is used. This is the same as it was in Kerala. Due to cost, only Xylazine is given IV and Atropine is used as well. During the operation, Thiopentone is used to prolong the anaesthetic effects. The work has been a lot of fun and the staff is great. Dr. Padthma is the other veterinarian, Sivamani is the nurse, and Anuda is the driver. It is a small, but very efficient and fun staff to work with so far.

I also have been helping Anuda release dogs, because sometimes it is a difficult task to use the dog catcher and operate the sliding door at the same time. The other day, we released 10 dogs to their respected areas. They seemed extremely happy to get out of the van!

Today, being Sunday, there was no work to do at the clinic. Sivamoni, Anuda, and I decided to go see the Rockfort Temple. After about 500 steps, we got to the top and it was an amazing view of the whole city of Trichy. I took a bunch of pics which I will upload soon. The best part of the day was on the way back down the stairs when we were receiving our chappels back, we saw the temple elephant. We all took 5 rupees out and stood in line. I felt so great as I gave the elephant the money (grabbing it with his trunk and leaving a little slobber in my hand) and then he blessed me on top of my head with his trunk!

This is my last week here in Trichy. Friday evening (the 23rd) I am taking a bus to Bangalore (leaving 10 pm and reaching 6 am). I decided to stay in Bangalore for a little while, because I remember how beautiful it was as a child. Now it will be great to see as a grown up (well, big child). On Saturday evening (24th) I will take a bus to Panaji, Goa (leaving at 10 pm and reaching 5:30 am). Now, it's time to see Brazil kick some butt!