Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Today we get up at 6:00 AM and decide that today we will follow the "Spay Waggin" van to the place of the event today: The Agriculture Center. Dad puts on the TV to keep an eye on a possible hurricane threat that is brewing south of Jamaica.  My husband had warned me about it the previous morning.  It is now big enough that it has a name: Sandy.  Dad and Brad have been discussing staying an extra 1-2 nights.  No decision has been made yet.

We get to the Animal Shelter a little after 6:45am. No Peacocks today like Monday. I'm a little disappointed. There is however a lone tortie cat lying the grass.  It starts to play with a bug flying around and even climbs up a nearby palm tree.

No time to waste, the shelter staff load up and we are on our way.  We follow the van to the agriculture center and already the event doesn't appear as happening as yesterday.  No one has arrived yet.  We start to get a little worried.  A car finally pulls up and has 2 cats for us. 

I get right to work and settle in helping with intake.  I pull out my spiral notebook and put together a log to keep track of who’s here and what they came with.  Today I worked with a woman named Mary and a woman named Nancy.

Liza brings everyone breakfast since there was no time to stop for coffee.  She brings us juice, coffee, muffins, and egg croissants.  It is her day off and she can’t stay away, not that anyone complained.

By 8:00AM, we’ve only taken in 4 animals: 3 cats and 1 dog.  We fear it is going to be a slow day.  The previous day we had stopped taking pets in after 9:00AM.  Today we didn’t stop until after 11:00am.  People trickled in a little at a time with dogs and cats.  It wasn’t nearly the rush as it had been the previous morning.

Dr. Bailey and Mike bring us pizza from Dominios for lunch.  Dad took a small break and the staff assisting him in surgery informed me that he was on a roll today.  He only hand a handful more surgeries to do.  No complications today.

We socialized with Dr. Bailey and Mike during the lunch break we had.  The previous day on our way back from the morning’s event, we had taken a small detour up to Point Udall, the most eastern point of the United States.  It had a great view.  Dr. Bailey told us we should come visit them at their house since they also had a great view. 

We talked about going out to dinner together, however they were going to an Italian restaurant they frequented, and Dad and Brad wanted something else.  Kellie had told us about a great Mexican restaurant, Mirims, that had $1 tacos every Wednesday night.  We had made plans since day one to see what that was all about.  We made the decision to stop for drinks at Dr. Bailey and Mike’s home and then go for our $1 tacos.

Dad finished up his surgeries around 2:30PM.  Today Dad had performed 3 cat spays, 1 cat neuter, 7 dog spays, and 6 dog neuters.  A total of 17 surgeries.  That is more than 40 surgeries in 3 days!

We made our way to Dr. Bailey and Mike’s house.  It was more on the way back to the house than from the house to the Mexican Restaurant.  They weren’t kidding about the view!  The drive itself was a little scary.  We went from rocky unpaved roads to concrete on and off.  The driveway was very steep.  Our car almost didn’t make it down.  I wondered aloud how Dr. Bailey would make it down when she goes into labor.  I can’t imagine it will be a fun drive.  We were quite awed with the view from the house.  It was definitely worth the drive, but I couldn’t imagine doing it every day. 

Mike pulled up the storm watch on his laptop.  Dad and Brad talked serious about traveling plans.  We decided we would have to at least stay 1 extra night and then re-evaluate.  With that in mind, we began to make plans for Friday.  The storm wasn’t supposed to hit St. Croix.

Brad had wanted to make a trip to Bucks Island where the best snorkeling and scuba diving was.  Since Mike and Dr. Bailey owned a boat, Dr. Bailey made the suggestion that we all go together, weather pending.  Mike would have to take a half day of work, but that shouldn’t be a problem as long as the weather held out.  We decided either way we would at least meet up for dinner that night.  We thanked Dr. Bailey and Mike for the visit and for the drinks Dr Bailey had made us. 

We headed back to the house to prepare for our highly anticipated $1 Tacos.  During the day’s festivities, Brad had bought a spiny lobster from a stand.  When we got back to the house he began to prepare a pot to boil it.  He explained that it was going to be the perfect appetizer to our tacos.  He looked through the cabinets for some flavoring.  The only thing he could find was so old it was caked on the bottom of the shaker in one big clump.  He settled for just butter.

We gathered around the island kitchen counter and enjoyed our lobster with some wine Brad had brought.  The lobster was excellent and indeed the perfect appetizer.  After enjoying our mini meal, we piled back into the car to head out for dinner.

We weren’t the only ones with a craving for tacos, however.  The place was packed with locals and finding a parking spot was an event upon itself.  Once we made it inside, we were lucky to find 3 open seats at the bar and quickly sat down.  We were greeted by Miram herself right away and were amazed at how good the service was even with the crowd that had gathered.

Surprisingly, our tacos came out quite quickly.  They were delicious!  The staff was also fantastic.  Our waitress even pointed out to Brad when his wallet had slipped out of his back pocket onto the floor.  For her honesty, we made sure she was rewarded in tips.

Back at the house, everyone was pretty exhausted.  We all made it an early night.  Tomorrow was our first day to just enjoy the island and we were looking forward to it.