Achievement of grand proportions
Published 3:08 pm Wednesday, August 22, 2012
When little Jack, a Shiba Inu mix, went under the knife, it was spay/neuter number 1,001 at the Orcas Animal Shelter.
It’s quite a milestone for a facility that doesn’t have a full-time vet on staff.
Dr. Joe Gaydos has been spending one night a week at the shelter since 2003, just a year after it first opened.
“If you consider that Joe comes once a week – with a few missed due to his travel schedule – for only three hours, this is an amazing accomplishment that has made the difference for the success of our shelter,” said shelter manager Marsha Waunch.
It appears to have made a difference for the local animal population as well. For the first time, the shelter has not had any reports of feral cats. It’s a testament to the power of preventing unwanted litters.
At a highly reduced hourly rate, Gaydos spays and neuters the cats and dogs, gives full examinations, vaccinations, runs tests, microchips and performs minor surgeries. He is assisted by retired nurses Barbara Ehrmantraut, Cathy Ellis and Noreen Nealy, who all volunteer their time.
To date this year, the shelter has taken in 65 cats (25 of which were transferred from another shelter) and 52 dogs. In 2011, the total number was 65 cats and 63 dogs.
“We’ve been low on our cat population so we’ve transferred some from our partner shelters: Whatcom Humane Society and Cats Meow in Anacortes,” Waunch said.
During his day job, Gaydos is director of the local nonprofit SeaDoc Society, a division of the University of California, Davis that works to ensure the health of marine ecosystems through research and education. Every year, the organization hosts interns from the university’s veterinary program. Gaydos likes to bring them along to the shelter for exposure to small animal procedures.
Current interns Christine Parker and Karisa Tang have spent a lot of their summer tagging and monitoring harbor seal pups with the San Juan County Marine Mammal Stranding Network.
Parker and Tang, both third year vet students who want to go into aquatic animal medicine, say Gaydos is the best boss ever. They’ve done necropsies, learned the process of research, and “what it takes to be a wildlife vet” in the areas of networking and development.
“We’ve been keeping a list of all the life lessons Joe has taught us,” laughed Tang. “He’s taught us to fix and dock a boat, use a drill, kill a crab, drive a stick shift, train a dog and how to cook.”
The interns brought their dogs to Orcas for what they described as their summer of soul rejuvenation. Their canines, Logan and Orsino, are “shelter mutts” who get along famously.
