On Sunday, December 22, we held our final campaign of the year at El Ensino Park in the Pueblito de Rocha area of the city, sterilizing 107 animals—31 female dogs, 16 male dogs, 32 female cats, and 28 male cats. This was the largest number of cases in any single campaign of the year. We also sterilized six female dogs at a training session on December 8. Altogether, we sterilized 1,381 animals during 2024 and 25,899 since starting our program in December of 2001.
The campaign at El Ensino got off to a rocky start, when Niña, our ancient Ford Windstar van, decided to sleep in. Julia Salido, our campaign manager, called her mechanic, who came to the rescue, coaxing niña to wake up. Then, when Julia and our other team members arrived at El Ensino, the building we had used earlier was not available, although Julia had reserved it for the campaign.
Meanwhile, a line of people and their pets stretched down the block. Some people had arrived several hours earlier, but everyone was patient.
The team scrambled to find an alternative site in the park and settled for a much smaller and darker building. Somehow, they made it work. Within a short time, the registration, prep area, surgery, and recovery units were set up and the long line of patients began to move.
Mary Beth Canavan told us about a family who brought four large male cats to the campaign. A stray female cat they had adopted surprised them with eight kittens, four orange males and four assorted females. Mama and the girls were sterilized earlier, so Sunday was the boys’ turn.
We thank all those who made the campaign a success. Besides the people who brought their pets to the campaign and remained patient while they waited their turn, we are grateful to Julia Salido, our campaign manager; veterinarians Verónica Almaguer, Sandra Hernández, Abril Herrera, Ricardo Montes de Oca, and Arturo Rocha; and volunteers Carolina Albarran, Karla Ahumada, Julie Boles, Valentina Breslauer, Irene Campos, Mary Beth Canavan, Heber Cervantes, Rosemarie Conde, Yiye Contreras, Fran Espinoza, Joel Gaytán, Celise Ingram, Tony López, Vero Mares, Adhán Mata, Andrea Martín, Nona Mondragón, Alexi Nuñes, Gabo Ramírez, Vania Rocha, Carlos Sánchez, Zoe Sánchez, and Dulce Sandoval.