Rain dancing

So it turns out that the Cook Islands has run out of water...!With only a couple of percent in the tanks before a national state or emergency is called, most of the volunteers are mainly upset about the lack of a shower. Thank God we live across the road from the beach!
It does, however, make the daily feed and clean somewhat more challenging, with the inability to clean, and Gregg doing regular runs across the road (where, being a few metres further down hill, still has a little) for water for animals!
Luckily, the last two days have seen some drizzle and we now have a trickle of water in the toilet - hooray!!
As for the patients, the fish poisonings continue to come in. Just when one gets better, two more arrive. However, Blackie, Bourbon and Bobbi all now have lovely homes and our clinic dog Mama- who came down with fish poisoning due to her scavenging ways - is starting to improve with lots of TLC. She now appears mainly upset that Hovis is in the house without her!
The last few weeks have also seen a sad number of puppies too young to be taken from their mums, doing very poorly. One even died, no matter how much we tried to rehydrate the three week old, who had been away from her mum for more than two weeks. Unfortunately, her new owners had been trying to work out what to feed her and - knowing she was too young for dog food - offered her Weetbix and UHT milk. Sad though the story is, I hope that we can all learn from it, and a new educational missive begins... One more thing for Gregg to teach the kids on his school visits :-) The kittens also keep rolling in, though thankfully we have been donated some kitten milk so can feed them (though 4 hrly feeds makes for tired volunteers!)




As for the volunteers, there has been big changes (going from 13 people 2 weeks ago to 4 on the weekend - Friday night was our first quiet (ish) one in a long time). It is lovely to meet another team of enthusiastic caring young people keen to make a difference to the animals of Rarotonga.

Petey the Petrel

Dec 1st, 2009
Here's Petey, a giant, we think Southern, Petrel that has been with us now for about a week and a half. He was brought to the Esther Honey Vet Clinic by a tourist who saw that he was unable to fly or walk away when approached on Muri beach. Since then we have been trying to build his strength so he can go back to where he came from. We have already tried three times to release Petey but he doesn't really do much. Everyday we feed him mackerel out of a can as well as fresh fish scraps from the local market. He seems pretty comfortable around the cats and dogs that we have here, probably because he's bigger than most of them. He walks around outside his enclosure quite happily spreading his giant wings while we clean up the mess he has made. Rob, one of our volunteers, as well as Max, the soon to be missed clinic director, have become good friends to Petey as he has been gaining more and more strength and venturing further from his enclosure. They take turns looking after him, while the rest of the team helps feed and clean the other animals.
Petey and Rob made it to the front page of the Cook Island NEWS today which has got people talking around the island. We have had quite a few visitors today coming just to see Petey and a local in town asked how he was doing. We don't usually get these types of animals coming into the clinic, but it's a great change of pace and everyone seems to enjoy having him around. Max will be leaving this weekend, and Rob will be leaving a few days after that. Hopefully Petey will be back in the air before they leave since they have built such a relationship with him. We had a Herald petrel last year which eventually flew away from the top of Hospital Hill which we kept for a few weeks until it regained strength.
The vets believe that Petey might have neurological problems caused by lead poisoning of a possible fishing weight being swallowed. If this is the case then he may not fly again and we will have to look for alternative solutions for his ongoing care. Tomorrow they are going to X-ray him to see if they can find anything. We're all hoping for the best.
Thanks for continuing your support for the clinic, for without your donations and without the volunteers that come and help we would not be able to help Petey or the many other animals, mostly cats and dogs, that come to us with serious problems. Petey is enjoying himself at the moment but the diagnosis doesn't look good.
(Image is of Rob, one of our volunteer vets, holding Petey at the beach 50 yards from the clinic)