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Tammy Catanach
Tammy Catanach on
Ranguana Caye
with Blakie, a local caye dog
Tammy Catanach
is an amazing young woman.
From the first
time Tammy visited Placencia, she fell in love with the area, and with
the animals.
When Tammy
returned to her home in the States, she started raising funds to help
Placencia's animals -- she held bake sales, personally solicited
donations, even held a Battle of the Bands for her local high school
bands (bravely chaperoned by mom, Kathy Catanach).
Tammy raised
an incredible amount of money – BZ$2000 – which she sent to
PHS
with Rick Chandler, a friend who was visiting the Placencia area.
An astounding
achievement for such a young women, but if that weren't enough, when
the time came to accept her award at our
2006 Volunteer Recognition Night, Tammy presented
PHS
President, Marcia Fox with yet
another check for BZ$2000! (This contribution has been
earmarked for the PHS Building Fund.)
(As an aside,
at our Volunteer Recognition Night, Tammy's very special friend,
Jamie, donated his guitar to PHS to raffle to raise additional funds
for rescue animals. Raffle tickets are available at every clinic
and other event sponsored by PHS. Thank you so much, Jamie!)
Mary Smith, Tammy and
Jamie
PHS
is so grateful to Tammy for her passion, enthusiasm and support of our
programs.
Thank you
Tammy, not only from PHS, but from all the local animals you've
helped, including all the Placencia animals your generosity has
allowed us to rescue and to find loving homes.
You're
literally, one in a million!
Tammy and PHS President,
Marcia Fox
Placencia's 2006 LobsterFest
Dr. Cliff Barnett, Dr. Anthony Bruno
and Nurse Ann Bruno
 Dr.
Cliff Barnett, Animal Hospital of Seminole, Florida, is not only a
wonderful friend to PHS, he is also a long-time visitor who
enjoys introducing friends to the wonderful snorkeling, diving and
fishing in the Placencia area.
So, Dr. Anthony Bruno and his wife Ann,
were delighted to accepted Dr. Cliff's invitation for a weekend break
in Placencia.
Little did Dr. Cliff realize what was in store for him and his
friends, and little did PHS realize how fortuitous their visit would
be.
The morning that Dr. Cliff arrived, a pet cat had been savaged by
stray dogs on the beach. When Dr. Cliff and Dr. Bruno were told about
the emergency, they volunteered to check on the pet immediately.
The Veterinarians found a very badly
injured cat and immediately set up a MASH unit at the pet owner’s
home. Both doctors, assisted by Ann Bruno (a nurse), operated on the
cat.
Two and a half hours later, the pet was stable enough to allow the
emergency vet team to leave and check into their hotels to begin their
short vacation - or so they thought.
However, early next morning PHS received another emergency call -- a
puppy had been run over by a car and the owners feared that its leg
was broken – could we help?
This time the MASH unit was set up at
Mariposa Beach
Suites so that the puppy could be treated. (Among other
things, the puppy's foot was smashed and a splint was fashioned
from a plastic drinking cup.) A few hours later, a grateful pet owner
and a happier puppy left for its recovery.
Both pet owners were advised to bring their pet to the April clinic
for a check up.
PHS is fortunate -- and very grateful -- to have had such caring
professionals available and willing to sacrifice their own vacation to
provide this emergency veterinary care.
Otherwise, when the kind ministrations
of professional volunteers such as Dr. Cliff and Dr. Bruno are not
available, PHS can only assist in these cases by flying pets to Belize
City for emergency veterinary care (often many hours later if the
emergency happens in the evening or on the weekend).
Emergency veterinary care continues to be a serious problem in the
Placencia area. We hope that a permanent clinic building with an
apartment for a veterinarian will allow us to have veterinarians
available on a weekly rather than monthly basis. But, we need to raise
the necessary funds to build the clinic.
(More
information on our clinic building fund.)
A big thank you to the visiting
veterinarians, Dr. Cliff Bennett and Dr. Anthony Bruno and also Nurse
Ann Bruno – maybe the trip wasn’t the ‘great break’ that Dr. Bennett
had proposed, but it was certainly a ‘great break’ for the two pets,
the pet owners and PHS.
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