Kerry McCluskey
Northern News Services

IQALUIT (May 25/98) - Tell Miss Kitty and Rover to get ready -- it's time for a visit to the vet.

On June 4, Montreal veterinarians Susan and Don Floyd are scheduled to fly into Iqaluit to tend to the needs of the town's animals.

"As soon as they come in they'll start doing some of the easy stuff -- vaccinations, various things. Friday morning, Saturday morning and Sunday morning they do surgery, and then in the afternoon and evening they allow 15 minutes for visit time for each one. Generally it works out well," says Bryon Doherty, a member of Iqaluit's Rotary Club, the group that has been bringing the vets in for about 10 years.

"It's a good venture for Rotary Club. A lot of people otherwise would have to pay a lot of money to have their dogs sent out or their cats."

Doherty says the visit requires non-stop work from the vets during their semi-annual four-day visit.

"They work flat out and they know they're coming up here and they want it booked. They're basically going all day. I think they start surgery at 8 a.m. and then they do surgery for four hours, have lunch and then they're back at it from 1 to 5 p.m. and 6 to 9 p.m."

Doherty says the event is a much-anticipated one by the community.

"I'm not sure how it actually started, but there certainly was a need and everybody looks forward to this. You're constantly hearing people say, 'When are you bringing up the vets? We're waiting now.' So we do it basically May or June and October, twice a year."

Doherty says that through the steady stream of clients and pets over the last decade, the Rotary Club has been able to raise several thousand dollars to donate to different organizations.

"That will go into our revenues and with that, we help Boy Scouts, Girl Guides, hockey, music club, all sorts of ventures, a lot of it connected with youth. The committee will meet to discuss approval for something and usually, we'll want it to be community based," says Doherty, who adds that because the Rotary Club organizes the event, people often ask for advice about their animals before the vets arrive.

"A lot of times when people phone up they sort of say, 'What should I do?' and we have to sort of say, 'We're just Rotarians, we're not able to tell you exactly what to do.'"