Vet clinic put on at Research Centre
Malcolm Gorrill
Northern News Services
Inuvik (Nov 17/00) - It's a dog's life.
Pooches, and other animals, had a rare opportunity last weekend to lap in luxury.
Full shampoos, hair cuts and nail trims were among the services offered at a vet clinic in the Inuvik Research Centre.
In a town without a veterinarian, it was a chance for Rover and pals to experience bliss.
Michelle Lamb of Mississauga, Ont. did the washing and grooming. She has been coming to Inuvik twice a year for five years. With her was veterinarian James McCleary, who has been putting on clinics here twice a year for a decade.
"We are certainly not getting rich at this; sometimes we lose some money. However, it's a service that's needed here," McCleary said.
"We do appointments, vaccinations and checkups, surgeries, the spays and neutering, whatever."
Martin Male of Inuvik has helped with the vet clinics for about six years.
"It's fun. It's a nice variation from the regular job," Male said.
He said everyone was fairly busy during the clinic.
"This time around we did probably 16 surgeries and had probably another 30 appointments," Male said.
"We did another 25 groomings as well.
"The busiest clinic we had was about three years ago, when we did 38 surgeries and had about another 30 appointments in two days."
McCleary and Lamb have gone back to Mississauga, but Rover and his buddies shouldn't despair. Male said that he is offering some services.
"For the last six months I've been looking after the things in town. If people have problems, need shots or whatever, they can give me a call," he said.
