1/15/06 The Professor

All of my visitors have left me and now I have been presented with a whole new challenge at the GSPCA. Since I arrived, I have been fortunate to have several students come over and volunteer once or twice a week, which has been a tremendous help to me. But towards the end of last year, the University approached the GSPCA and me about having students come over to our clinic on an official basis.

When the University started the vet school back in 1999 they approached the GSPCA to join in a partnership. The GSPCA was the only clinic on the island at the time and the Veterinary Teaching Hospital (VTH) came in to renovate the building where they remained until Hurricane Ivan seriously damaged the building in September 2004. The VTH took that opportunity to leave the GSPCA which is located in St. George’s and move to True Blue which is right next to the University campus.

Since then, the relationship with the SGU/VTH and the GSPCA has been…how can I put this delicately?…Not good! There were some issues with the method in which the VTH moved out of the building and with exactly how the insurance money was spent (one clue - not on fixing the GSPCA) among other things. But the University did originally put a large amount of money into this building so it only makes sense that the students should continue to get something out of that investment.

This semester the vet school has hired me to be a part-time instructor/clinician! The best part about this new partnership is that I will now be getting part-time pay…err…I mean…that we will now have first and second term veterinary students come over several times a week. I’ve found that I’ve enjoyed teaching the volunteer vet students (calculating drug doses, giving vaccines, etc.) so this will give me an even better opportunity to teach at least some basics.

I think that this new relationship is going to work out only for the best for everyone involved. Even though I’m now getting paid by the University I’m still over at the GSPCA full-time, the students get to see another clinic/shelter in operation, and the vet school will start a new shelter medicine course. This also means that once I leave in July, the GSPCA will not have to rely solely on volunteer vets coming for a week or so at a time. I’d like to think that this means that all my work trying to get this place reorganized and turned back into a fully operational clinic will continue indefinitely!

I will now require everyone to address me as “Professor”!