NEWS

Spay-Neuter Competition in Jacó Clinic
January of 2010

Click on the image to see a larger version in a new window.

The Spay-Neuter Competition in Jacó Clinic held during the week of January 18 - 23 was a big success. We attended to 25 kids and their families, providing not only the surgery, but also distributing all kinds of flyers made especially for this event while addressing the most important problems in our area. All the kids received many wonderful prizes, from school kits, dog and cat chow and animal magazines, to certificates for a free consultation at the Jacó clinic, valid for the entire year 2010. A huge THANK YOU goes to Dra. Wendy Villalobos and Dr. Alejandro Madriz and all the staff at the Plaza Boulevard clinic in Jaco for their excellent work and assistance during this week. A very special THANKS also to Purina for donating 75 bags of dog and puppy chow for this event, as well as other activities we are planning for the months of February and March. And to our friends from “Pets y mas” magazine for providing (once again) so many free magazines for all the kids and their families. And of course, to Mrs. Linda Look from the USA, who had the original idea for this great activity, and also sponsored it!

Besides the 25 pets in the competition, we were able to have spayed/neutered other 33 animals, so all together we reached a number of 58 in January.

Castration Week for strays and pets belonging to low income families will take place during the week of February 2nd to February 7th. If you know of any animals with no owners, or animal owners who cannot afford even the very low special price we offer in our monthly clinics, please contact me for an appointment. Please consider that pet owners who qualify for this surgery have no transportation possibilities either, and will need somebody’s help in order to bring their animals in.

Kids support animals in need

Joshua Thomas (10 years old) and his cousin Daniela Zamora (11 years old) from Herradura decided to go into business and make some money for a computer they both want to purchase. Joshua’s mom Laura prepared some of the yummy tuna dip she is famous for, and the two young entrepreneurs went out and hit the streets for a door-to-door-sale. Turns out the kids were very successful, the sale went great, after they paid the mom back for her expenses, they had 42,000 colones left! They decided that they will donate ¢18,000 ($32.) to the animals in need, (both are big time animal lovers) and split the balance of 24,000 colones — Way to go Joshua, Daniela and Laura!

Our accident animals at the University Clinic

December was a month of accidents, so now January is a month of vet bills for them.

Patchi — the nice hunting dog with a broken hip was sponsored by Meg Burns, and Jovi the beautiful Jack Russell mix, by Sheila Flanagan — both from Esterillos. Thank you so much for your generosity!

Now we have left Sasha the Dalmatian. Sasha’s already been adopted by a very nice family from the southern zone of Costa Rica, and they will also take care of the surgery to remove the pin, but her main bill is still outstanding. So is the bill for Plutón, a great dog which had to have a front paw amputated. The owner is a young costarican man who really cares about his dog, and has already paid a lot of money to different vets for all kinds of different surgeries, trying to save Pluton’s paw. He also paid for the transportation to the university clinic. Now there is still an outstanding bill of 113,000 colones (about $200). We would like to offer Pluton’s owner to pay us half of this amount in payments, and are now looking for a sponsor for the other half.

Navidad, a beautiful young female was hit by a car on the main street on Christmas Eve. She is now called Peanut and is back in Jacó, but still in rehabilitation. She needs to go back to the University Clinic in 3 weeks, so there is still no bill, but we would like to start looking for sponsors and for a new home for her. If somebody would like to sponsor or part-sponsor one of these puppies, please contact me at 2-643-4012 or info@mckee-jaco.com.


Buddy story now online

We have so many animal stories — some of them with, others without a happy ending. You will love this one. Check it out for yourself, visit this page:
http://www.mckee-jaco.com/casehistories.htm.

If you have a similar experience you’d like to share with us, please send us your story — there is a link to the form on the bottom of the “Case Histories” page.

Thank you for your time and support.

Katja Bader
McKee Jaco

Spay/Neuter competition for
elementary and high school students
December 2009

There will be some “homework” for our Elementary and High School students for their long summer vacation. On the enrollment days, (December 17th and 18th) all students are receiving information about the special spay/neuter competition, held in January from the 18th to the 23rd at the Jacó clinic.

The special price of the surgery will be 5000 colones, (about $9) which has to be paid by the student who brings the animal in. The first 25 students who bring an animal in will receive:

1. a certificate good for 1 free consultation at the vet clinic, including de-worming
2. 1 bag of dog/cat chow
3. a nice new school kit (exercise books, pens, pencils, pencil boxes etc.)

There will be also some “surprise prizes” for all participants.

Vacation time here in Costa Rica is very long, and during this time our young people here don’t have anything useful to do, as our county doesn’t offer much for them. This will be a great opportunity for them to learn more about how a vet clinic works, as they will be interacting with the vet, learning about the proper care of their pets and maybe even getting a chance to volunteer in one of our clinics on occasion.

Another successful spay/neuter month

December is always a busy month for everybody, so the target figures for castrations are generally lower than all other months. So far we we’ve been able to spay/neuter 47 animals — in Bijagual and in both Jacó and Herradura clinics. This makes 780 surgeries this year so far, and I guess that by the end of December, we will reach 800. This number represents only the animals we financed full or partially.

The castrations this month are being sponsored by: Nancy Lebo, Stuart Welch, Sylvia van Baekel and Trish Johnson. Thank you so much for your generosity!

The “Golden Paw Award”

THE “GOLDEN PAW AWARD” is presented twice a year by our organization, and it’s purpose is to honor local people in our community for their compassion and service toward animals. On December 16, 2009, the award was presented to Rossy Quesada Gomez, the popular owner of Cafe del Mar, located in front of the new park on Jacó’s main street.

Rossy helps all animals who happen by her restaurant or her house. She feeds them when they are hungry, makes sure that they get fixed and fosters them until they get adopted. All animals are welcome at her place — she has 3 cats and 9 dogs of her own, with many others that are just visitors. Some of them she found injured on the street, others just came to her place and never left — and why would they?

Thank you Rossy, for all the time and love you give to those furry little friends who need your help.

If you would like to see the presentation “Life” — tune in to Channel 11 in January — we will inform you of the exact day and time.

Thank you for your time.

Katja Bader
McKee Jaco

Sterilization of Animals
November 2009

The McKee Project Jacó holds its next spay/neuter program for stray animals and pets (cats and dogs) belonging to low income families on Sunday, December 13th.

Place: Bijagual –
Rancho de Carlos Sandi

Time: 8:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m
Financial assistance is available.

To make an appointment call: 2-645-1067 – ask for Fátima.

The people in this area are poor, and many of them cannot afford the already very low full price. Some animals don’t have an owner, and we will have to pay for them. In addition to the surgery, we will “frontline” all patients as well as supply the owners with the de-worming medicine. If you would like to sponsor a part of this project, please answer this email. We also need volunteers with cars to transport animals to and from the surrounding areas.

Place to stay for a volunteer vet

We received a few offers for a place to stay for Dr. Lee Wilson — thank you to all of you who wanted to help us with this. Dr. Wilson will stay in one of the best hotels in our area — Doce Lunas. A huge THANK YOU goes to owner Chris Danko for this generous offer to donate the entire week to our volunteer from the USA.

Doce Lunas is famous not only as a great place to stay while on vacation, the hotel is also extremely cat friendly. All cats who live there (some of them from the day the hotel opened its doors years ago) are very well taken care of, and all are spayed/neutered and healthy. Thank you to the owner, manager and all employees who give these amazing animals love and care.

Adoption Program

We always have dogs, cats, puppies and kittens that are looking for a new home, so please check our website and check out Speedy, Buddy, Quijote and Asko, as they need a new place as soon as possible. Besides our 35 cats and kittens, most of which are “ready to go”, there is also Baz — a cool young cat who “adopted” Hotel Vista Pacifico. Baz is a very social cat, neutered, has all vaccines and needs a new home, as the Hotel has already 3 of their own cats.

If you are unable to have a pet at home, you could instead make a Virtual Adoption, enabling us to take care of animals that:

• cannot get adopted as they are too old, too sick, or are afraid of people
• are adoptable, but haven’t been placed yet

To learn more about this kind of help, please go to this page or send us an email.

Homage to the street mutss in San Jose

There are 6 sculptures of 6 different stray animals rescued on the streets in San Jose.

The idea of this great project is to sensitize the community to animal suffering. Our organization has supported this great project, and hopes that one day these “strays” will be the only ones on Costa Rica’s streets.


Thank you for your time.

Katja Bader
McKee Jaco

Jacó – the community responsible for its animals
October 2009

Another successful activity with the younger members of our community and their parents took place on Friday, October 16th at the new park in Jacó. 240 1st thru 3rd graders from the Escuela Central in Jacó, some of them in the company of their parents, some with their pets, attended the event together with their teachers. After a typical breakfast for everybody, (sponsored by the parents) they were offered some different presentations. The ones who brought their pets attended the presentation by Dr. Esteban Soto from The Plaza Boulevard clinic in Jacó, and they won the following prizes for their furry friends: ultrasound teeth cleaning, vaccines and consultations.

Cynthia Lizano, who is in charge of the education program in our organization, shared the microphone with Scott Ramirez from Scott New Promotional Music, offering the kids all kinds of competitions with great prices for the winners. The prizes were donated by Vetim SA, Ayurveda Centroamericana SA, Chuck WOW Surf, Soleil Soleil shop, Beauty Salon NEVER BETTER and the Plaza Boulevard Vet Clinic. The delicious lunch (for everybody!) was provided by the Escuela Central in Jacó.

Angela Maria Lozano from Escuelarte Jacó offered an art class for 60 kids while two of the school teachers were painting faces, so in the end we had some cat and butterfly-faced kids all jumping around.

We also had cake and brownies donated by TCBY Jacó, Norma Kahn, Julie Textor, Anna Pilz, Cafe del Mar, Teri Dominey and Douglas Giampapa — some of them were raffled off, and some were offered to all those who helped us organizing this event.

The magazines “Pets y Mas” and “Mucho Gusto” donated by the director Christine Bork, were also offered to the public for a donation of 500 colones. Even though the real focus of this activity was to send a message to both the youngest members of our community as well as their parents, with raising money being more of an “added bonus”, we still raised 27,500 colones ($47.00) from the cake raffle and magazine sale. This money will go toward our next spay day.

The message of this activity was very clear and was repeated in all our presentations, games and competitions: nobody else but the entire community is responsible for the animals, and only the entire community can make Jacó a better place to live for both animals and humans.

A huge THANK YOU goes to everybody, who helped us to make this activity such a big success: the Municipality, the director of Escuela Central Vera Alpizar and all teachers participating in the event, Jimmy Alpizar, music teacher who took care of the sound system and provided wonderful music during the breaks, Javier Zuniga Salgado who helped with transportation of all chairs, food and whatever needed to be moved, and all the donors mentioned above and to everybody who was there to share this great adventure with us.

Nominations for the next Golden Paw Award

I would like to also remind you that the nominations for the next Golden Paw Award are due by November 30. If you know someone who makes our community a truly better place through the work they do with animals, please fill out the form on our website or email us at info@mckee-jaco.com.

Kittens, kittens and more kittens

4 beautiful new kittens were abandoned on Saturday, right in front of the house where one of our members (Trish) was living until 2 months ago. Together with these 4, we now have 29 kittens, all of which are being fostered by Arusha, Sylvia, Maudy, Melissa and Leo. If you would like to adopt one, please call Arusha at 2-643-3680.

Adoption days held every month on the 15th at Yan Clinic in Herradura

On the first adoption day 7 cats and 4 dogs were waiting for their new parents. But only one cat and one puppy found a new home – maybe in November we will be more lucky. If you are looking for a new furry friend, be it cat or dog, please give us a call at 2-643-4012 (Katja) or 2-643-3680 (Arusha). You can also check the adoption book at both the Jaco and the Herradura clinic.

Night Story now online

We have so many animal stories — some of them with, others without a happy ending. This story will definitely make you smile. Check it out under
http://www.mckee-jaco.com/casehistories.htm.

If you have a similar experience you’d like to share with us, please send us your story — there is a link to the form on the bottom of the “Case Histories” page.

If you wish to see some pictures from our education program, please click HERE to view our slide show in a new window.

If you would like more information about these projects, please contact Katja at info@mckee-jaco.com.

Thank you for your time and support.

Katja Bader
McKee Jacó

August and September bring much success
August/September 2009

The months of AUGUST and SEPTEMBER were both very successful, especially the castrations and the education programs.

Our EDUCATION PROGRAM “Sharing the world with the animals” was one huge success — we started at the two main schools in Jaco — Colegio Técnico Profesional (from 7th to the 11th grade) and Escuela Central de Jacó (from Kinder to 6th grade). In the last 3 months, we were able to reach approx. 600 students, and even more important, we reached them more than once, in many different presentations and events. On the Day of the Child we had a presentation and an activity with not only the kids, but also with their parents and the adults who came to school to celebrate with them. The activity ended up in a big competition called “Tell us about your pet”, and from dogs and cats to chickens, all kinds of animals participated in this competition.

Since my first meeting with Cynthia Lizano over 4 months ago, I knew that this program under her supervision will be successful. But even then I didn’t expect the results she shared with me today. She and the teacher from both main schools in Jaco pooled their efforts together and started a wonderful new project involving not only the kids, but also their families. The schools got decorated with animal themes, and the students now consider themselves active members of our association. The parade on the Independence Day showed the students proudly carrying the association’s banner.

Special THANK YOU goes out to the teachers of both schools Nilsa Bustamante, Alexander Sandoval, Ruth Rojas and Jimy Alpizar and the school principals Vera Virginia Alpizar and Fernando Pusey — without their cooperation none of these incredible results would have been possible.

If you wish to see more pictures, please click HERE to view our slide show in a new window.

Castration Program

We had another successful spay day in Bijagual in August — organized by Carmen Castro Cerdas, Ileana and Brandon Garita Castro and the YAN Clinic from Herradura. We were able to spay/neuter 35 animals, like always all of them either strays or from very poor families. This clinic was sponsored by Leo Hogan, Sylvia van Baekel and Lance Clinton — THANK YOU all for making it possible.

The Tárcoles clinic in September was organized by Patricia Holmer and Alex Rodriguez, Gino Jose Sandi and his son Nigel and the YAN clinic. We attended to 40 animals. The clinic was sponsored by Sylvia van Baekel — Thanks again, Syl.

Another huge THANK YOU goes to Dra. Yesenia Alpizar Naranjo and Dr. Alexander Jimenez Camacho and their assistants Arusha and Sylvia, as well as to everybody who helped on both occasions.

Like always, we also held our “little spay days” every Friday in the Jacó clinic and were able to spay/neuter 20 animals each month. Thank you to Dr. Esteban Soto Molina and Dra. Wendy Villalobos for their excellent service.

If you would like more information about these projects, please contact Katja at info@mckee-jaco.com.

Thank you for your time and support.

Katja Bader
McKee Jacó

Another successful Spay Day in Herradura
July 2009

Another 30 animals, all strays or animals owned by low income families, were spayed/neutered this weekend in Herradura. Our THANK YOU goes to the organizers Arusha Pabisch and Sylvia van Baekel, vets Dr. Yesenia Alpízar Naranjo and Dr. Alexander Jiménez Camacho from The YAN clinic in Herradura and their assistants, Doris Schluckebier, Flor Maria Cambronero Arias, Jose Maria Cambronero Arias and Sharet Juergens Alpízar. Many thanks also to Carlos Cambronero Arias and Luz Maria Villarga Vargas for offering us the use of their house.

Even though the price for the surgery was extremely low (covering only costs), most of the animal owners were not able to pay it, so we needed a sponsor for the missing $240. Sylvia van Baekel and Nancy Lebo offered to share the sponsorship for this clinic — Thank you so much for this generous donation!

We are looking for sponsors for our next spay day — if you would like to help, please send us an email or call Katja at 2-643-4012 or Arusha at 2-643-3680.

The McKee project is a nationwide effort to spay/neuter companion animals, find homes for street dogs and cats, as well as offering effective educational programs. It is a non-profit organization which depends solely on donations. To find out more about this project and how you can help, please visit our website at www.mckee-jaco.com.

Thank you for your time and support.

Katja Bader
McKee Jacó

Update on Ramada dogs
and puppies
May 2009

Good news about the “Ramada Puppies” — Doris Schluckebier and Trish Johnson went there a few times a day for over 3 weeks, and were able to catch 9 of the puppies and all the adults. There is only one puppy left, and we hope to get him/her in the next few days. All of the puppies and adults are already spayed/neutered — thank you to Dr. Esteban Soto and Dra. Wendy Villalobos from the Jacó clinic for operating on them without appointments (which could not be made, as we never knew when and how many we could catch) and also for working after normal business hours. The puppies are still with their foster families: Sylvia, Leo and Doris. Now we need many new homes for all of them — if you know anybody who is interested in adopting a puppy, please let us know.

Another successful clinic in Herradura

Two of our members, Sylvia van Baekel and Arusha Pabisch, organized a clinic in a very poor area in Herradura known as “Parcelas”. They discovered this area two weeks ago, and started bringing the animals from there to both of the clinics in Jacó and in Herradura. In those 2 weeks, they had 8 dogs and 3 cats from the area spayed/neutered. They soon realized that it would be much easier to have the clinic there, rather than bringing the animals one by one to the vet. Doña Marta Matarrita Flores and her husband Giovanni Villalobos Morales offered their house, Dra. Yesenia Alpizar Naranjo, Dr. Alexander Jimenez Comacho from the YAN clinic in Herradura and Dra. Manuela Mora from San José offered their services, and on Sunday May 17th, another 27 animals were spayed/neutered, 11 of them homeless. Thank you to all 3 vets and to their assistants — Sylvie Braibant, Leo Hogan, Doris Schluckebier and Brenda Obando. Thank you to doña Marta and don Giovanni for providing a space for the clinic. And of course thank you to Sylvia and Arusha for making this possible.

As the people in this area are very poor, we needed a sponsor to help us with the costs, as only 2 people were able to pay the full (already very low) price for the surgery. And here again, Sylvia van Baekel helped us out and paid the vets — thank you Sylvia for your generosity!

Update about animals in the place called “Hueco” (Hole).

Maybe you remember our newsletter from May 2008 about this place — there were many very poor people here with far too many animals, none of them fixed, many of them sick, and all of them reproducing twice a year. We did in fact offer our help, but we were not able to get to all the members of this community, so only about 40% of the dogs and cats there got fixed. This changed when Leo Hogan and her daughter Moriah started visiting this area every day. They made friends with one of the families, and offered their help first to them, and later to others in the area. There was a ton of work — pregnant female dogs, sick puppies, unwanted cats with kittens, and Leo and Moriah took care of all of them! The dogs got spayed/neutered, the puppies de-wormed, the cats adopted, and some of the puppies even received their shots. This week all animals there will get de-wormed. The animal owners there are poor people, but they always contribute to help pay for the operations and shots. Thanks to Leo and Moriah for taking care of this project and being so successful with it!

If you want to learn more about our project, please go to our website at
http://www.mckee-jaco.com/ or call Katja at 2-643-4012.

Thank you for your time and support.

Katja Bader
McKee Jacó

Another 60 animals spayed/neutered in April
May 2009

Since the new clinic in Herradura opened 3 months ago, the number of animals we have spayed/neutered has doubled, reaching about 50 a month. This is definitely a big improvement, and we hope that we will be able to keep it this way in the future.

Besides the regular big and little spay days in both clinics, (Veterinaria Plaza Boulevard in Jaco and Veterinaria YAN in Herradura) Dra. Yesenia Alpizar Naranjo and Dr. Alexander Jimenez Camacho, both from the YAN clinic, went on Sunday, April 19, to Palo Seco Beach and fixed 11 animals there. Marcela Madden, who contacted us about this little project, took care of the sponsors, as all those animals were strays. The vets of course helped by giving a discount rate. A huge THANK YOU to Marcela and all sponsors and to Dra. Yesenia and Dr. Alex for making all this possible.

Dogs at the former Ramada office

There were 2 female and 4 male dogs and about 9 puppies living under and around the former office of the Ramada project, all of them very shy and scared of people.

We’ve been able to catch and fix one male and one female each so far. All the other adult dogs are extremely difficult to catch, and we are still trying — if somebody has experience and would like to help us, please call Trish at 2643-1162 or Doris at 2643-2359. From the puppies, we’ve got 4 males, and they are already fixed and adapting to their foster homes with Ike and with Sylvia. There are still more puppies at the Ramada site, and it’s difficult to count them, but it looks like every day some are missing. We are afraid that they wander out into the streets and get injured or killed, so we need both help to catch them as well as foster homes for them. They are difficult first, as they are scared of humans, but with some time and lots of love they change in one-two days.

Abandoned kittens

April was a month of abandoned kittens. Some of them were put in plastic bags and dropped on the streets, other in boxes left in front of our houses. Some of them could already eat, others had to be raised with a bottle. Some of them survived, other didn’t. 5 kittens, about 1 week old, were left in a plastic bag in somebody’s pickup for hours in the sun, and didn’t make it. To be sure, we do have an overpopulation problem with cats in our area, but there is a humane way to take care of this problem. If there is a mom cat with kittens in your neighborhood, please make sure that the babies stay with the mother for at least 5-6 weeks. As soon as they can eat by themselves, please bring the mom cat to one of the clinics we work with in order to have her spayed. Don’t wait! — female cats can get pregnant immediately after they stop nursing. And make sure that everybody who adopts one of the kittens knows that they have to be spayed/neutered as soon as their weight reaches 3 pounds. We always offer a low cost castration for all low income families, and we pay for those who cannot afford even the low price. So there is really no reason to wait!

The survivors are fostered by our member Arusha and our volunteer Maudy Cordero Cordero, a 15-year-old school girl from Colegio in Jacó. Maudy is raising 7 of them, starting first with a bottle every 4 hours, and is now teaching them how to eat out of a bowl. If you would like to adopt a kitty, please call Katja at 2643-4012.

Thank you for your time and support.

Katja Bader
McKee Jacó

McKee-Jacó Fund
Raising Event
March 2009

Many thanks go out to all of those that participated in the fund raising event that was held at Ganesha Bar in Jacó on March 25th. A big thanks also goes to Tina Wallace and Ninoshka Pardo from TS Water for making the arrangements with the restaurant and all the preparations. So many people were involved in making it such a grand success, and our heartfelt thanks goes to each and every one of you.

We are sorry that the Chupacabras were not able to play for our benefit as was planned — there was a problem with a permit from the Municipality, and we only found out about it 3 hours before the start, so there was no time for re-arrangements.

The fund raiser was a big success, with over 80 people coming out to support this community event. We were able to raise $1,520.00 from the sale of tickets which will go towards the clinics: University Clinic in Heredia, Plaza Boulevard Clinic in Jacó and YAN Clinic in Herradura in order to cover our outstanding and future bills. We also received $680.00 in donations from our supporters in the United States, Canada and Costa Rica, which will be applied to our next Spay Day in Tárcoles.

We will be planning another fun-filled event in the near future, and will keep you updated as to when and where so you can mark your calendar and be sure to join us!

A Special Thanks to our Sponsors:

• Bar Ganesha for the great food and drinks for our guests;
• Rock band Chupacabras for offering the benefit concert and coming to Jacó ready to rock for us;
• Hogan Family from Hermosa, for making a wonderful poster with before-and-after pictures of our furry friends;
• Stuart Welch, Palm Coast Interiors, Mikel Hermansen, Patricia Holmer, Karen Campbell, Nancy Lebo, Jackie Fletcher, Kevin Jagla, Julia Johnson, Bev Wallace, TS Water and Hotel Mar de Luz for their money donations;
  

AND … ALL 80 OF YOU WHO JOINED US AT THIS EVENT!

Katja Bader
McKee Jacó

Our “Accident Animals”
March 2009

There are many animals, mostly those that have been injured in car accidents, which need special orthopedic operations in order to ever walk again. The University Clinic in Heredia (UNA) that handles all these difficult cases for us helps us a lot with all kinds of discounts. But the bills are still very high for our relatively shallow pockets, especially in these difficult times.

Sometimes the animals are owned by folks who simply cannot afford to pay the regular price, and others just need some more time to pay, so in exchange for a promise to pay what they can, we help them by offering the McKee discount. Sometimes the animals are strays, and the people who bring them to us almost always promise to sponsor them. And predictably enough, sometimes they do, and sometimes they don’t...

Here is a list of the animals still needing sponsors:

• Orejas - $510 - ($445, university clinic, plus transportation to Heredia, treatment for “ehrlichia” and shots). The owner paid the first payment of $100 and then stopped. We still need $410.
  
• Julia - $620 - stray dog, two car accidents, 3 operations, 4 months in the clinic. Rossy from Café del Mar paid $140 and collected $150 from Elena Lamiquis and other guests. We still need $330 for Julia.
  
• Princesa - $300 - car accident victim. The owner is a poor family in Quebrada Ganado, who never paid anything towards the bill.
  
• Hunter - $225 - needed surgery on both his hips. The owner (low income lady from Herradura) paid $20, and the rest is still open.
  
• Mucki – $150 - stray accident victim with damaged nerve system. Could not be saved, but the bill had to be paid regardless.
  
• Suzie - $360 - stray dog with 2 broken legs, collected by Dr. Vanessa Avila Granadas from Parrita. Vanessa already paid the bulk of this amount so it’s not money we are asking for Suzie, but a new home. Suzie is a beautiful little female, with a lovely disposition – would you like her to be a part of your family?
  

If you have any more questions about our organization, please visit our website at http://www.mckee-jaco.com or send me an email.

Katja Bader
McKee Jacó

Another great “Spay Day” — this time in Herradura!
February 2009

The McKee Project-Jacó held yet another spay/neuter clinic for stray animals and pets belonging to low income families on Sunday, February 15 at the Salon Comunal in Herradura.

26 companion animals were attended to by veterinarians Christian Elizondo and Yesenia Alpizar from the new vet clinic in Herradura. They were assisted by Karla Calderon, Leo Hogan and Doris Schluckebier — a huge THANK YOU goes out to all of them for their excellent work.

And of course to all those volunteers who donated their time in helping us with the post-operative care of the animals, as well as helping with the transportation to get them all back home safely — Sylvia van Baekel, Arusha Pabisch, Emily Ramirez with family and Marina Imatova — thanks!, we couldn't have done it without you!

A special thanks also goes to the Asociación de Desarollo de Herradura for allowing us the use of their town hall to set up our makeshift clinic, to Randall from CHEWEY’S Pizza who donated 2 large, delicious pizzas and to Sylvia van Baekel, who took care of our drinks.

Thanks also to Servicios Transmundiales for a generous donation given to us to support this clinic — no animal was turned away. Anyone who arrived with an animal in tow but little money to pay were attended to, all with the same care as those who could.

The McKee project is a nationwide effort to spay/neuter companion animals, find homes for street dogs and cats, as well as offering educational programs. It is a non-profit organization which depends solely on donations. To find out more about this project and how you can help, please visit the website at www.mckee-jaco.com or call Katja at 2-643-4012.

Katja Bader
McKee Jaco

“Spay Day” in Tárcoles was a huge success
October, 2008

Dear friends,

The McKee Project Jacó held the most successful spay/neuter clinic in its 6 year history in the Jaco area on Sunday, September 21st.

81 companion animals were attended to by the very dedicated veterinary team headed by Dr. Blas Rivas, which included team members Dr. Olman Solano, Dr. Wendy Villalobos and Dr. Esteban Soto Molina. They were assisted by several members of our McKee group. Other major contributors to this most successful event were the organizers from Tárcoles, Patri Holmer, Patricia Chacón Rojas and Marilyn Rodriguez Vargas along with Jennifer Paterson, who co-coordinated the transport of the town of El Sur's animals to the clinic. Even the local scouts were on hand with their leader Alexander Rodriguez Vargas and Sarita Rodriguez Araya — they were a tremendous help in keeping the many animals calm, and seeing that each was taken in the correct order.

There were many other volunteers, and a special thanks goes to the community of Tárcoles for allowing us the use of their town hall to set up our makeshift clinic and to Lynn and Larry Green from Ontario, Canada, who donated the housing for the Veterinarians and their staff and helped to make this day a most pleasant as well as productive one.

Thanks also to a generous donation given by Servicios Transmundiales to McKee founder Christine Crawford to support this clinic — no animal was turned away. Those families who could not afford the 7000 colon fee were asked to donate what they could, and others who arrived with animals in tow but could not afford to contribute were attended to with the same care as those who could.

The McKee project is a nationwide effort to spay/neuter companion animals, find homes for street dogs and cats, as well as offering educational programs. It is a non-profit organization which depends solely on donations. To find out more about this project and how you can help, please visit the website at www.mckee-jaco.com.

Katja Bader
McKee Jaco

Another successful “Spay Day”
June, 2008

Dear friends,

The McKee Project Jacó held yet another successful spay/neuter program for stray animals and pets belonging to low income families on Suturday, June 14th, in Esterillos Oeste. The clinic was organized by our "Esterillos Connection" volunteers: the Raihn family (Kristy, Kurt, Jennaka, and Tiana) and Elisabeth Lubbers. We spayed and neutered 57 animals, most of which were street and beach dogs and cats.

A warm THANK YOU goes out to our veterinary team of Dr. Blas Rivas from Alajuela and Dr. Olman Solano from Atenas, and their assistants Doris Schluckebier, Elisabeth Lubbers and Pat Chidester for their excellent work.

And of course to all those volunteers who donated their time in helping us with the post-operative care of the animals, as well as helping with the transportation to get them all back home safely, thanks! — we couldn't have done it without you!

Special thanks also goes out to the Azul Restaurant in Esterillos Oeste for their support in providing lunch for the volunteers, to the community of Esterillos Oeste for allowing us the use of their school to set up our makeshift clinic, and to Kate and Dave Treadway for donating accomodations for the vets.

Also, a warm thank you to Brent and Ellen, Brigitte and Fred, Russ and Marga, Pat, Colleen, Brenda and John, Anne, Beau, Janet, Kristy and Kurt and Fletcher for their financial support. Without your generous help, many of the local animals would not have been able to be spayed that day.

Together we can make a difference!

Katja Bader
McKee Jaco

Update - “El Hueco”
May, 2008

Dear friends,

Today I would like to show you a place in our "beach paradise" called "hueco" Hueco means "hole", and when I first saw it, I was shocked - I've never seen something similar in or around Jaco.

As I was told, our Municipality will take care of the people living there in the near future, but there are not only people in "hueco" - there are around 30 dogs, some of them sick, all of them not fixed, reproducing twice a year. Last week we went there with a vet (Becky) and got most of them de-wormed and Frontlined, and now we start bringing them one by one to the clinic for castration.

As you can imagine, the people there cannot afford even the very low price of 7000 colones, so we will have to take care of all costs.

If you would like to help us with this project, please go to our website at http://www.mckee-jaco.com/ or give me a call at: 2-643-4012.

We will also have a 3-legged puppy ready for adoption soon - the puppy was found on a street in Heredia, where it got hit by a car.

A young boy brought it to the University Clinic (UNA), but as he didn't have any money and the dog wasn't even his, we decided to pay for the treatment. The money for this came from a generous donation we receive lately from an anonymous supporter from Los Suenos. Unfortunately they had to amputate the puppy's leg, and it is recuperating nicely in the hospital right now, but we will have to find a good home for it soon. If you would like to adopt it (or know somebody who could), please let us know via email:
info@mckee-jaco.com or give us a call at 2-643-4012.

Thank you for your time and support.

Katja Bader
McKee Jaco

Update - New equipment for the Clinic
January, 2008

Dear friends,

I hope you all had a great holiday, enjoying the company of your family and friends.

We're starting this new year with a big project. Our goal is to take care of all the strays, as well as those animals living with very poor families in Quebrada Ganado and in Tarcoles. This project will be made possible thanks to a generous donation from Judy Yanover from Los Sueños. We also would like to thank Patricia and Serge Volders from Tour Mart Jacó, who graciously offered to take care of the transportation to the clinic and back.

Also, a HUGE "thank you" goes out to both veterinarians – Dr. Eugenia (Gini) Bermudez and Dr. Carolina Rodriguez for taking care of the operations practically for cost.

There are also some changes in Dr. Alfaro's clinic. Dr. Jesus Calderon went back to the clinic in San Jose, and in his place came Dr. Carolina Rodriguez, who attends to the patients on Saturdays, Sundays and Mondays.

And since our last Newsletter, the clinic now has the following new equipment up and running:

• x-ray machine
• ultrasound
• blood test equipment

These 3 machines make it now possible to quickly diagnose animals, in order to start any necessary treatment immediately!!

There is also an ultrasonic dental cleaning machine, which uses sound waves to remove plaque and tartar for a complete dental cleaning. Clean teeth are very important for any animal's health, and with this equipment, the cleaning process is no longer a difficult and dangerous procedure. It is now just a short, painless treatment that renders much better results than manual cleaning

If you need more information about this new equipment, or any other subject, please contact Dr. Bermudez or Dr. Rodriguez directly - they both speak perfect English, and can answer any questions you may have regarding any and all treatment and procedures. The phone number is: 643-5333.

Have a great New Year.

Katja Bader
McKee Jaco

Update - CLINIC
November 7, 2007

Dear friends and supporters,

McKee Jaco proudly announces that starting Monday, November 5th, 2007, Dr. Roger Alfaro will be in charge of our clinic in Jacó.

Most of you already know him, as he and his clinic in San Jose has supported our project from day one. Dr. Alfaro is one of the best vets in Costa Rica, and his clinic is definitely one of the best equipped animal clinics in the entire country. For more information about his clinic in Pavas, please go to his website http://www.consultoriodralfaro.com.

Putting the business part of the project in the hands of Dr. Alfaro means that we of McKee will have more time for our own project — time we haven't had since we first started the clinic. Dr. Alfaro, who's not only a great vet but also a big animal lover, is giving us the fantastic opportunity of having the best vets in Costa Rica, using the best modern medical equipment, available to us each and every day. And all this at a fraction of what it would normally cost us.

The clinic will be run by Dr. Jesus Calderon and Dr. Eugenia Bermudes, who will share the on-site duties in order to make sure that there will be always a veterinarian staying in the clinic, ready to tend to any and all emergencies any time of the day or night. So now we will be a REAL 24/7 clinic, like we originally planned!

At this point we would like to thank Dr. Victor Quesada for the wonderful job he did in our clinic during the last 4 months. Dr. Quesada left us on his own wish, going back to his clinic in San Jose. We wish him all the best in his professional and private life.

We will keep you up-to-date with all the news from and around the clinic, and I promise that there will be a lot in the coming days!

Thank you, and talk to you later!

Katja Bader
McKee Jaco

Update - CLINIC
July 17, 2007

Finally we are open!

Dear friends and supporters,

if you are familiar with Costa Rica, you will know that not everything goes smoothly down here, that the projects take twice the time and three times the money you calculate. But in the end we managed everything and did OPEN our animal clinic on July 1st.

Our team at the clinic is:

• Dr. Victor Quesada - an experienced vet from San Jose, who is not only an excellent and dedicated doctor, but also a big animal lover, willing to help any time of the day or night
  
  
• Doris Schluckebier and Elisabeth Lubbers - both assistants, who not only assist the doctor during the visits and take care of the patients in a proper manner, keeping them clean and fed, but also giving them so much care and love that even separated from their owners, they feel safe in the clinic.
  
  
• Wendy Zeledon - secretary. It was her dream to work in an animal clinic, and now every time she has a free minute she's visiting the patients in the hospital, giving them love and attention
  

In this short time we have been open, we've been able to help about 150 animals who were sick, as well as also spay/neuter 16 dogs and cats, mostly from lower income families.

We hope that in about 3 months we will be able to hire another vet, and then be able to offer round-the-clock service.

Huge THANK YOU goes to all our supporters — to see the list please click this link:
http://www.mckee-jaco.com/oursponsors.htm or go to http://www.mckee-jaco.com/ and then through “How to help” to “Our sponsors”.

Please visit us in our new facilities and see what our combined efforts can achieve, and how you helped to make a difference.

Thank you for being there for us,

Katja Bader
McKee Jaco and the clinic team

Update - CLINIC
November 17, 2006

Two months ago, we asked for your help in raising money for a decent clinic in our area for our furry friends — not only the ones down on their luck and homeless, but also for the ones with responsible owners. Our goal was to raise $80,000.

Thanks to your generous support, we so far have raised $17,200. (see the donors list in How To Help - Our Sponsors) This made it possible to make the first payment on the site we found. The clinic will be located in a commercial center in Jacó, and will have enough space for 2 vets and 10 hospitalized animals.

We still need donations, as we still have to make all interior construction including all plumbing, a roof for the patio, an interior loft, install central A/C, and purchase all furnishings — this place is "the real deal" — a proper veterinary clinic!

Rusti Banagas from Banagas Design will design and collect donations for everything we will need for the reception area.

Victor Keulen from Hotel Mar de Luz will pay for the materials and labor for all woodwork we will need — cupboards, shelves, tables etc.

We also need all kinds of medical equipment — if you know anybody who has access to equipment which is being replaced in hospitals and clinics, (i.e. autoclaves, centrifuges, instrument trays, I.V. stands, as well as all manner of surgical instruments) — we will graciously accept it all!

One of our future vets is coming to Costa Rica next week, and will be able to start working for our association as soon as we open the facility. We are still looking for another vet — he/she must be Costa Rican, and willing to relocate to Jacó.

THANK YOU to all for your continued support — NONE of this would be possible without your help! We will keep you informed about all the latest developments.

A huge THANK YOU goes to Alberto Zevallos (Tito) and Donna Connely from Art Zenith and Felix von Griessenbeck (our supporter in Germany) for making this happen.

Thanks to Felix for getting the website project started, and for his willingness to help animals. Thanks to Tito and Donna for giving their skill and time to enhance the website. Thanks to all of you, the finished project is beautiful!

September 12, 2006

APPEAL TO OUR FRIENDS AND SUPPORTERS —
TOGETHER WE CAN DO THE IMPOSSIBLE!

Dear Friends and Fellow Supporters,

After over three years of providing limited services to animals-in-need in this area, and assisting the community with our many programs, despite the lack of volunteers, finances, (never mind the cultural differences!), we are still more active than ever! Yet we have come to the point where we have reached our limits and need your help.

After dealing with the Municipality of Jacó for over a year without any results, and after asking the owners of all the big farms for a small piece of land, (and always getting the same answer), we have decided to raise the necessary funds ourselves to purchase a lot with a house, for a clinic that we so desperately need.

With a proper facility in the Jacó/Herradura/Hermosa area, we will be able to continue our project in an effective, cost-saving manner, as well as also:

• Give timely and accurate information to anyone whose animal is in need.
• Provide a place where stray animals (and those from low income families) can receive proper treatment.
• Provide trained and dedicated Veterinarians, available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
• Provide a place where the animals can recuperate in sanitary conditions.
• Provide a place where the animal's health and well-being is the FIRST priority.

To do this, our goal is to raise $80,000 for the purchase of such property. We are now asking for any donation that you can help us with to make this "dream" a reality. In doing so, your generous contribution will:

• Save animal lives.
• Virtually eliminate needless animal suffering.
• Educate people about the responsibility of pet ownership.
• Teach children to become responsible adults with pets.
• Make the area safer place, by drastically reducing the amount of unwanted strays .

Together we can do so much more!

Thank you for your time.

Katja Bader
McKee Project Jacó