I am feeling more comfortable here at the Fondouk, and today I started to function better in the clinic. I was even able to get up and going when the doors opened this morning at 7:30. The daily routine here is that walk-in patients arrive between 7:30 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. Then there is an hour break, after which we do the more involved procedures, surgery, etc., and continue treating any inpatients. So, no animal owners enter the Fondouk in the afternoons, when we stay busy finishing up all of the procedures to be done that day.

Patients of all shapes and sizes come and go.

There are not really "appointments" as far as I can tell. I entered the courtyard this morning to find about a dozen people waiting with their horses, donkeys, and mules in hand. Houssine, the large animal technician, started working through the cases one by one, providing necessary treatments, and kept me busy giving injections, doing physical exams, treating minor colic, etc. Treating so many animals at once had my head spinning; I had to keep checking which injection was for which mule or sheep or goat. All the while a continuous menagerie filed into the small animal treatment room–pigeons and chickens in addition to the cats and dogs, all of which are seen by Houria, the small animal technician. Dr. Frappier stays busy between all of the cases to help make the difficult decisions. The technicians are incredibly self-sufficient, surely owing to their extensive experience and training. They’ve all been graciously willing to teach and answer my questions (we are able to communicate in French quite well)