Kenny, our team’s MacGyver, uses rebar, barbed wire, and twine to set up a saline drip.

Back to Botswana. Both at the clinic and on the road we were working in less-than-ideal conditions, performing less-than-ideal surgeries. Weighing the risks against the benefits, particularly in communities where we knew we’d only be temporarily, with no option for aftercare or allowing a week or so to perk up prior to sterilization. I monitored more than a few hair-raising spays and neuters (and will never stop being in awe of the vets who not only performed those surgeries, but did so with a smile), but one that always sticks with me took place our last day of my first outreach, in Gumare. We had intended on only doing a quick morning there before hitting the road, but as anyone who’s ever worked in vet med knows (and with apologies to Robbie Burns), the best laid schemes o’ techs an’ vets gang aft agley. We met her in the late morning, one of those difficult cases of sterilization trips where one has to weigh lives in the balance and make a decision for the benefit of all. These are not easy decisions and these are not easy cases. But this is what we do.