A Fecal Sample Collection Gone Slightly Awry
by Becky Nichols
July 4, 2005

Today we did domestics in town again, one cat and one dog. The cat was in a little village a few kilometers from Andranofasika, so there wasn’t much of a crowd. The dog, however, was near the city center of Andranofasika, and we gathered quite the crowd as we sedated it and began taking blood and ectoparasite samples from it. As Julie’s unofficial assistant, I hold the dubious honor of obtaining all the fecal samples. The local people always love this part, and watch with a mixture of fascination and revulsion. They must think we’re crazy – why on earth would we want to obtain and keep dog poop?

Today’s fecal collection was even more dramatic than usual. Wearing gloves, as usual, I dug in and pulled out a decently-sized sample. This action, however, induced the dog to empty everything out onto our makeshift table. The crowd, which had completely encircled us by this time, started laughing and whispering to each other. I’m sure they were saying “What will the crazy vazas do now?” Obviously the poop had to be cleaned up, and I, honorary “poop-girl,” was just the one to do it. So I scooped it up and flung it down on the ground. The crowd gasped and stepped back at least a meter. It didn’t matter that I was wearing gloves; in their eyes, I had just touched dog poop with my bare hands! I only hope I’m not permanently known as the Poop-Vaza!

The crowning glory of the afternoon was when Julie stepped in the poop pile, just as we were finally leaving. I had to promise to buy her a milkshake in Mahajanga to get back into her good graces!