For 10 or 12 years, I’m a little foggy on what year we really began; the crew and I have been steaming around Casco Bay tending to the animals that live on the islands. We have worked on fishing boats that have rafted up next to us, public docks, private homes and mostly around the exam table on the “Rita Joan”. Over the years there has been a gradual down sizing of both the crew and the vessel. We started on a 37′ Albin trawler equipped as if we were going around the world. We now work out of a small efficient Eastern 27 . When working on the islands we did our best with whatever patients were presented. We have cared for farm animals and pets, stranded loons and feral cats, gerbils and (God help me for pretending I knew something about it)..a little kids toad. Here are a few of our stories about the critters, the care we provided and the folks that brought them to us.