jimmy the scottie boy!

so there has been a wheaten scottie named jimmy at the clinic for the past few days...he had a barium series done to see if he had an intestinal blockage on monday and part of tuesday, and it turned out that he had something stuck in his intestines, so he needed to have surgery.  i was the technician who was resiponsible for him in surgery so i got to prep him and everything.  the doctor found and removed a rubbery thing from his small intestine.  it was weird, we were thinking it was part of a toy or something.

well today he was looking great...he was frisky and even gave me a kiss on the face!  he was also eating a bit on his own so that is great.  his owner came in with his doggie dad bobby who is a wheaten scottie and his doggie sister lizzy who is a black scottie.  they needed physicals and vaccines.  they were really cute too!  bobby needed blood drawn and he was ok...just kind of whiney.  lizzy was a bit wild and tried to bite the doctor but i had her in a headlock so it was all good and no one got hurt! 

below are some links to pictures of bobby and lizzy...jimmy looks just like bobby!  they are really cute!
http://www.beac.petplace.com/pet-gallery.asp?pg=3219
http://www.beac.petplace.com/pet-gallery.asp?pg=3220

haha

Dear Visitor,Here is your horoscopefor Friday, July 23:

Have you noticed that everyone around you is finally a lot more willing to compromise and cooperate than they might ordinarily be? Enjoy it -- and don't you dare stay home tonight!

 
haha...well what did i do tonight?  i came home after work and let the neighbor's dog out and fed her and then i walked travis and by that time it was pitch black outside.  then i watched what not to wear and while you were out on tlc.  so i didn't go out tonight.  haven't been out in a while.  go figure.

mooch lives!

so i called the clinic today and mooch is ok.  i hope that they figure out what is wrong w/ her...she is such a cute and friendly kitten!  she is a  medium (length) hair cream color w/ a puffy tail, and a half grey, half cream/tan muzzle area...and she has blue eyes...ultimate cuteness!  anyway i am so glad that she made it through the night.  the doctors seem to think that she has FIP (feline infectious peritonitis) or toxoplasmosis (cat scratch fever...the one pregnant women can get if they come into contact w/ cat feces), so the future may not be so bright for poor mooch...
i work tomorrow 12-8:30pm though so i guess maybe i'll see what is going on w/ her and see if they know anything more...

so today i had 2 cavities in one of my molars filled...i go back on aug 3 to get the other 2 cavities filled in another molar.  my dentist couldnt do them all today b/c i have TMJ and cannot have my mouth opened for long periods of time for dental work.  so yeah...the novocaine didn't kick in right away so they gave me more...so after a while my whole right side of my face was numb, including my nose and right eye! lol...it wore off hours later.

then i went to the optometrist for my eye appointment.  turns out that i need glasses for seeing up close now too...eerr.  i picked out these really kewl DKNY square frames which should be in early next week so we will see how it goes...that's really all for now...

 

seizures suck

yeah so tonight i was the only technician left at the clinic along with danielle, an assistant who is also a vet student, kim who is a receptionist and marylisa, a veterinarian.

danielle and i had just finished mopping and kim came in the back and told me that this kitten who is staying at the clinic had some blood in his IV line. i thought nothing of it as this happens sometimes and is normal, but i figured i'd check it out before leaving anyway. danielle was holding the kitten and i was flushing the line w/ heparin (to break up the clots in the line) and fluids.

the line was still ok so i was all ready to tape the line to the kitten's leg when she went all stiff and a second later started having a seizure. i got the oxygen hooked up and ran to get marylisa to see how much valium (an anti seizure med) i should give the kitten while danielle did some chest compressions. by the time marylisa came over the kitten was on oxygen and was somewhat stable. marylisa told me how much valium to give and i gave it and then everything was ok. the people had no money to transfer the kitten to the emergency clinic so it has to stay at our clinic overnight. good thing there is a technician who lives upstairs who will be monitoring her overnight.

i'm going to call tomorrow and see how the kitten is since i am off. oh yeah the kitten's name is mooch be the way. i'll keep ya posted...

king arthur

i spent all day cleaning and un-cluttering my room. it looks halfway decent now, but i still have some more cleaning to do which will get done in the nest few days.

i also went to see the king arthur movie tonight. i thought it was good. hot guys and kewl costumes. i would like to hang out with that hot bunch of knights!

new house...and peaceful endings

my degus, rocco & vinnie finally have a new house...they were living in a 15 gallon regular height aquarium...and now thanks to my friend and co-worker gretchen, the boys now call a 30 gallon high aquarium home! the extra height will prevent escapes...b/c if they escape they will literally chew the whole house down!

anyway...gretchen used to have lizards and they lived in this tank. she doesn't have the lizards anymore and doesn't need the tank so she gave it to me. it even came with a wire screen cover. it's nice. so tonight i scrubbed it all up and put all of their stuff in it. the boys love it...they have so much room to move and jump, etc, it's great.

on another note, i rented the movie "the butterfly effect" tonight on dvd. it was a kewl movie but it was disturbing at times. i won't give away any details though to those who want to see it. the dvd has 2 versions of the movie on it: the directors cut and the theatrical cut. the only thing that is different between the 2 are the ending scenes. overall a kewl concept.

to close...today at work we had to put: 2 basset hounds from the same family to sleep (long story), a 15 year old boston terrier to sleep who was dyspnic and a 15 year old scottish terrier (*sob*) to sleep who had chf(congenital heart failure) with a palpable thrill (a heart murmur so bad that it can be felt from the outside of the body).

i just couldn't help with the scottie...her name was judy. it was upsetting. very. i shed a few tears.
(**for those of you who don't know i own a 13 year old scottish terrier named travis**)
euthanasia best thing for this dog though, but even though i knew that i just kept thinking of my own dog...

i'm glad that i wasn't able to do it though...it shows that i haven't become cold and detached about and from the whole process...
____________________________________________________

on a side note...another person my age got married today, a (used to be)friend from high school. i wasn't invited. this is prob b/c of an e mail mishap which involved the sending of an e mail not intended for this now married friend straight to her e mail box! oops! my bad. i hate when people don't have aol...then you can't unsend stuff to them...eerr.

my single time clock, on the other hand, is still ticking full force ahead and has been for 3 years now...

hehe...i'm tickled...

Dear Visitor,
Here is your horoscope
for Friday, July 16:

Someone is about to let you know in no uncertain terms that they're tickled to know you. Oh, stop blushing. Even Librans get to look smug every now and then.
___________________________________________________________

so yeah this horoscope came true today. while i was at work today one of my co-workers and friend, sarah told me that 2 of my favorite doctors at the clinic were raving about me and how i am a great tech, especially in surgery. yeah! also while i was driving home from work tonight, i noticed that someone had written "catherine rocks" on my back window with their finger. haha. anyway...my horoscope was very accurate for today...go figure...

bingo

i went to bingo tonight...i was close a few times...one game was for over $1000, but i didn't win. go figure. my not winning was not surprising...what was surprising was the fact that there were 2 hot guys there, and they weren't a couple, which was even more surprising. anyway, yeah.

i really don't have anything else to post b/c my life is boring.

devil with a pillowcase on...

i worked on saturday 7:30am-4:30pm on the cat side of the clinic. just about every cat that we dealt with was a nasty bitch which made the day just that much more fun. yeah. one of the cats that we saw came in being held by it's owner. this 23 pound devil cat was being contained in a pillowcase which was closed at one end w/ a rubber band.

i suited up and put on my handy dandy suede full arm welder's gloves and went into the exam room with the doctor. the cat started thrashing wildly everytime i attempted to stabilize his head. i was unsucessful, so the owner had to carry the cat in the back treatment area so that we could shave his ass which was matted and crusted with shit.

while we were back there, the owner proceeded to show us her arm which the cat had attacked a few days earlier...it was a mess. the owner also had large scratches across her neck from where this cat had clawed her while she tried to get it into a cardboard carrier, which it then proceeded to tear apart. this is why the cat was in a pillowcase.

it took 2 technicians, and 1 assistant to restrain this beast while the doctor shaved its ass. the cat ended up biting the assistant through the pillowcase, a towel and welders gloves and peeing in the eye and mouth of the other technician. i (the second technician) and the doctor emerged from this experience unscathed!

after this appointent there were scores of nasty cats and maybe 1 or 2 nice ones.

then, while we were supposed to be on lunch hour, a cat was brought in that had been in the dryer for 5 min. the cat was panting a bit, and had bleeding front paws (it had been de-clawed 2 days before and the glue on his feet had come undone in the dryer). i got out the oxygen and attempted to mask the cat with it. he took it for a bit then started being retarded. i then had to place an IV catheter and start the cat on fluids, which was done without a hitch. yeah! he then got solu delta cortef for shock, alcohol on his back paws (to lower his body temp) and pressure bandages on his front paws. we put ice packs in his kennel with some blankets to cool him down and then he was fine. he went home several hours later and is scheduled to come back on monday for paw stitching.

in all respect, this cat's dryer experience was nothing compaired to a cat that came into the emergency clinic once...it was in the dryer for 25 min, had "cooked" skin which made catheter placement very difficult, was panting and open mouth breathing as bad as i have ever seen! this cat also survived and went home. it was amazing.

so yeah that's all i have to say for now...peace out...

skydiving pictures...

here are my skydiving pictures taken by chuck k...enjoy...i did!

my instructor peter and i right before diving out of the plane!

jumping out of the plane...

flipping into an arch formation...

...

having a blast...

woohoo...

...

...

...

coasting towards the ground...

safe and sound on the ground!

la da da ti da da

"what doesn't bend breaks."- ani d

i have been listening to a lot of ani d lately. i am sad that i was unable to attend her free concert at niagara square on july 4th...blah. i think it's really kewl that a super talented woman musician came out of buffalo. amazing...but then again everyone comes from somewhere...

tonight at work a doctor and i almost got bitten. i was restraining the dog on an exam table while the doctor was examining at her ears and neck. then the dog let out this ear piercing, blood curdling scream/ bark. i was scared shitless. the doctor jumped back and then i did the same. i kind of blacked out for a few seconds...b/c i have no clue how the dog didn't fall off/ jump off the table when we both jumped back. it was weird. so then the doctor grabbed a muzzle for the dog and all was well. the muzzle really stole her thunder! we determined that it was a dominance issue w/ the dog...b/c holding a dog about the neck and having a doctor touch the neck while restrained is a signal to a dog that says that we are dominant over them. the fact that we were doing this was an insult to the dog and she reacted by being extra scary to show that she was in control. we had to counteract this with the muzzle and continued physical exam and vaccinations so that she wouldn't win this mental battle! well yeah...nothing else exciting happened at work except for that. well, i did bring my dog in for a urinalysis and in house bloodwork, but everything was normal, so that wasn't exciting, thank god.

in the past few weeks we have had 3 possible cases of leptospirosis in the clinic. this is bad b/c this is a zoonootic disease, in other words, it can be spread from animals to humans. animals get it by coming into contact with rodents and their urine. the dogs all came back lepto positive when we sent out their blood to a lab one of them, an older beagle, was euthanized (put to sleep) a few weekends ago. another one, a yorkie puppy, responded to treatment and went home last week. the most recent one, a middle aged husky is in the clinic now. he doesn't seem to be responding well to treatment, but that could change. when dealing w/ these dogs we all have to wear gloves and make sure that everything used for these dogs is kept in isolation w/ them, such as garbage cans, sharps containers, vet wrap, tape, gauze, food, dishes, muzzles, leashes, thermometers, etc... their laundry also has to either be thrown out, or washed seperate with bleach. yeah. all of these precautions take so much time, especially when the dog wants to bite your face off, like the most recent case, the husky. but anyway...

oh yeah, and another thing...i have added 3 more deep scratches to my left arm. well, i didn't add them, a spazzy lab mix did with his nails. i was trimming his nails and he was being restrained by 2 people and he still nailed me (haha no pun intended), and also one of the restrainers. just walking in the door at work is a hazard, let alone doing your job...

i hope no one was too bored with this post, but i found it interesting...haha...ciao ;)

lyrics for life

"i'm going to do my best swan dive into shark infested waters."- ani d

that quote sums up kind of how i feel everyday at work. it's kind of dramatic but pretty much true. at least i like what i'm doing. that's a plus.

tonight at work was nuts...we were all working our asses off and for about 1 hour the dog side was backed up 8 appointments deep! eekk. no one got really bitchy or anything so that was good at least. after work i went to my co-worker and friend ellen's house for some beers and popcorn with 2 other girls that we work with. we all sat around and vented about work and things which felt good. and now i'm tired...i'm going to bed...

my july 4th...

today was fun. i went to the buffalo kennel club dog show at the agri center at the hamburg fair grounds. i saw all kinds of dogs...airdales, wire hair and soft coated fox terriers, SCOTTIES, westies, pugs, poodles, borzois, german short hair and wire hair pointers, spononi italianis, great danes, mastiffs, malteses, springer and cocker spaniels, english water spaniels, old english sheepdogs, dobermans, rotties, collies, labs, akitas, irish setters, irish wolfhounds, bulldogs, shelties, papilons, skye terriers, sealam terriers, kerry blue terriers, german shephards, huskies, corgis, pekineses, bernese mountain dogs, dalmations, boxers, boston terriers, golden retrievers, yorkies, and many many more. it was really fun.

then we went to my cousin's house for a cookout. the weather held out so that the kids could go swimming and stuff which was good. then it poured, and poured and poured...so we sat under the porch roof in the back. it was nice. then i showed everyone my skydiving dvd b/c everyone wanted to see it. then we all went to niagara falls to watch the fireworks that seneca niagara casino let off. it was great. the rain held off until the very end of the show, which was amazing.

i found out that yet another one of my friends is engaged now. damn...i feel so behind...i thought i'd be at least engaged if not married by 25. i'm turning 24 on september 26 and with no prospects at all it's not looking too good for that engaged or married by 25 thing :(




tomorrow it's back to work at 7am so i am heading to bed now...

skydiving

skydiving was AWESOME!!! there is really nothing more to say.

photos to come...they took still shots of me and my instructor, peter while we were jumping and after we landed and i have to get the roll of film developed.

i also got a dvd made of my jump and it's kewl. everything came to $280 which was a bit pricey but not that bad. with every jump that you do the price goes down some. i don't know when, but i will definately go again. i had a great time!

the don is dead...

marlon brando died today at age 80. He was a really kewl actor. i loved him in the godfather movies as did many others. it sucks that he died.

RIP Marlon :(

phenomenal woman

So yeah...i really love this poem by maya angelou...it's just beautiful...so here goes...

Phenomenal Woman

Pretty women wonder where my secret lies.
I'm not cute or built to suit a fashion model's size
But when I start to tell them,
They think I'm telling lies.
I say,
It's in the reach of my arms,
The span of my hips,
The stride of my step,
The curl of my lips.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

I walk into a room
Just as cool as you please,
And to a man,
The fellows stand or
Fall down on their knees.
Then they swarm around me,
A hive of honey bees.
I say,
It's the fire in my eyes,
And the flash of my teeth,
The swing in my waist,
And the joy in my feet.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

Men themselves have wondered
What they see in me.
They try so much
But they can't touch
My inner mystery.
When I try to show them
They say they still can't see.
I say,
It's in the arch of my back,
The sun of my smile,
The ride of my breasts,
The grace of my style.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

Now you understand
Just why my head's not bowed.
I don't shout or jump about
Or have to talk real loud.
When you see me passing
It ought to make you proud.
I say,
It's in the click of my heels,
The bend of my hair,
the palm of my hand,
The need for my care.
'Cause I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.
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now isn't that poem great? i really like it. i found it in a folder in my closet when i was cleaning it out this afternoon! it was a great surprise...makes it worth while to clean my room...