...and then they do this...

This is what they do....

Summer, so close!

Only 3 finals and no classes stand between me and summer!

My best friend since elementary school came this past weekend which was so awesome! She finally got to see where I live, meet my friends, go out dancing, and generally enjoy being together which we haven't gotten to do in a long time. I really missed that kid.

My boyfriend has been super amazing, per usual, but this time it involved sending me gorgeous flowers during a really busy week. They are so gorgeous! They are some style of lily with pinks, oranges, and yellows. It's been more than a week and they haven't even started to droop. I have gotten so much enjoyment out of these, they make our kitchen so bright and sunny!

Speaking of summer, I have been having fun despite still having class. I have been boating with the family, laying by the pool, getting blood from dogs, and generally really enjoying this whole block. It is seriously 105° in Missouri but I choose to embrace the heat and try to enjoy the sunlight.

The dogs are still deeply enjoying each others company. To give you a little snapshot into my life, I share the following description of approximately 4:30pm everyday, about half an hour before dinner for dogs:

Dynia - loud yawn with half whine, sad puppy eyes, run frantically to the food bowl.
Myself and my roommate - "it is not dinner time"
Both dogs hear the word dinner
Harvey and Dynia - cock head to the side, wiggle tail/nub, do half dance towards the food bowl
Harvey - jump on top of my roommate's notes and curl up with his face near to hers to be in the best possible location for the dinner announcement.

5:00pm:
Roommate or myself - "are you a hungry puppy?"
Both dogs - frantic jumping , running to bowl and back, wagging tail/nub, ears perked up
Humans - "tell me!"
Both dogs - quiet whine with frantic running
Humans "tell me louder!"
Both dogs - "obnoxious bark"
Harvey then dashes upstairs and Dynia runs to her food bowl.

And that repeats.....Every evening....
At least they are smart crazies.

I am so happy to be finally done with classes, even if we do have 3 finals left. It just gives me hope that the summer is coming. Even though I will be working in the lab pretty much full time, at least there won't be studying and homework and my evenings will actually belong to me. I really can't wait for all the fun trips we have planned for VRSP (the research program I'm doing). I will get to go camping and go on a float trip which will involve just enough learning to make feel productive while I float down the river while drinking. It's hard being a research scholar ;-) 

On a more serious note, I am really learning a lot in research. Even if I wasn't learning anything about inflammation and Sepsis because I haven't really started the lab work on my project, just going into the ICU a couple times a week makes me feel like a part of the hospital and keeps me up to date on what is going on. I also get to meet a lot of clinicians and look at numerous patients to get a feel for the cases and what kind of problems are common in the intensive care unit.

The summer is trying to drag me in, my brain keeps telling me to study for my finals, but my summer brain keeps telling me that there are so many books I want to read. Just wait summer brain, all in due time.

One of friends is fostering kittens for the humane society. There a 3 kittens with a combined weight of 4.5 lbs. If you are too poor for cable, I suggest kitten fostering. Food, litter, and toys are all paid for. All you gotta do is keep them from electrocuting themselves, feed them, and let them entertain themselves and you. Absolutely crazy and hilarious. I will try to post a video of them later.

Go enjoy your summer you lucky ducks, I'll be joining you soon!

Clicker Training

I've also started clicker training Harvey.
You use a clicker to "mark" the good behaviors. For instance I am teaching H to touch a measuring cup with his nose.
The clicker is one similar to the ones shown here:




You know how long it takes to get a treat out of your pocket or how long it takes to say "Good dog"? Well that time makes it hard to get a dog to know exactly what you think is awesome. Since the dog learns to associate the clicker with a treat, the click tells that dog that they did a good job. The sound is an immediate signal that the exact thing you wanted was the right thing to do. '

I am teaching H the command "Touch" because it can lead to other fun tricks and I can put the cup different places and get him to go away from me to "Touch". One of my friends is very into dog training of all kinds and she wants to show me how to teach him scent discrimination. This would teach him to pick out the object that I touched specifically, pretty cool huh?

Thought I'd share a little about my non vet school life. It's not all studying haha!

Summer got real.

So my lazy summer gets a little busier when you cram lots of fun things into it.
Easy classes still have tests and when you spend your weekends visiting your family, going to weddings, and hanging with your boyfriend.

But the busier I am, the more productive I am - which bodes well for the days ahead.

Saturday I will be driving to Kansas City to celebrate my not-so-little brother's 21st birthday!!! Finally he is legal and we are going to the Power and Light district to party with the world's most fun parents :-)
But next week I have 3 tests, a paper, and a presentation.

My bf left today after an amazing 10 day visit. I told him it is kind of like someone giving you a sneak preview of a movie. When he stays for a weekend, it's like seeing a few minutes of the movie and you can remember the whole time that it's only a preview. But with ten days it is like someone let me watch the whole first half hour, you get a little sucked in and you start to forget that you don't get to see the ending. It was so fun having here though. I gotta say, he is a top notch wedding date. Friendly, fun, and he dances. He asked me to dance for almost every slow song; spun me,  dipped me, couldn't ask for a better partner.

The Harv-man is here for good! He and my roommate's dog are so happy to see each other that they can't even stand it. H may be out of shape, but he won't be for long with all this playing. Plus I get to take him to the park and we are going to start taking longer walks in the morning. Good for me, good for him and hopefully the exercise will keep him from barking in his kennel.

I think I will keep getting up early to study and hopefully get ahead so I am not dying with all my stuff next week. I obviously won't be studying Saturday night ;-) At least this block I get out around 2 or 3 instead of 5 or 6pm.

I just got an email saying that - as long as Dr. VRSP says I have room in my research schedule - I get to go help out with the VET program this summer. For those of you have been reading my blog, that is the program where the 1st years go and get to know each other at the lake. I wrote about it here, here, and here. It was an amazing bonding experience and I feel so lucky to get to be a part of it this year! Hopefully. If it all works out.

Well off to get some laundry done. I really think that during V school you should get to take time off from housework stuff... just sayin.

Major Important things

Thing one.
My boyfriend AND my dog are here. For ten days. It is so awesome I can't even explain. We went to hang with some of my friends on Sat and then to visit my family on Sun. I haven't seen him in  little while so it's great to get to spend some down time with him and to have him around when I study and what not.
Also Harvey is staying with me for the next 2 years, which is way fun because - as you would guess- vet students do a lot of dog related outings such as dog park time, hikes, etc...

Thing two:
I am now Treasurer of Small Ruminants and Camelids club.
Yup.
That's a club all about goats, sheep, deer, alpacas, and llamas. So that is really cool. The club was not really active this year, so we have some pretty big plans of different labs to do and trips to take. I know very little about them, but I love the learning and all my friends are on the board so that makes it even more awesome!

Sorry, but I am off to be gloriously happy about my significant other being here, you understand :-)

Love love love

I absolutely love general pathology.
We are learning about the different problems that you can see on necropsy and I am just smitten. Maybe it is because the teacher is so well organized, maybe because the pictures are cool, but I think a lot of it comes from how logical it is. If your heart isn't pumping correctly, then it isn't moving the blood out of your lungs as well. This means that you won't get as much oxygen to your tissues and that there will be blood pooling in your lungs. It'll be hard to breathe. That makes sense! It's like when I would solve algebra equations for the first couple of times, it just all adds up correctly.

So that is awesome, I really enjoy having a class that is so practical. We are learning a lot of terminology that shows up in the ICU and stuff so it is fun when I go into work and recognize what the words really mean.

We also have a bacteriology class that is brutally boring. Nicest prof ever. Horribly, mind-numbingly, gag-inducingly boring.

But everything else is quite literally sunshiny and happy. We have been going to the rec and the pool all the time and I am already tan. Yea, in May. That never happens!

I also got to go to a reptile handling lab for ZEW club and learned how to properly do a physical exam/restrain lizards, snakes, and turtles. It was fun to see the different kinds of reptiles some of my classmates have. Some of them were really tame and almost snuggly. I know that sounds weird, but I had an iguana snuggle into my neck and chill out and a snake try to get a little too personal and wiggle down my sleeve. Note: he was thwarted and did not ACTUALLY end up down my shirt. I came out wanting a snake and also thinking that my little bro really should get a bearded dragon. No worries mom, I am not actually getting a snake...even though it would be cool....even though it would help me become more proficient at reptile handling.....even though you said I could have whatever I wanted when I had my own house.

I had a huge breakthrough a few days ago. It wouldn't have been a big deal for anyone who has drawn a lot of blood, but for me it was huge.
I have drawn blood a few times, but every time I had someone guiding me and looking at what I was doing "oh you wanna go more medial, if you pull out a little it should be there" and that kind of thing. This time I told the tech I had only drawn blood a few times and she helped me through it. But the difference was that she was restraining the dog like she would for anyone else and couldn't see what I was doing! So I was correcting my own mistakes and completely in control. I only had to stick once and only redirected my needle once. It was such a big deal for me because drawing blood is a great skill to have and it really scares me. Slowly getting better at Vet Med.....

Let me know if there is anything you'd like to see me write about, otherwise I'll just keep updating you about my life. Hope your weather is as nice as ours :-)