It’s been a long while, friends! How are all of you doing? Enjoying the weather? It’s 80° here today! I remember when there was snow on the ground when I went trick-or-treating as a kid.
I’m going to ramble for awhile; hope you don’t mind. I now am on 200mg of Lamictal, and 50mg of Zoloft, and let me tell you: IT IS AMAZING. I think (knock on wood) this is the magic amount and type of drugs for me! I was telling Lucas the other day it’s probably how ‘normal’ people feel all the time, but for me I feel like I’m on drugs because I’m so happy and actually myself! It’s wonderful. (Granted yes, I am on drugs, but I mean like non-prescription drugs. You get it.)
I’m still at the vet clinic; it’s just me and The Groomer now, so I’ve been doing prep work, all the bathing, and then helping to finish whatever dogs are left. So a few less dogs that I’m finishing, but I’m still really enjoying it, learning new things, and getting more hours which is great!
Lucas and I are doing very well as are all the animals! Lunar Tides is going great and we’ve had a few live shows in our area!! That’s been a lot of fun; we have another on the 19th of November. In two months it’ll be a year that I’ve been sober. I’m pretty proud of myself for that. I’m sure a million other things have happened since I’ve been gone, and I know tons has been going on in your lives too! I’d love to hear all about it. I can’t promise I’m back for sure now, but I felt like doing a bit of blogging today and we’ll see where it leads us.
Have a fantastic week you wonderful WordPress friends. ❤
Hello, Blogosphere! I feel like it’s been forever since I last posted, probably because it’s been over a week now! I’ve been busy working; I had over 40 hours last week, and will have close to 40 again this week. I’m not complaining though, it’s just been pretty busy.
I am absolutely loving the groom room! The Groomer tries to teach me something new every day, which is really great. We still don’t have the proper dryer, so that’s been a lot of fun! In a way I feel like it’s been helpful though, because once we get the correct dryer, I’ll be able to do an even better job and perfect my technique with more ease! It’ll be nice. Plus it’s good to learn how to compromise early on.
My job right now is to help the other Bather with washing and drying the dogs. The Groomer preps them, and then we wash and dry them. The prep work includes: checking their ears and taking out any hair that’s growing in them, cleaning the pads of the feet (sometimes done later), sanitary trim (sometimes done later), clipping the nails (sometimes done later), and taking hair off if the dog is going to have a lot of hair coming off them. This way, when we wash we don’t have to wash a ton of hair and take a long time drying it when it’s just going to come right off anyway! When she does this, she just does a general trim of it, but goes back and does the actual groom once we’re finished with the dog. Some groomers refuse to do this since it can shorten the life of the clippers/scissors by using them on dirty hair, but our Groomer doesn’t mind and it helps our workload which is really nice!
It’s now Christmastime, which is how long they had scheduled me working three days in the groom room. Some changes are taking place; the team leader for boarding is being switched to someone else, since the lady in charge right now has some health issues and isn’t able to be there as often as a team leader needs to be. If the new team leader works out (which she should, she handles a lot of the stuff anyway), the Boss Man is going to hire someone else for boarding, and I will be moving solely to the Groom Room!! 😀 I am super excited. We’re not expecting that until March, but if things work out and he can find someone for boarding it could happen sooner. I’ll let you know! So for now I’ll keep my three days, but since I’m doing really well in there, and they can tell I want to continue learning and working in the groom room, I’ll be getting more hours in there in the future.
Depending on how everything works out, The Groomer and I have talked about perhaps having me come in sooner and take over the prep work as well at some point in the future, and then seeing how it goes with learning more on the grooming aspect of things, I might be able to eventually get my own dogs to groom! We have a lot of ‘regular’ dogs who get groomed every few weeks, so those dogs are much easier to do since they come in a lot. Depending, I might be able to get a couple of those dogs to do all on my own! It’ll be a ways away from now, but I’m really looking forward to that. It’s been a great opportunity so far, and I’m absolutely loving it which is great!
That’s what’s been going on with work for the most part, I’ll try to write again sooner than over a week next time! Since this is getting long, I’ll save my update on Rocky and the cats and whatnot else in life for the next post. I hope everyone’s having a great week, and looking forward to the holidays!! Any big plans for Christmas??
I’ve been thinking a lot about what I want to do with my life. Right now I’m on my dad’s insurance, but in a few years I won’t be anymore, and let’s just say that my Diabetic supplies are nowhere near cheap! I’ve mentioned tossing around the idea of Cosmetology school, and that I really like the vet clinic but don’t want to become a veterinarian.
Do you see where I’m going with this? Yeah, should have been super obvious to me, and I think the idea was slithering around in the back of my mind, but this weekend I finally put my finger on it and decided to do something about it! I’m going to be a dog groomer.
Randy and I were talking about my Diabetic supplies and insurance and whatnot this weekend and I brought it up, and then did some more research when we came back to the cabin. Apparently you don’t even need a license to be a dog groomer; if you want to throw a sign on your door and open for business, you can! I think they’re talking about making it so you have to get a license, but as it stands now you don’t.
At the vet clinic we have a groomer, so today I was peppering her with questions. I started out with my feelers, asking her how long she’d been grooming and if she liked it. She was telling me that she knows someone who works in Vegas and makes half a million dollars a year grooming dogs!! How crazy is that? The field is full of possibilities, it just depends on how ambitious you are and how far you want to go with it.
I don’t have to go to school, she said she did but didn’t learn anything there. The only thing it’s really any good for was learning the breeds of dogs and their anatomy. Helllooo used book store!! 😉 Instead, she said she learned the most apprenticing for a year and half under her first groomer. Hands on teaching is a good way to learn anyway!
A great thing for me, they used to have a bather at the clinic who had to leave six months ago and they never replaced her! This person would get the dogs prepped for the groomer to be all ready to go to groom. Guess who’s going to try to get that position? At first I thought I would still work in boarding and then help her before my shift or something, but she made it sound like she’d want me just working with her in the grooming room! I am SO excited.
They have a weekly meeting on Tuesday’s, so she’s going to bring it up tomorrow and hopefully they’ll figure it all out to see if I can start working with her! I’ll be just helping her, and hopefully learning a lot about grooming! Perhaps after awhile I’ll be able to groom my own dogs, and who knows where I could go from there?
I’m excited that I’ve figured out a job path where I think I will be truly happy, and hopefully will be able to support myself and get on some insurance, or else be able to afford my own! I’ll keep you posted on what I find out and how it goes and whatnot. I hope everyone else’s Monday has been as good as mine has! 🙂
I worked today, and had more sleep than Lucas (he only had five hours!) but am still a little tired anyway. We’re over in the band room getting all set up for tonight, and I did get a microphone stand!! So I’ll now have to talk to everyone in stream. haha. Anyway, I know people have commented back to me and have left comments for me, but since I’m over here and my laptop mouse-pad has a mind of its own (I forgot my mouse next door) I’m going to wait until tomorrow to reply and read through all of your lovely blog posts! So don’t think I’ve forgotten you; I just want to keep up with NaBloPoMo and make a post, and I will definitely be getting back to you tomorrow! 😀
I figured I would show you all pictures of the animals living at the vet clinic today! I don’t think I’ve shared photos of them yet. (If so you just get more 😉 ) Now, I don’t know if I’m supposed to take pictures of them, but I figure since they have the vet’s dog on their brochures and such, they wouldn’t mind me taking some pics of the other ones who live there day in and day out. Plus these aren’t any of the customers’ pets.
Pete
Here’s Pete! He’s a little camera shy, if you couldn’t tell! This is the best picture I have of him so far. He can be sweet, but he also likes to bite a lot! He goes and sits up front in the hospital part of the vet clinic on the desk up there. He has a bed and food and water dish, what a spoiled guy! 🙂
Lizzie
Here’s Lizzie! She’s a sweetheart. She sleeps in the back in the cat room all day, but then she’ll go and sit on the rug and meow when it’s almost time for dinner. As you can see, she definitely isn’t lacking in the food department, and we only feed her twice a day, which is why when it’s time for food she knows it and wants it! 🙂
Ella
Here’s Ella! She’s the newest addition to the vet clinic family. As you can see, she only has three legs and a bob tail. She was brought in and was going to be put down; she had maggots on her leg and tail apparently, the poor thing. 😦 The vet decided to amputate them both, and the day after the surgery she was up and wanting to run around! (not that they let her!) She’s definitely a kitten, she’ll be lovey one minute and trying to eat you the next! It’s amazing how quickly she gets around with only three feet, you wouldn’t know it from watching her! 🙂
Bebo
Here’s Bebo! He’s also camera shy. He’s the bird in the vet clinic, and doesn’t do much but talk to himself and try to kiss himself through the mirror. 😉 He’s pretty fun to watch though, and actually doesn’t smell which is great!
Butch
Butch doesn’t actually live at the vet clinic. He came in around the same time Ella did, even though he’s much bigger than she is! However, one of the ladies who work up front decided to adopt him! She always brings him in with her when she comes to work though, so he has his own cage all made up all the time. I always enjoy it when she works so I can go play with him! He also loves to bite and attack you, but he’s so cute I don’t mind. 🙂
I forgot I was going to take a picture of the hamster that lives up front! I actually don’t know his name though, so maybe it’s better if I just wait until I can put a name with the face. 😉 I hope you enjoyed meeting some of my vet clinic friends!! 🙂
Guess what? The owner of the two quarantine dogs FINALLY came today to pick them up!! I wasn’t there when it happened, but apparently the dogs were happy to see him, and although he wasn’t originally going to pick them up, it seems like he did get around to doing it! I was so happy to hear that they’re going back home, and not going to have to be put down. Crisis averted this time!! 😀 I’m so thankful and happy about it.
In other news, I think Lucas and I are going to get haircuts this weekend! I’m pretty excited about it, although I won’t be doing anything crazy with mine. Lucas’s has gotten so long, it’ll be interesting to see what he ends up doing with it! I think he’s still debating on whether he really wants to get it cut. 🙂 I’ll have pictures at some point! What are you doing this weekend?
As I’ve mentioned, we sometimes get quarantine dogs in the boarding part of the vet clinic, where I work and take care of them. Normally they’re in there because they’ve bitten someone, and we have to keep an eye on them for ten days to see if they’re rabid or not. I don’t know why they’ve bitten someone, but usually they are super sweet dogs and I feel like they were probably taunted to the point of having no other option in their minds.
Right now we have three: two from the same owner, and then a tiny one from someone else. The tiny one goes home on Thursday, and he’s been just fine and sweet. One of the other two I don’t mess with because he was being super aggressive when first brought in. The vet who’s been feeding and walking him has said he’s been a lot better now though.
The other one has been really sweet though. Every time I come in he gets all excited to see me, and when I’m on the other side of the kennels talking to a different dog he’ll whine a little bit at hearing my voice. I’ve grown quite fond of him! So I was really upset today to hear what may happen to the two of them.
Their quarantine time was up yesterday, and since they were still there at four tonight, I asked the vet what was going on with them. Apparently the owner said they didn’t want them back after he found out it’d be $700 for the quarantine. When they bite someone it’s mandatory for them to go into quarantine, the owner doesn’t have a choice in that matter. They’re both mix-breeds, with some pit-bull in them, although I don’t think they look much like pit-bulls. Because of this, they aren’t allowed within city limits apparently, and that’s where their owner lives.
Since the owner hasn’t been in to get them, and had said he didn’t want them back, chances are pretty high they’ll have to be put down. I was pretty devastated to hear that. I understand it’s a part of working at the vet clinic, and not all the animals can be saved. However, it’s so horrible and sad and ridiculous their owner ever had them in the first place. They could be sweet dogs and go to a great home, but he never worked with them so they can be aggressive, and they can’t go in a home with a child nor with other animals. Had that not been the case, I may have tried to adopt the sweet one. Since we have cats, and don’t have the room, nor the funds, I’m not able to do that unfortunately.
Plus, now when I’m walking and feeding him, I’m just wondering if this is his last day to be alive. When will he go? I just hope he knows that I care about him, and at least I was able to give him some love these past eleven days.
It breaks my hear that there are so many sweet animals in this world who get treated like dirt and then put down for such crazy reasons. If you cannot take care of an animal, do not get one!! And if you have animals and are not raising them to be bred, get them spayed and/or neutered!!
Tomorrow is Halloween! That should be exciting enough. However, I don’t fully know what my costume is going to be (although I’m leaning toward something 80’s at this particular moment since it seems easiest to do), and it’s supposed to rain all day!! Ahh! We’ll figure out how to make it work anyway.
I had a bit of an ‘aha!’-esque moment today. I was outside in the drizzle walking the dogs with my hood up, and realized I was A) outside (even though it was chilly and drizzling) B) walking a bunch of awesome dogs C) wearing jeans D) wearing a sweatshirt/jacket thing that I normally lounge around the cabin in, and E) I’m getting paid for this!! This is my job. How exciting is that?!
It may not be the most glamorous job in the world, but I’ve come to realize I absolutely love it. And that’s pretty exciting. I haven’t enjoyed really any of the jobs I’ve had for the past few years, so I’m really glad I’ve found one that fits me. I hope everyone else is having as good a day as I have, even if it is getting cold and raining all day and will be tomorrow too! Happy early Halloween! 🙂
Today I almost gouged my eye out. Now when I tell you the story it may not sound that dramatic, but let me tell you, it was!!!
The day started out normal enough. I went to work and greeted all the dogs and cats staying with us right now, and fed/watered everyone. During this I scraped my left arm on a kennel door that was sticking out a bit. Not a big deal, it kind of hurt and left a scratch, but that happens somewhat frequently.
We have quarantine dogs in boarding that we’re the guinea pigs, as I call it, for taking care of them. Normally they’re there because they’ve bit someone, and we’re watching them to see if they’re rabid. Hence the ‘guinea pig’ term; we get attacked if they do turn out rabid. We keep them there for ten days; if they were rabid at the time of the biting, within ten days they’ll be dead. So I guess we morbidly find out that way. Usually I think someone just provoked them until they’d had enough and nipped at someone, since they normally are super sweet dogs.
Right now we have three quarantined dogs, two of which came in together. One of those two, we in boarding don’t do anything with. He tried to attack one of the vets, and they don’t even like dealing with him! I don’t know if he’s actually rabid; I think he may just have had a bad life sadly. The other one has been really sweet to me, and always gets excited when he sees me come in. He’ll jump up and try to give me kisses, but as Lucas brought to my attention, I should be careful about letting him give me kisses on my face, as that could easily change into a bite. Sounds obvious, but I actually hadn’t thought about that. So I fed him, and he scratched my right arm up jumping up on me. That happens all the time too, so not a big deal there. And he wasn’t being malicious-just excited.
Now it’s time to walk everyone! Ella, the three-legged kitten the vet rescued and now lives at the vet clinic, was hanging around the back and kept running into the boarding room. She’s not allowed back there, so I kept the door shut between taking dogs out so she wouldn’t sneak in. All was going well, until I went to get the fourth to last dog. They’re always excited to go outside and do their business, and this dog was no different. I couldn’t get the leash around his neck because he was moving around so much. He started to get around me and run loose, and that’s when it happened.
Now as I mentioned, I’d been shutting the door behind me. I should do this every time I’m getting the dogs out, but no one does because the dogs normally don’t escape and I guess maybe we’ve just gotten lazy or something. That’s not the point though! Ha. So had I been thinking about that, I would have realized even if he got out of his kennel, there was nowhere for him to go and it didn’t really matter. I didn’t think about this though, since I’m used to leaving the door open, and figured he’d run crazily through the entire clinic.
I’m not even sure how it happened exactly, I think I went to shut the door and try to push him back into the kennel at the same time, and he moved into me and past me. My head was in just right the place, and BAM!! the latch hit me right next to my eye.
Same exact type of latch we have at the vet clinic
Pain instantly shot through my face and knocked me back (that may have been the dog too) and my eye watered up. I got up to go get the dog, who was just standing by the door like, “What are you waiting for!?” I had to blink quite a few times to be able to see, and then I went outside with him. I didn’t know what it looked like, all I knew was it hurt like crazy. It felt like someone punched me right in the eye, and I was wondering if was bruising or anything. I touched it and there was a little bit of blood on my finger, but not much. All around my eye and my cheek bone hurt like hell!
When he was done doing his stuff, we went back in and I grabbed a little mirror out of my purse to look at it. It was bleeding a little bit, but was just red, not as bad as I thought it would look! However, IT WAS SO CLOSE TO MY EYE! Had my head been turned just a teeny tiny bit, I probably would have done some pretty bad damage to my eye. The latch somehow gouged a tiny bit of skin out, and scratched it a little bit.
LOOK AT THAT CUT AND HOW CLOSE IT IS TO MY EYE!!!!
Now yes, I could be overreacting a little bit, but man it STILL hurts and that was four hours ago now. Plus the picture doesn’t even do it justice. 😉 So I have superhuman strength when closing kennel doors apparently, and that’s the story of how I almost gouged my eye out. Luckily it’s doing just fine, other than hurting now! I hope everyone had a much safer day today!!
Happy mid-week, everyone! I haven’t made a life update post in awhile, after I had said I would possibly try to implement them weekly, so I figure it’s about time for one! Let’s see, what’s been going on in my life?
In November, Lucas and I will be going back up to Iowa for Thanksgiving. (US) I am super excited for that!! My mom and little sisters and brother were supposed to come down over the summer, but those plans both fell through so I haven’t seen them since February! Plus a few weeks before we go will be Lucas’s great-grandmother’s 94th birthday, so we’re excited to see her and his mom and grandma also!
My grandma is going to Arizona for a couple weeks, but will be back by the time we go up to Iowa so I’ll be able to see her as well. My dad and step-mom are actually going to be really close to where we live over Thanksgiving; since we were planning on going a few weeks earlier they had made plans with my dad’s dad. They’ll be back the night before we leave so it’ll still work out to see them as well! It’ll be a great trip I think. 😀
The vet clinic is going well! We have two little kitties in there right now who are free to a good home. There’s a gray calico (female) and an orange (male). They are adorable!! If we didn’t already have two cats in such a tiny space I would have scooped them up in a heart beat. I wish some of you lived nearby and I would make you take them! 😉 I’m really enjoying working there more and more.
When I first got the job I was really excited that perhaps I’d be able to work my way up and go to school to become a vet-technician or vet-technologist. After a little bit of working there, I thought I wouldn’t actually be able to do it because I wouldn’t want to be sticking them and them not knowing what’s going on! Plus putting them down would be heartbreaking. As I’ve been working there longer, however, I feel like I would really enjoy helping the animals. Yes, they don’t know that they’re being helped necessarily, but they are and could possibly live a long, happy life because of the work done for/to them.
I was considering going to Cosmetology school, because that’s been at the back of my mind for quite some time. However, now I’m wondering if I should perhaps pursue a vet-tech job? I’m not sure, and I do have time to figure it out. I’m on my dad’s insurance still, which is wonderful since I have a lot of Diabetic supplies I need on a daily basis. In a few years I won’t be though, and I’ll have to either pay for good insurance, or have a job that provides it. Decisions, decisions! Plus I would like to have a ‘real’ job that I feel secure in and thoroughly enjoy.
My mom is going to be moving to Florida in a few years! My brother’s in high school still, so they’re waiting until he graduates to move. I’m really happy for them; they’ve been wanting to move from Iowa for awhile now. I was even thinking that maybe we would be able to move down there too! Of course that would take a lot of planning, and right now it doesn’t make much sense since we’re living in the cabin for free! We’ll see what the future holds; if anything I think we’d be moving south/southwest.
Shikari and Special Agent Nelson are doing great! Calypso, our adoptive outdoor cat that I need to do a post on, is doing great too. We thought she was pregnant when she first showed up, but she should have had her kittens by now or else would be very soon, and it doesn’t seem like she’s actually pregnant anymore. This is great news, since we wouldn’t be able to keep them and I would want them to have nice homes and not have to worry about what happens to them!
Overall life is going very well right now. I think we’re going to be carving pumpkins on Friday; I haven’t done as many ‘October’ posts as I wanted, but I still have some time! 🙂 I hope everyone’s week is going well; what have you been doing this week, or what’s something you’re looking forward to this weekend?
I started my job at the vet clinic today! At first I thought I wasn’t going to be able to get into the building; no one had told me about the back entrance, and the front was locked until 7:30. Fortunately someone finally came to the front and let me in! I started off walking all the little dogs being boarded there, and boy were there some cuties! One of them was in a top cage and jumped up and put his paws up on me to be held. I didn’t think he was going to let me put him on the floor! Then it was cleaning out the cages of the ones who had accidents overnight, then on to feeding/watering them! After all that they calmed down a bit, they’d been barking since we arrived, so that was a nice reprieve. There weren’t any cats being boarded, but there are two cats, Pete and Lizzie, that live at the vet clinic, so their cages had to be cleaned out also. There’s also a bird who lives there, Bebo <sp?> who had to bed fed/watered. Plus doing laundry in between and mopping up any further accidents, and keeping the floor swept/mopped/vacuumed. Then we stocked up on supplies from a building next door the vet clinic owns, I had no idea it even existed! More cleaning and bringing dogs to the front when their owners were there to get them, and then back home! Not the most glamorous of jobs, but it’s a lot of fun for me, and I really enjoyed taking care of them. Definitely going to like this job, and maybe one day be able to move upward in the field! Overall it was a good day; I’m still really upset about Little Kitty, but the world keeps going and there are plenty of other animals who need taken care of too. Stay tuned for more vet clinic adventures, and just regular old adventures. 🙂
haha. Anyway, I know people have commented back to me and have left comments for me, but since I’m over here and my laptop mouse-pad has a mind of its own (I forgot my mouse next door) I’m going to wait until tomorrow to reply and read through all of your lovely blog posts! So don’t think I’ve forgotten you; I just want to keep up with NaBloPoMo and make a post, and I will definitely be getting back to you tomorrow! 😀
Lydia 