You know how to get your heart rate up?

Step 1.  Decide to take your dog out for one last walk before bedtime.

Step 2.  Put on his leash, and walk out the back door.

Step 3.  See a startled skunk come running straight at you, because apparently he lives under the porch, and was running to his safe spot - which happens to be exactly where you are standing.

Step 4.  Forcibly drag your dog back inside, because at this point all he wants to do is chase this fantastic animal he's never seen before.

Step 5.  Realize how lucky you are that neither you nor the dog got sprayed.


So that was fun last night.  And now every time we go for a walk, Skwissgaar wants to go sniff at the porch.  I have a feeling this isn't going to end well for us.  And no, I'm not going to do anything to chase it off - if it lives under the porch, it was there first.

When I was at the zoo, I got to work with a skunk they have in their education building - her name is Lilly, and she is an absolute sweetheart.  However, she has a really wirey, short hair coat, possibly due to some endocrine disease.  The skunk that came running at us last night had the most glorious fur, like it was in some sort of skunk pantine pro-v commercial.  As startled as I was, I couldn't help but marvel at what must be the Portia De Rossi of the skunk world.  Lilly would be jealous.

Done with NAVLE

So I took my national boards on Friday.  Despite it being a computerized test, I have to wait until January to find out how I did.  I really hope I never have to re-take that sucker.  Until I find out, I've got a few weeks off with no obligations, and it's fantastic.  I've got all my christmas shopping done, presents are wrapped, and I know this christmas won't be a repeat of last year's christmas.  Life is good.    I took Skwissgaar to my old schutzhund training group yesterday, and he showed off his mad training by ignoring the bite sleeve, running to the fence to chase the neighbor's horses, then refusing to come when called.  It was embarrassing, but he had fun.  Anyway, boring update, but I figured I'd update since I survived my boards.

Let the studying for boards commence

Since my last post, I've become a lot more zen about my situation.  I'm moved into my mom's house for right now. It's a bit disheartening to be 28 and living with mom. It doesn't make sense to get a place right now, since between now and when I graduate I'll be gone for 3 1/2 months. So I'm temporarily here, the tenants living in my house will be moved out in a few months, and then I'll be able to have my old house back once I'm done with school.  I left almost all of my furniture with Tyler, so there's a little bit of joy of knowing that once I get to move into my house, I won't have to move any heavy furniture -  I'll be able to order new stuff and have it delivered.  On my study breaks, I've been trolling pinterest, and pinning up a storm. I'm daydreaming about being able to decorate my own place with no other input, and not having to have a band practicing in my basement again.

One of the big plus-sides of being at my mom's house is my harp is here - I couldn't take it to California with me when I moved for vet school, and I've missed it ever so much.  I'm pretty rusty, but I've been practicing every day, so hopefully it will come back to me quickly.

9 days until I take the NAVLE.  Holy crap.  I just need to direct all my energy at this one thing, and after I finish, the rest of the year should be pretty smooth sailing.  9 days.  Eek!

Trying to look on the bright side of things.

I'm back in Colorado, and I started my zoo rotation last week.  Sorry updates have been few and far between.  So far, the zoo has been fabulous.  I know I have a job lined up for when I graduate, and I know it's a job I'll love, but damn, I wish I could be a zoo vet.

Anyway, about everything else that's going on in my life.  I left California a day early to try to get back home to Colorado on Halloween.  It's my favorite holiday, and the thought of spending it listening to powerpoints, then driving across the dessert was rather depressing.

My pups were happy to see me.  Tyler, however, was not.  Knowing that I was home, and I hadn't seen the guy in 9 weeks, he stayed at a friend's party for hours after I told him where I was.  2 days later, he drops the bombshell that he wants a divorce.  So I've been dealing with the fallout from that for the past week and a half.  I've been trying to find somebody to take care of my cats for my next 3 rotations, since Billy obviously hadn't been getting his thyroid meds while I was gone, packing up all my stuff and moving it to my mom's house for storage, until I can move into my own place once I'm done with all of the travelling for school, and just trying to hold my shit together.

I'm really trying to look on the bright side of things right now.  I no longer have to deal with bat shit crazy in-laws.  I no longer have to hear non-stop droning about hockey and the Red Wings.  I no longer have to support a full grown adult who doesn't contribute to household bills, or clean, or take responsibility for anything.  In May, when I'm done with rotations, and the tenants move out of my house here, I can move in, decorate how I want, and not have to worry about having his band practicing in the basement again, so I know it won't get trashed again.  Logically, I know I'm better off. Part of me is pissed off that he's the one leaving me - because I expressed my disappointment in how he's treated me over the years (because apparently it's ok to mooch off your wife, put the band, your friends, and toxic family before her, and to break your vows multiple times, but it's not ok for her to react to those constant slights).  The other part of me is incredibly embarrassed that I've put up with so much shit for so long, and that I've been a complete doormat.  I'm trying not to dwell on it, and just move on, and concentrate on improving my situation, and studying for my boards in December.

As a result of all that, and in an attempt to cheer myself up, I did something impulsive - I booked a 2 week trip to Stockholm with my Mom, Sister, and best friend.  I have a few weeks between when I'm finished with all my clinical rotations, and when graduation happens.  I can't work in that time, while I'm waiting around for my diploma, so I figured I'd make the best of it. I seriously doubt that I'll be able to take any sort of time off for the next few years while I'm building my career, so it's now or never.

It may not feel like it right now, but life is good.

In the Desert!

I've been just south of Phoenix for the past week on my CORE surgery rotation, and it's been a blast so far.  The doctors at the practice I'm at are very laid back, and willing to answer questions, and I've gotten to scrub into some cool surgeries.

I decided to explore the area a little bit today, and found the Superstition Mountain Museum.  It had a lot of exhibits covering mining, the lost dutchman mine, the apaches, and to end the visit, there was an old chapel with an Elvis statue standing up front.  I guess there used to be an old Western movie set in the area, but the Elvis addition was hilarious.  Apparently people actually get married there.

After that mini-adventure, the rest of my day is dedicated to finishing up case logs from Friday, writing a case report, doing laundry, and all that "responsible" stuff I have to do.

I'm apparently breaking stuff here.

I let my domain for this blog expire, and forgot to change my redirect settings, so that would explain why my pageviews have been stuck at 0 since the 17th.  Sorry about that.  Hopefully, if you've been using clawspawsscales.com to get here, you can figure out how to get to the blogspot address (clawspawsscales.blogspot.com), otherwise, oops, I just lost a ton of readers.

The past few weeks here in MN have been great.  I've leaned how to do orthopedic procedures and endoscopy on birds, plus a ton of other things.  I'm ready to leave, though, and the next 4 days are going to drag.  I think I hit my quota of days I can be gone without being homesick, and unfortunately, I have to go straight from here to Arizona.

I've been plowing through a ton of busywork the past few days, trying to get all of these random assignments done for this rotation, and my motivation is pretty sapped.  Busywork + personal life crashing and burning while I'm 1,000 miles away + missing my puppies is not a good combination.  I had grand plans to knock out all my assignments over the weekend, but instead ended up watching a bunch of episodes of The Shield, plus the Dexter series finale.  I fail at life.

I did get my email today from the NAVLE, giving me the go-ahead to schedule my national boards.  I was able to schedule them in my hometown, in the timeframe I was hoping for.  I'm excited and terrified.

I'm in Minnesota!

I'm halfway through my first week at the Raptor Center.  I had labor day off, so it's only been three days.  But in those three days, I've seen more raptors than I've seen in my life (in the wild, and zoos combined.)  I think the board said we had 99 patients today - everything from merlins to bald eagles to various hawk species.  I'm getting tons of hands-on experience, and getting practice with handling and IDing various species, and it's overall just wonderful.

I'm staying at the house of this woman who rents out rooms to students, and she is an absolute sweetheart.  I've been walking the 2 miles to the raptor center every day, and she's been hellbent on finding me a bike.  I don't mind walking, but she's way more concerned about it than I am.

One of the weird things I've noticed on my rotations is I keep finding vets who very closely resemble faculty members from school.  At CSU, one of the ECC residents had the EXACT same intonation and accent as our pharmacologist at Western.  Here at the raptor center, one of the vets has identical facial expressions and personality traits as our surgeon.  Nothing that makes any of them a complete doppleganger, but just enough similarities to throw you off.

Anyway, I've had long days sandwiched by long walks, I need to do my case logs for the last 3 days, and an avian radiology exercise, so I'm not going to write much of an update.  The whole year will probably be like this, which is sad, because this is probably the most interesting year, but the one I can write the least about.