WEE WEE WEE Went the Piggie

If any of you know me.. you know that I LOVE piggies and I especially love their squeal! From the very moment I got my drivers permit I would always go WEE around corners and my mother would yell at me, until the day that a car insurance company decided to use the squealing piggie in their commercials and my mom had to change her ringtone for me! Well today I got to play with my favorite little critters! Its the day before my physiology midterm and no1 really wants to go to lab, but when its a lab on handling piggies you can't help but leave all thoughts of studying and just enjoy their extreme loudness! :) 

My group started with large pigs/sows and had to move them from one pen, down a race way and into another pen. Next we split into smaller groups and half of us took turns moving two pigs from the pen and into the scale race. We had to guess their weights and I got to finally use my knowledge of 1kilo = 2.2lbs! :) I was pretty close at guessing weights but it will just take practice

Next we had to practice snaring a pig without actually tightening the snares around their upper jaw because you don't want them to get snare shy and so you just let them bit the little rope/cable and get it all the way to the back behind their upper teeth and then you can tighten the snare and then they are restrained.

Lastly we played with piglets. We practiced catching them by their back legs and then lifting them up to your chest to hug them with one hand under their chest! They really don't squirm once you got them upside down by one leg. Next we had to put our feet into a V shape, catch a pig and put their butt into the V. Then Tip them backwards so their bellies are facing out and their back is leaning against your legs and you slowly walk back until they are on their back and you squeeze their shoulders between your heels so they cannot roll. Once they are secured they can still kick and wiggle and scream like hell but as long as they can't roll on their shoulders they can't get away. Now you check their hooves and legs and tail and castration scars and anything else you want to check in your exam, next you grab front feet and back feet with a finger between each leg for better grip and spin them 180degrees and resqueeze them between you heels at the shoulders again and then you can check their eyes, ears, nose, mouth, teeth, neck and front feet. Lastly, you grab a piglet, lean against wall or rail and do a wallsit (wall squat) and make a V out of your legs so you can put the piglet upside down on your lap. You hold their front legs towards your belly and then another person can grab their snout and straighten their neck inorder to do a blood draw on the piglets right side of their neck! :) It was a super fun day!

Me and my bestie Heidi below

And even though I have an exam tomorrow, there is a speaker coming in at 5pm for the traveling vet student interest group that was just created this semester and I can't wait to hear what he has to say about his travels.. then its home to do revision and cramming and off to bed early for my 830am exam! AHHH! :)

OH and this is my new sleeping bag from Katmandu that was originally $200, that I got for $80! :) LOVE IT!! SOOOOO EXCITED FOR WILDLIFE TRIP THIS WEEKEND!!!

and you can see my new orange backpack I got from my birthday! Its HUGE and AMAZING!! :) 

Little Critter Kind of Day

THIS WAS SUPPOSED TO PUBLISH ON THE 17th OF AUGUST!! GRRR!!

I saw this caterpillar today on my walk to the bus to go to school! :)

Also Brian and I are the new owners of WORMS AGAIN! We got our compost bin and we are ready to set it up this weekend so by mid-end of next week our worms will be hungry enough to eat all of our veggie scraps and in 6 months time we will have enough fertiliser to help our future aquaponics slightly even though the main bedding for the roots is hydroton pebbles and the rest we can give to anyone else's veggie gardens!

MY FIRST MAC!

I just ordered my new iMac desktop computer! I am soooooooooooo excited and I got a wireless printer from JB Hi-fi. I can FINALLY print at home!!! :) 

but sad note... it is our last day with Coco until middle of september! What a crazy fun bulldog! 

HAPPY WEDDING ANNIVERSARY MOM AND DAD! I love you with every cell you gave me ;) 

(apparently to much histology study for me)

and HAPPY, HAPPY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY DADDY!!! It doesn't matter that we are a world apart, You are never gone from my heart. I'll always be daddy's little girl. I love you!  

IS IT REALLY THE THIRD WEEK ALREADY?!?!

This semester is flying by so far! I can't believe I am already half way done with the third week of class! Not much to report! I have a midterm next week thursday and I have been studying like crazy for that. We are currently dog sitting till early friday morning for the sweetest australian bulldog, Coco. I have never seen a bulldog with an undocked tail and it is awesome and cracks me up! :) I love it! I seriously love that Ear and Tail docking do not happen here as well as declawing cats. I would never want to declaw ANY of my kitties whether they stay inside or get to go out. However almost all the kitties here go outside during the day and come back home at night, so it would be very very cruel to declaw them! Besides staying at the biggest house I've ever seen, we also get to use the owners' Jeep while they are gone!! WHAT?!? after 6 months of living in Australia I have FINALLY driven!! I drove successfully, but it was CRAZY weird being on the other side of the car. Not even being on the other side of the road is as weird as trying to get into the US passenger seat to drive. It threw my entire perception off, and its really hard to explain. Either way I didn't crash and now I can officially say that I have driven in two countries, two hemispheres, and on two sides of the car/road! :) I will try to upload the video soon. Aussies do love their speed "HUMPS" (not bumps like we call them) and lots and lots of roundabouts! :) 

This past Monday night Heidi convinced me to go with her to a Ninjutsu class (self defense without needing strength, just manipulating the body). It was a lot of fun and the teacher was super patient with my slow learning abilities! I am still a little sore, but I am sure I will go again! :) Its supposed to be Monday and Thursday, but I have to much to do this thursday to go. But Next monday might be a really good time to go to relieve stress from my upcoming exam!

And lastly!! I GET TO GO ON A WILDLIFE REFUGE WEEKEND!! 10 lucky people get to go camping in Manjimup with Murdoch University Wildlife Association on August 24th & 25th!! I am beyond excited to get more wildlife handling and first aid information! :)  AND one of the girls that is going is in my year, from Michigan and we both LOVE cats, so I know we are going to have a good time! :) Us crazy americans! hahaha

well... I guess physiology isn't going to soak into my brain just by laying on the book... so off I go! :)

Its Increasingly Official Each Day!

MY NAME BADGE HAS ARRIVED!! Each and every day I am closer to believing that I am actually in vet school!!

Also here is my lunch of champions: spicy bean curd, sweet bean curd with green beans and carrots, curry veggies all over rice and a spring roll! :) BEST little cafe on campus away from the main food court! 

Well Hello There Buttercup!

Nothing like ending your rainy and humid Tuesday school day with shoving your arm up a cow's derrière! Well... not a real cow:

Meet Buttercup!

Time to get lubed up...

AND in I goooo...

AND

Brian and I were changing phone services and had to ride the train down to Cockburn (pronounced: CO - Burn) HAHAHA I know thats not what you said when you read that! HAHA But anyway... This was our train ride home:

TWO FULL CARS OF JUST BRIAN AND I!! THAT NEVER HAPPENS!!! 

 

First Week of School

I survived the first week of school. It went really well and my group for anatomy dissection worked really well together. This semester is not only a lot of information thrown at us, but we also have a group poster project due by Sept. 2 as well as a Physiological Appraisal paper on a case study that is also due by Sept. 2. Then we have our Physio Midterm Aug. 22! That is a very extremely intense first 4-5 weeks of class! But I will get through it somehow. We are also going to meet a lady today about dog/house sitting for a month! 

Well not much else exciting besides my birthday happened :) 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ROSSI!! I LOVE YOU SO MUCH!! <3 

Birthday Day Today

To start, Brian said if he had a guitar he would have sung this song to me today from one of our favorite shows, The League - a show about friends who compete in a fantasy football league. The video clip below is of the song, but skip to 45secs if you just wanna hear the song and not about the show! :)

http://youtu.be/zuVsLR_2GX0

SO my birthday month has been AMAZING

• First went and saw one of my heros: Sir David Attenborough, 24-07-13 (how australians write their dates)
• I'M IN AUSTRALIA!!!
• I did not fail and got to move on to second semester of Vet School
• Lots of family members chipped in to help me buy my most wonderful bike :)
• Grandma sent me a cow birdhouse that I love SOOOOOOOOOO much!!!! :D
• Aunt Betsy bought both Brian and I a pair of vibrams!!!!! 
• TODAY:
• Brian made me breakfast
• Heidi bought me an orange poppyseed muffin and it was oh so delicious!
• First anatomy dissection lab of the semester and it was really fun
• Brian met me on campus to watch a showing of the documentary The Last Trimate which was really good. It was put on by the Murdoch Universities Wildlife Association. It was directed and produced by Dr. Stephen van Mil, a Murdoch graduate, and it was narrated by Mel Gibson. The Last Trimate follows the work of Dr. Birute Galdikas and her work on Orangutan conservation. Trimate stands for the three ladies who were inspired by Dr. Leakey to study the great apes of the world: Galdikas on Orangutans, Jane Goodall on Chimpanzees, and Dian Fossey on Mountain Gorillas.
• Brain surprised me with cleaning the apartment and doing dishes, he decorated the apartment with bird and rabbit balloons, he got me a very sweet card, got me a DELICIOUS lemon-passionfruit tart! Then he made me dinner: penne with my homemade sauce, and topped with vegetable protein breaded patties!!
• Bike shorts from my mommy & daddy arrived today
• Brian promised to take me for a night out somewhere where we can stay the night in a hotel, swim, go to dinner, and explore Western Australia!
• I ordered a new backpack!!! :)