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Tuesday, April 22, 2014

PICTURES

Here are my photos in youtube slideshows! Please let me know if they do not work!

FLOWERS AND SUNSETS:







CRAB FEST - Mandurah, Western Australia 2014





The first few photos of the water are of at least one dolphin. I was trying so hard to capture him!

Motorbike stunts!



VPL (Veterinary Professional Life) CAMP:



DAYS WITHOUT WATER:
So, our house is not hooked up to city water. All of our drinking/flushing/bathing water all comes from a giant 8m across 6m tall tank that holds rainwater. Well, on our check of the water level on a friday through a tiny whole in the top it, it appeared really low. We had decided that we would order in some water trucks on the monday. Well by Saturday PM we were pretty much out of water or at least getting close to the pump intake. We called on sunday and ordered two tanks/trucks of water($250 total) but they didn't come out till Wednesday. Within 5 minutes of starting to pump water in, there was water bubbling out of the bottom of the tank everywhere! So our liner was busted! The water guy helped me measure the tank and gave me a number for a liner repair place. The guy had to do some inventory and work up the numbers and got back to me the next day (Thursday). He said he had one brand in stock and could put it in by Wednesday or we would have to wait and order the other brand and wait 3 weeks!! Obviously we needed water… we were hauling water in our cooler from down at the barn just to flush the toilet! So I got ahold of my landlord in New York, and called the liner guy back on Friday. He was here by Wednesday and even finished an hour earlier than planned, but the water tank people couldn't make it out till thursday!! A week without water was quite interesting… Brian and I resorted to showering in the showers at school near the bike lockers one night and then the next two times we showered at the vet school surgery (4th/5th year) locker rooms! Way nicer :) And my roommate did a fantastic job cooking dinner with limited fresh water supplies! :) And then the DAY AFTER WE GOT WATER BACK IT DOWN-POURED IN PERTH FOR THE FIRST TIME IN ABOUT 4 MONTHS MINIMUM!!!


Jellyfish!





Cockatoos in our backyard!





KITTIES AND RANDOMS:



Sunday, April 20, 2014

Oh Yea! I have a Blog!

Hey ALL!! HOLY COW ITS BEEN A LONG TIME!!

I have so much to tell you! Time has just started to blur together, and its already past midterms! I think of the semester! Time is just flying by!

So I left off with my strengths! That was an epic fail! but I was really surprised at the accuracy of the project anyway! 

I went off to VPL camp! That was actually a lot of fun, but I really was over the team building and communication games by day 3! It was pretty full-on! We went to a historic reserve about an hour south of perth, and it was beautiful! They had a ropes course which was great fun! We also had practice consults! And well... mine didn't go well at all.... I couldn't stop laughing because another girl and I work together and were in a group of 4 students to each practice a consult with a different scenario. AND our consult leader was a Dr. who works with us also! He was from the first class that ever went to VPL camp and so he came back to help out! But we work with him and his role during my consult exercise that I picked was to be a super obnoxious client who didn't really care about the cat, kept talking on the phone, and kept telling me all about his life and was being super into it and my whole table couldn't stop laughing so, but it gave me a real sense that I have no idea how I would actually behave if that situation arose in the clinic! It was great fun! The cabins we so old and awesome! I can't show to many pictures that have my other classmates without their permission! but I hope you enjoy the ones I can share! 📷

After VPL camp I was busy writing an animal welfare essay. Got it done just in the knick of time! ⌛️

I have still been working almost every Tuesday, Friday and Saturday and we walk Nomsa Wed-Friday mornings still! 😅 And in between there I am the treasurer for FIG (feline interest group), I am a committee member for MAVS (the surgical group), and I attended talks from the Equine group, the exotics group, and all sorts of other intersting activities/groups!

I have pictures from Crab Fest to show you! That was down in Mandurah! It was a really good time, got a little sunburnt but it was worth it! Ate to much, but who doesn't when you go to a festival of that nature! 😄 The Crab tacos were surprisingly the best thing we had! 

I also survived a 6 hour pathology midterm assignment/exam.... at least my besti was there through it all and she absolutely LOVED my homemade soup from the day before because she had to pause the assignment to go put the horses away in the pouring rain, so the least I could do was feed her some amazing vegetable soup that I made from scratch! :) 

Squirt survived his sterilisation! Now we are hoping he will eventually calm down and stop being such a boy! 

Meeting with Dr. Webb - Heidi and I got the chance to meet the wonderful Dr. that inspired me even more than I already was to come to Murdoch. She wrote a blog years ago about her time as a student here, and she started a website that allowed Heidi and I to meet and become best friends. She has married an australian has gotten to stay in Australia after graduation! She is now moving to Queensland to see how being a vet out there is like! It was REALLY amazing  getting to meet her! 

Midwives at Midnight - I got to go on this really cool project that has started down south with the Pig Interest Group. It was to a piggery and we got to help deliver babies. The project was hiring two people to do an overnight shifts at the piggery to try and reduce piglet deaths! And they think its actually starting to show some positive results. So my time there was just to learn about how to help deliver piglets, the signs of a sow about to deliver, and give some injections. I got to do a "manual" which is sticking my arm up the sows vagina to check for any other piglets. Then you give them antibiotics after that. I also got to give a few oxytocin injections to induce contractions. Then right as we were getting ready to cow one of the two sows we had been waiting to give birth all night finally started after I decided to give her a belly rub! They actually really like their bellies rubbed and it helps calm them! I rubbed her belly and the other girl with me got to deliver the first baby, then dry it off with this weird powder conditioner and then put them under the heat lamp by their mommy! Then I got to deliver baby number 2 and baby number 4 :) It was such an amazing experience!! I LOVE PIGGIES!!!!! <3

FIG - Feline Interest Group has gotten to put on two talks in April and they were both a major success! One was on Feline Infectious diseases and the other was the role of cats in society and we had a really good discussion on feral cats and how places that have tried to eradicate cats, consequently had an explosion in rats and mice and then bird populations actually declined. So we talked about the success of Trap, Neuter (Vaccinate), and Release. When you do this, the feral cats stop reproducing and the population can stabilise, they also stop being so aggressive and fighting to reproduce, the momma cats can actually start putting on weight rather than just constantly popping out babies! And it is really just a good program! oh me and my silly kitty obsession!

I had my nutrition midterm last week….. and it went… lets just say that! haha! I think I at least got a pass! :) We shall see! Now its all projects and time consuming assignments… ehhh… but I will make it! I am loving vet school and everything that happens no matter how stressful!

HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE!! So glad that I finally got a blog post out! I hope everyone has been good and enjoying life! I know I sure have been! No time for sleep! :)

OH! AND WE ARE GOING TO SEE JEFF BECK ON THURSDAY THIS WEEK!!! Brian's co-worker bought us tickets and its amazing!! We seriously can't believe this!

Look forward to a pictures blog post! :)