The Busy Life & Jaxxon

Hey all! Yes...I’m alive. There’s nothing to remind you better that you’re loved and missed, then when you start getting emails saying, “WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO UPDATE YOUR BLOG???” HAHA!

Life has just been trucking along. I’m pretty friggin' busy right now. Everyone is, though, right?! Work has been pretty busy, which I’m loving. The mood after the layoffs was pretty somber and stressful, but we've already seemed to bounce back to our normal office hum. Given the current state of things, it’s still hard not to be stressed, though. I heard the other day that there are more than 11 million people out of work right now which just makes my stomach turn. I honestly believe it’ll get worse before it gets better, but hopefully we’re quickly headed for the upward swing of things...

School. Is. Awesome. YEAH! I seriously love school so much right now. I’m about midway through my classes this quarter and it just keeps getting better and FUNNER! :D I learned how to record charts, obtain a history and perform a full physical exam last week. It was our first, full-on experience working with the animals! Last night, our class went out to the animal shelter to learn some basic grooming techniques. The school has an agreement with the local shelter where they provide us dogs & cats and then we go out every so often and work with the animals there. We got to pick out the dog we wanted to work with as long as they had a name (which meant they had been cleared for rabies and they were up for adoption). There were so many cute, big, bouncing (“PICK ME! PICK ME!”) mixes there last night - a lot of pitbull/boxer/lab mixes - that everyone else was drawn to. And then there was Jaxxon. Jaxxon was a Pointer mix (see picture) - a pretty big dog that was definitely happy, but a little more subdued about it. He was my first choice. Everyone thought I chose him because I was afraid of pitbulls or something, but oohhh nooo...I knew what we were going to be doing and I wanted a CALM dog! We had to clean ears, clip nails, give baths and...perform the ever-so-dreaded procedure of draining anal sacs. YUM! Everyone else was freaking out about this because it’s definitely not the most pleasant of things, but I figured I have to learn it, I have to do it, so there’s no point in bitching about it. I made the decision early on when I started this program that I wasn't going to be timid about things - I was going to do what I had to do so I could learn and be the best. Anyway, Jaxxon was the bomb! He was just a happy, plucky dog that was thrilled to be out of his cage and held pretty still while I took care of him. I couldn't help but laugh when I saw the other students literally WRESTLING their happy, massive dogs in the hall while they were trying to clip their nails or get them to hold still while they worked on their back end! BUWAHAHA! When I gave Jaxxon a bath, he just stood in the tub, closed his eyes and enjoyed the warm water. I finished up pretty fast, so afterwards, I took the time to practice a physical exam on him which he seemed to interpret as even more love and attention. At the end of the night, I gave him a big hug, scratched his ears and wished him the best of luck as I put him back in his cage. He was such a good boy about everything so it was hard. I don’t know what his (or any of the other animal’s) fate will be next week. :( I love animals and I want to save them all, but when I started this I made the mental decision that I would do what I could. I can’t adopt every dog I work with and I can’t save every single life...but I can give them the best care I’m capable of and lots of love while I’m with them.

So that’s life right now - busy, but fun. I have three midterms and one final next week. One of my classes is only six weeks (yes!) so I’ll only have three afterwards. Lola is just...Lola. We had a fun little experience at the ER last week when she managed to hurt her back somehow, but she’s all good now...taking drugs and acting like a maniac! HA! I also managed to reconnect with an old friend last week which just made me extremely happy. Yep. Life is good. I’m looking into buying a new vehicle in the next month or so. YAY! Oh and I’m definitely looking forward to Spring. WOOHOO!

I hope everyone else is doing well. Don’t forget to spay/neuter your pets. And if you get the chance...love a shelter pet. Sunshine wishes for all! xoxox AC