Category: Uncategorized

REINVENTED

As I lay here in bed at 3 am, wide awake from my newly prescribed allergy meds, I can’t decide if being able to breath and not scratching out my itchy eyes is a good trade off for my insomnia.  I already suffer from routine insomnia so medications make it so much more pronounced and it can be difficult to quiet the random thoughts that fly through my cerebral cortex during these early hours of the morning.  If nothing else, this morning I decided it would be an opportunity to use this time to reinvent my languishing blog.  My inspiration has come mostly from a life change in the near past and the Erma Bombeck writer’s workshop I attended last year.  My creative juices had been pretty much squelched due to an incredibly stressful day job that later led to corporate downsizing and needing to decide what I would do for the remainder of my career.  Most would think for a veterinarian that would be a no brainer.  I had already done private practice and industry and had little to no desire to pursue these paths again.  I left my options open and while I was job hunting, I worked by tail off doing relief work and vaccine clinics.  There are many advantages to relief work such as making your own schedule, no chronic case management, and not dealing with the headaches that come with the job of an associate veterinarian or worse yet, a practice owner.  Despite the advantages, it still was an exhausting and sometimes stressful job that really cemented the fact that I could do not do private practice for the rest of my life. When looking at job postings for corporate jobs, it usually made my chest tighten a bit and was overall a daunting thought.  I’m usually a glass half empty sort of gal and guessed I might have to settle for a job that I really didn’t want to do long term.  Sure it could be temporary but there were so many questions.  Would we have to move?  Would I like the job? Could I live with settling for a job just to have one?  I tried not to panic when I didn’t get responses from applications submitted or lack of any job that really seemed up my alley.

This is where the networking comes in.  Network…..ALWAYS.  Meet people, give them your card, know what they do, and don’t burn bridges! Job experts say that 75% of available jobs never get posted because it is who you know and that is how those positions are filled.  I firmly believe this after my recent job loss and then hunt.  All the connections I had from my industry job bent over backwards to help me.  It ended up being a colleague I worked with before I was in vet school that turned me on to the job that I ultimately accepted.  It taught me to never settle but follow your passion and love your job.  Life is way too short to be miserable in a place where you spend a significant portion of your life. Trust me…I know as I did not follow my own advice.

I am now teaching eager students following their passion to be veterinarians.  They face a steep uphill battle in this profession but it is my job to help prepare them to face the challenge and be successful veterinarians.  And…. I love every minute of it.

This new job forced me to move from my long time home of 22 years, leave many incredible friends, and suburbia.  I now live in a somewhat rural area of East Tennessee where I live 1.5 hours from the nearest Target and Panera Bread and 4 hours from the long time friends I have in Dayton. I do have a wonderful new family of friends and co-workers who all have the same mission.  Teach with excellence and make frequent trips to the suburbs of Knoxville to get our big city fix.

So in the end, I have reinvented my blog to a new format and webpage, but more importantly, I have reinvented myself.

My blog is now http://www.vetmanias.com.  My mission is to tell stories that might inspire, teach, and make people laugh.  They will likely be animal oriented (that is my life after all) but I’m likely to throw in other topics that inspire me or I am passionate about as well.  You can read my previous blog at http://thecatboxtimes.blogspot.com.

 

The Buzz Man

I have come across many stray cats throughout my career working with animals.  It sometimes takes the will power of a freight train to resist bringing them all home as I am a sucker for cats.  Of course, I have given in to this will power several times which has rewarded me with many awesome pets over the years.  These animals have all enriched my life well beyond words and forever hold a special place in my heart.
For whatever reason, I was thinking about one of them the other day and how he ended up as part of our clan.  It was probably the coldest day we had seen thus far during the winter of 1999 with the temperature hovering around 0 F.  It was near closing time at the clinic and the kennel staff were wrapping up their duties as we were seeing our last patients before going home for the day.  One of the kennel workers came to me and told me she heard a cat meowing outside the back door.  We went to the back door to investigate and opened the door to see what was lurking outside.   In walked a skinny brown tabby acting as if he owned the place.  
I am forever amazed at the resilience that animals, in particular cats, have to survive extreme weather conditions, especially subzero temperatures.  Despite being thin, this cat was in pretty good shape.  We put him in our isolation ward, gave him food which he inhaled, and a warm place to sleep.  He was quite content and seemed no worse for the wear.  We did the usual testing for intestinal parasites and feline leukemia before making any attempts to adopt him.  He was already neutered so obviously he had belonged to someone in his former life.  He stayed at the clinic for two or three months before I finally decided to take him home.  He had been named Wampa by an employee who was an avid Star Wars fan.  The Wampa  was a vicious creature in “The Empire Strikes Back” who lived in the ice caves.  Despite his arrival on a very cold day, the name did not really fit him as he was far from vicious.  Therefore, he left the clinic nameless.  After hanging out in our house for few days, we decided to name him Buzzer.  He had a particular sound he made when he saw you which sounded very much like a buzz saw.  His nickname later became “The Buzz Man.” 

Buzzer became a happy member of the family and spent his life living it to the fullest.  He lived inside, had regular meals, lots of toys and play time, and many side trips to the catnip garden in the summer. He even had the opportunity to kill a chipmunk or two who dared pass under the garage door.   He was a great cat with no major quirks so it is hard to understand why he became a stray.  Maybe he escaped and couldn’t find his way home or maybe someone moved and left him behind.  A mystery forever.  Whoever the previous owner was, it was definitely their loss and our gain.  Except for the discovery of a broken femoral head which happened during his stray days, he led a happy and healthy life.  We lost him to liver cancer after caring for him for ten years.  His cremated remains sit on our shelf with all the other cats (and 1 dog) that have crossed our path.  The Buzz Man is missed but his time with us gave us lots of memories to remember him by. 
Remember the Strays!  Support your local humane association by volunteering or making a donation.  Until all animals are spayed or neutered, there will always be organizations to support and stray animals to adopt.  Help make a stray animal’s life happy and loved.

Tiny Fur Coats

It’s been a while since the last posting but I blame it on my attempt to keep warm from this seemingly, never ending miserable winter we have been having.  This entails being bundled up under the covers by 8 pm going to sleep early so I can forget about how cold it is in the house and outside.  Usually not too long after getting under the covers, the cats follow.  They usually come one at a time sometime through the night, but  they are nearly all there by morning.  By the time the alarm rings, I am usually trapped under the covers with them laying on top of me and next to me on all sides.  I feel like a mummy which can be a problem for a somewhat claustrophobic person like myself.  This late night gathering has led me to wonder what draws them to the bed in the middle of the night. 

If I were a superstitious person, I would conclude they were trying to kill me.  I imagine their methods would be either to smother me by laying on my head or steal my breath like the famous wives’ tale of how cats kill babies.  Since I am fairly certain they are not trying to off me, I have to ask what is their motivation.  Since it would not be in their best interest to kill the hands that feed them, the obvious reason of course, is they are seeking warmth.  So rather than stealing my breath, they are stealing my body heat?
I have to question if this is the real reason.  If so, then why do they sleep with us in the heat of the summer and in your lap while sitting on the couch in front of the TV?  I would argue that there is something deeper and more complex going on than just body heat.  When the cats lay on top of my chest do they feel my heart beat and it relaxes them?  Like humans, do they appreciate and seek out the human touch?  Do they just want to be with their people to avoid being alone or feeling unsafe?  Cats are easily affected by stress.  Maybe this is one of their ways to cope with life. 
Having had many cats throughout my life, my hope is that they have been connecting with me for companionship just as humans do with each other.  They enrich my life beyond imagination so I can only hope I am doing the same for them.  I suppose for them, it might just boil down to seeking my body heat.  But I have to argue, they have tiny fur coats so shouldn’t they always be warm……