A day in the life of NAVLE studying...

It is amazing I ever get any studying done at all! Maybe if I put down my camera and stopped cracking up, it might go a little better...but who can pass up a beautiful day outside and the inevitable antics that accompany it!

I started the day being kicked out of my comfy pillow throne by a certain individual who think's she's a princess ... Yes I could have moved the Royal Pain-in-my-highness .... but seeing as how she's an even BIGGER bitch than I am...I let sleeping dog lie.

So I get up and let all 3 beasts outside while I lug my study crap out. It takes Tex about 5 minutes to decide his fat ass would get up on the roof...It must have seemed like a good idea at the time. It took Tex only another 5 minutes to decide he was royally fucked because he couldn't figure out how to get back down. He proceeded to walk back and forth across the roof letting out this pitiful "oh shit" meow. Was I nice enough to get the key, go to the shed, get the ladder, climb up and help his fat ass down??? Well of course...but only after I took some hilarious pictures of his dumb butt.

It was a day of accomplishments (not necessarily meant by me actually acquiring knowledge). Jake so cleverly discovered a use for the gigantic hole he dug in my flowerbed. No wonder he walks around in a dust cloud and my floors are filthy! Just look how comfortable he looks...he made himself a fucking papasan chair in my garden!

Tex's accomplishment . . .after deciding NOT to return to his roof escapades. . .was to find a use for the hole in my bedroom screen. See it started out as a tiny hole. . .not even an inch in diameter (and was probably caused by the damn cat to begin with). It got enlarged during Gustav when I needed a hole to pass an electrical cord from the generator into my window unit. WELL...It still wasn't THAT big. Until today...

Hmmm...vas is dis??? ooo my head fits...hmmmm! Ahhh, I CAN make myself fit!

I think the best part of it was when he came OUT the screen, back IN the dog door, OUT the screen, and then back IN the screen...then decided it was all too much work and fell asleep on my bed.

Kassi learned that she really doesn't want EVERYTHING that Jake has. But she still has to neurotically insist she wants anything in his posession. Case in point:

nom nom nom...stick iz good! MINE now..ha ha ha Ok...what the fuck is this?

So who is more stupid? the original dumb lab for chewing on a stick to begin with...or the little one for copying him? (Or me, for thinking it was hilarious!)

New Names

So for anyone who has ever met my pets...you will understand how appropriate these new names are...

Jake has now been deemed "Captain Destructo"
Kassi is "Princess licks-a-lot"
And Tex...I'm thinking "Sir Grumpy Pants" or "Fang-a-licious"...tough decision

MY response

For anyone who hasn't read the article: Here it is...
"Mattitude Adjustment: The University's Vet School does not appear to teach"
SALEM DAVID / The Daily Reveille
While backing out of her driveway one day, my girlfriend, Jan, stopped and got out of her car.When I went to investigate the problem with her, I saw a mangy and stray cat. It smelled like you would not believe, and it had a mohawk running down its back from malnutrition. The damn thing was so ugly it was adorable.We felt sorry for him initially, but just assumed it was a little hurt, so we set out some food and assumed it would recover.Two weeks later, Jan’s son Arron told us he saw bone sticking out of its leg.We immediately set out to rescue the cat and find it help.Because I go to the University, and we have a school of veterinary medicine, the first place I thought to call was our vet school. We were not looking to adopt a new pet, but what kind of person would leave a poor, defenseless animal to fend for itself? I called the University’s small animal clinic.When I finally got in touch with them, they told me I had two options.I could pay the vet clinic $25 and have the animal put to sleep — not really an option.The second was to bring the animal in — if we could catch it — and pay $100 just to determine if they could help it. If they could, we would then be responsible for the full cost of any procedures needed and the cost of any medication required.Remember, this is a teaching hospital.They need patients, and we were offering one.Now, I was never a cat person growing up. It wasn’t that I didn’t think they were cute or that I had some inherent hatred of cats like many people. For some reason, my family was always just a dog family. The fact that I was massively allergic to them also propelled my dislike. My eyes would itch and swell shut, and I could never stop sneezing.Oddly, in my mid 20s, the allergies subsided. It could have been the fact I wound up living with one for three years. Or, my immune system changed and I could handle them.And all of a sudden, I turned into a cat person.But why wouldn’t you love cats? They are soft and cute. They have the most interesting little personalities. They are impossible not to love.It is this profound inherent change in me which made this summer exceptionally hard.Because we could not afford massive medical bills — especially for a stray cat — I began calling around to different veterinarians in the Baton Rouge area. Shockingly, almost all of them immediately referred us to the University’s small animal clinic. There seemed to be almost no options.We did not want to teach vet students to kill an animal.We had no options until we contacted the Azalea Lake Veterinary Clinic on Jefferson Highway. Understanding our position, they put us in contact with the Capital Area Animal Welfare Society who agreed to help with the medical costs. CAAWS was even helpful enough to loan us a trap so we could catch the animal and provided us instructions on how to do so without traumatizing the poor animal or further injuring him.Once we had him trapped, we took him to the vet clinic for treatment. As it turns out, Arron was right. He had a multiple compound fracture of the front left leg, and it never healed properly. Nothing could be done for the leg, and we were forced to make an exceptionally difficult decision.The leg was amputated.For two weeks this stray cat, now named Tee – we couldn’t subject him to a name like Tripod or Lucky – convalesced in Jan’s house. The people at Azalea Lake even gave us pain medication for the cat free of charge. We did the best we could to take care of the cat, including one night when he would not come out from under a bed and we scared the crap out of him – literally.Now, this animal the University’s vet clinic wanted to put down lives in the backyard under Jan’s car. While he is not exactly a pet, he is a very grateful and loving animal. The once malnourished animal with a mangy coat is now soft and putting on weight.The University’s “teaching hospital” told us it would take thousands of dollars to fix the cat.Azalea Lake amputated, medicated and neutered the animal for $125.Not a tough choice."

Now talk about getting me on a soapbox...Here I go...Watch out!
While I have plenty to complain about concerning LSU-SVM ... even I don't think we deserve this much shit! First of all...Congratu-fucking-lations for saving a stray cat. I know, I know...our heart goes out to any stray/injured animal. It's part of what we call "humanity" ... I'm the same way and get suckered into just as many emotions. But you need to be responsible for your actions...ALL of them. So you fixed up this animal. .. are you going to provide for its care in the future? Did you neuter it to prevent any further strays from living its same fate? Did you vaccinate it fully, including the necessary boosters? Do you plan on feeding him for the rest of his life? And I am SICK AND TIRED of people bitching about how much taking care of their animal costs. Granted, I've bitched and moaned after forking out $800 for one and $500 for another...but you know what...it's called RESPONSIBILITY. I'm TIRED of people assuming we make six-figure salaries and have no worries in life financially! I'm THAT MUCH IN DEBT plus some...and will spend the rest of my life paying it back. These are NOT unreasonable fees that we pay. I have no idea where all of what we spend goes...but it's NOT to our salaries! You can look and price shop, but the least expensive ones are cheap for a REASON! Ugh!

I have problems enough with our Spay day...It's a great thing we are doing to control the pet population, but we are still putting more stray animals back out on the street that need health care and are eventually going to either die young or develop an old age disease. We give them their original shots and then what...let them out to fend for themselves! Don't you need boosters to create the appropriate anamnestic response anyway?

So back to the stupid boy who wrote the article...so he chops off this cats leg and then what...lets him back outside!? A+ for the moron! How's this "wild" cat going to fend for himself now outside. UGH the population as a whole is so stupid! People have NO IDEA how hard vet school is...how HARD it is to put animals down for the good of the animal, for the good of society as a whole. We ALL want to save animals...ask us how many vet students have adopted unwanted animals when society has given them up. We don't put animals down for the FUN of it or because we are lazy.

UGH stupid people make me ANGRY!!!

Trade-offs

soooooooooo....

I put in this FABULOUS new dog door in my back door at the beginning of this vacation-rotation. The whole idea was that my 2 dogs drive me absolutely bonkers wanting attention 24-7 when I'm at home this much...so this would let them go outside whenever they wanted and give me some peace. So far it has worked wonderfully...Jake learned how it worked in about 2 seconds. .. It took the cat 2 days...and Kassi...would rather be shoved through it head first than actually learn. Lazy mother fucker takes after her mother. So here I am enjoying this peace and quiet...TOO quiet! It's gone great for about a week...Jake goes outside and plays "retarded fence running" with the neighbors dog and I get to study. Yay dog door!

UNTIL...I go out yesterday to find a huge, random HOLE in the middle of my back yard. Uh...at least dig a strategic hole, dumb dog. Evidently that was a very special spot that would lead him straight to China in his little head. Then today...I find he has carried out my 7# hand weight. NOT the 5# which might actually be easy to carry...but the big ole 7 pounder. Evidently it needed to be added to his collection of goodies outside. AND he started digging in my ghetto flower bed (which, by the way, has no flowers).

Hmmm...dog door or random holes in the back yard? I'm going for the dog door...he can dig as much as his little lab brain tells him to...it's his yard. Plus, I have no idea how to stop him ;o)

The bitching must go on!

Seeing as how I'm not feeling incredibly bitchy since I'm on leave from vet school (aka HELL)...I might not be as pithy as usual. HOWEVER, since some people are being pushy for my wisdom and wit, the show must go on!

As I sit here, drooling with absolute boredom, I study pig shit (literally) like I almost care. Yet I can't help but wonder how many MONTHS I have wasted throughout my life, and especially in vet school, stuffing useless CRAP in my head for only one purpose. FUCKING STUPID BOARDS! After the boards I'm only going to flush everything I ever learned about cows/pigs/horses/chickens OUT of my head just like I've done after every test for the first 3 years here. Imagine how much more I could learn about the stuff I'll actually need for the rest of my life if I had the brain capacity left! So yes, when I grow up and am a famous/wealthy/cougar of a gal, I'm so making a vet school where you only have to learn the species that you want to learn. And to all of you who are thinking "but learning is so much fun" or "it's GOOD for you to know about all of them" ... you can kiss my pastey white ass and go and learn it yourself. I have far more important things to do...like continue to enlarge my ass and feed my food babies.

Oh, and I'm going to fail my equine rotation even before I start. "haha" you say...but I'm soo serious. It doesn't help that I don't give a rats ass about horses (sorry Tina et all) but what is up with the equine clinician world? Who keeled over, farted gold, and made them gods? Last time I checked, I'm pretty sure their shit comes out the same hole mine does...and I'm pretty sure it still STINKS! Maybe if i walk around like a chicken and boss people around it'll blow my ego up even more and I can continue to compensate for my other inadequacies. harumph. .. why else would someone go out of their way to be such a douche? Sexual frustration? Too much time with horses? All I know is that when they talk down to me like I'm a piece of shit...joking or not...I'm going to blow a fucking gasget! So yes, I may fail out of vet school months away from graduation because I HATE COCKY MOTHER FUCKERS who have to put people down!

Speaking of putting people down...evidently this comes with the DVM degree once you graduate. #1: cap and gown, #2: diploma, #3: arrogance accompanied by a titch of snob/bitch + knowitall. Last time I checked, when these interns started ... they were less than a year ahead of where I was then. Soooo, where in there did they magically acquire so much more knowledge...enough so to make them strut down the hall and boss students around like it's going out of style. It doesn't help that I'm probably older than half of them either...grrr. Even the residents are bitches..."i really want to work up xyz case but the STUDENTS always get to do it" Last time I checked, lady...this was a TEACHING hospital made of STUDENTS! I do believe we outnumber you by just a bit! If you want a crown, throne, and the rest of the kingdom...oh WAIT!...you're still a PEON TOO! So suck it up and don't take it out on the rest of us peons.

I have a whole anesthesia clinician bitch fest coming...but maybe AFTER I get my grade ;o)