My Rafting Weekend

This weekend I went rafting for the first time. I went with two girls from my new job and one of their friends. We met two more people up there to make us a total of six. I drove up Saturday morning bright and early. I saw some antelope on the way out, not knowing what they were. For some reason, I thought antelope were bigger. But they were small and cute!

Then our day began. At first it was scary because there's nothing holding you in except your balance. You can stick your feet under the seat in front of you and there's a line running along the outside of the boat, but you can't paddle and hold on to it at the same time. Plus, you basically sit on the edge. That's pretty much it. But, surprisingly, I felt pretty stable after a while. It was so fun! Not as scary as kayaking last summer, but still a rush.

Then we camped out that night. Since we weren't allowed to have a fire, we went to sleep pretty soon after it got dark. But that was ok with me - getting up at 5 am and then being in the sun all day made me pretty tired. And I got to try out the new air mattress. It was so comfortable! Probably the best night of sleep I've had camping. I'm getting too old for the rocks - the little pad just doesn't do it anymore. We were in mountain lion country - and proof of that was seen the next morning when I saw the pile of bones just behind my tent. They were there before, it's not like a lion was around us, but it was still a reminder that we were in their world... (See picture album for some pictures of camping.)

The whole experience has gotten me thinking about that kayak I want. I started looking at used ones. I don't know, we'll see. A girl can daydream right? I've started out with the cheaper stuff, so I'll continue with that, and maybe next year...

Father's Day Hike

I wanted to let you all know you should check out the Picture Album. I put some more pictures of the kittens up and also I posted some pictures from hiking yesterday. Steph and I went up to Herman's Gulch. It was so beautiful, and the dogs had a blast. Well, Pacey liked coming down, but not going up (me too, Pacey!). I wish the pictures captured the colors better, but trust me, it was awesome!

Breathe a sigh of relief

I took Anya and her kittens to Care today to get exams, vaccines, dewormed and tested for FeLV/FIV. They are all healthy!!! Yea! I was worried since they were outside for so long. We think they are right at 8 weeks old now and Anya herself is probably less than 9 months old. I was surprised by how well she handled it. Calicos/torties have a reputation for having an attitude, and so do the medium-haired, fluffy tailed cats (she is both). Maybe the two canceled each other out, because she was very good. In fact, Donna couldn't hear her heart since she was purring the whole time.

One of the kittens had a little heart murmur, but since it was faint, it should disappear after a while. Now they just need to be spayed/neutered and Care needs to get their display cage ready in the reception area, and they can be adopted out.

At work, someone brought in a 4 week old kitten pretty much dead. We were able to revive him and now he needs to be fostered. I'm wondering since Anya is still producing milk if she'd adopt him. I doubt it, but it's worth a shot. It would be so nice if she did, because otherwise, we'd have to feed this little guy every 2-3 hours. That means getting up in the middle of the night at least twice to do it. I'll be sympathizing with all you moms out there! We'll see. He's still very sick, so I'm always preparing myself to walk into work and find out he didn't make it.

Anyway, work is still going well. We had this huge 17 pound cat in there that wasn't very nice. I went to go retrieve him from anesthesia recovery and the tech there was surprised they sent me. "They sent the sweet and innocent one to get the aggressive cat?" I thought that was funny. I guess I come off as "sweet and innocent," but does he think I came right out of school? Give me an aggressive cat over an aggressive dog any day! At least cats can't outweigh me. They can do damage, but can't kill me.

Well, I'm staying in tonight and catching up on some Conan I taped but haven't had time to watch.

I hate thinking of titles

So, this week at work went well. I work with internal medicine, so basically we're in charge of in-patients and we see appointments for ultrasounds, bloodwork, radiographs and different scopings. Tuesday/Wednesday we had no in-patients, so things were slow. Thursday/Friday we did have some animals to take care of. We see a lot of sick animals, so I'm sure I will see a lot more sadness than at my old job. Not that I didn't see sadness there, but it was balanced with healthy pets and puppies/kittens.

It's definitely interesting stuff. And I'll get to do some new things, like place central lines and we're allowed to use the ultrasound machine to get urine out of the bladder ourselves.

Last night we went out for Lara's birthday celebration. It was fun, we ended up at this Grateful Dead bar, which was good people-watching. They also have air hockey, so Steph and I played that. I might not be great at that game, but I love it! So last night was a fun time.

Mama and kittens are doing well. I'll just keep updating the pictures, so check that page every now and then. I also added a page for Nathan, my nephew so you can all see him. I can't wait to go visit him next month!

I am SUCH a sucker!

So, we all knew this would happen, but I am officially fostering the mama cat and kittens. I was able to catch them all in Greta's crate at the same time and move them up to my guest bedroom. It went much more smoothly than I anticipated. Mama was so calm - I think that was her plan all along. She cased the neighborhood and found the girl who would help her and her family.

I've gotten them in a program with Lucky Paws, but all her foster families are full (everywhere I called was full). So, as long as I can keep them here for 2-3 weeks, she will handle the adoptions and paying for healthcare. The old hospital I worked at is working with her and will have a display cage soon where they will stay when they're ready.

I'll put up more pictures and videos by the end of the weekend.

I had my 2nd day of work today and so far, things are incredibly slow there. Not a normal thing, I hear, but good for me to learn certain things and figure out where stuff is. I'll write more about that later. I need to make myself go to sleep! I have to re-train myself to go to bed early since I get up at 5:30 now.

The Human Body is Fascinating

So, yesterday I got to hang out with my friend Elaine who now lives in CA and her friend Jolie from Seattle. They were in Denver for a conference and it was over in the morning. We took Greta and went hiking up in Golden Gate Canyon State Park. It was cooler up there than in the city (again we're pushing 90 lately). So it was nice and breezy and not too sunny.

That night, Elaine, Jolie, Lara, Steph and I went to the Museum of Nature and Science to see the Body Worlds 2 exhibit. This was so awesome. It sounds gruesome and weird, but it really wasn't. It was a great anatomy and physiology lesson that all schools should take students to see. So much better than looking at drawn pictures or fake models. Real human bodies are preserved through plastination - bodily fluids and fat are replaced with reactive fluid plastics. Organs, body parts, cross-sections and whole bodies are displayed. The whole bodies are positioned differently, kicking a ball, diving, a ballet dancer, striking a baseball, etc. They show normal parts and diseased parts. The smoker's lungs were all black, and the coal miner's lungs literally looked like coal. They showed cancer in various parts of the body.

The saddest, but most interesting part was the fetal development. It was amazing to actually see how we all started out. Smaller than a grain of rice. You read about our development, maybe even see pictures, but to actually SEE the embryos and fetuses right in front of your eyes was amazing. There was even a whole body display of a woman who had died while she was 5 months pregnant, and you could see the baby in the uterus. Again, sad, but fascinating.

It was really great. If they ever come to your city, go see it!