Sunday morning...

Waking up at 5 am to drive 1-1/2 hours before the sun comes up going West to ride 4 hours rounding up 100 head of cattle to be able to palpate 70 head of cows and work 25 head of calves.

Best picture of the day:

The Boy

His Horse

Day old Calf

A busy on call weekend = very little sleep, so I'm pooped. Tomorrow is a half day for labor day (have to work 8 - 12, boo!).

An altercation with an emergency client last night got me thinking about personal safety and how so far I (we? my female co-worker also) have been lucky and too careless about being safe. In the course of my job, I (again, we) frequently have to meet complete strangers in the middle of the night for emergency cases by ourselves. Often no one knows we're even there, except that the Boy (or her husband) knows that I'm not yet home, but doesn't always know when to expect me back - it all depends on the case. It would be pretty easy for something to happen if the wrong bad guy got wind of the situation. So we have decided, and our clinic has agreed to at least partially pay for us to get self defense training. And I've already requested an application for a concealed license.

The altercation last night was with a client who wouldn't allow me to to do further diagnostics or treatment on his dog, and wouldn't leave. After 1-1/2 hours, I fired him as a client, refused to do anything further with his pet and threatened to call the cops if he didn't leave immediately. He threatened me and then sat in the parking lot for 20 minutes without leaving. I was shaking like a leaf after it, mainly mad, but somewhat scared. Quickly ran to make sure all the doors to the clinic were locked. So to my friends who do the same thing I do, be extra careful out there. The world is getting stranger by the day.

Eli - my dog

I just realized how long it had been since I updated my blog.. Oops.. Well, things are going good since we've moved to Belton. Work is super busy and the current work schedule is Monday through Friday 8 - whenever we're done, usually 6 - 6:30, on Saturday 8 - whenever we're done, usually 1 or so. Half day off during the week. Get a complete weekend off every 6 weeks. If you're off during the weekend, no half day during the week. On call one night a week, or one weekend every 6 weeks. Which all translates to a lot of time spent working. On the plus side, I get a "uniform" which is blue jeans and a button down shirt which the laundry service takes care of (translation = very little laundry to do at home)

Crazy client stories, don't even know where to begin. Biggest complaint I have to owners - I'm the one who went through the 4 years of vet school, so maybe I should be the one to diagnosis and pick the treatment option - just a thought.

The boy, things are still good. Work isn't picking up for him quite as fast as we'd like, but it'll come in time. He's off roping right now. Got an IPod Nano - 6g (4th generation) for him for his b-day. Feeling a little I pod envy since mine is an original one.

Thinking I may have to upgrade to an iphone, or some sort of other technologically advanced cell phone here soon. Maybe...

No pictures because my camera bit the dust and the other one batteries need charging. I'll eventually get pictures posted of the house, the dog, the boy.

That's about all the updating I have. I will eventually make it to a concert/show and see some of you lovely people one of these days. Here the MDD are coming to Temple pretty soon...

Life in a mixed animal practice is never boring. The original agreement up on hiring was to do equine (horse) work during the day, but have to rotate emergency service with all the doctors (there are 6 of us total). The other part of the original agreement was that I wouldn't have to start doing emergency work for a month so that I could get used to the system here. Of course the best intended plans never quite work that way. So 2 weeks after starting, I get emergency duty for the first time.

My very first emergency call:
Answersing service: Hi Dr. G, this is the answering service. I have a call about a pig in distress.
Me: Uh! A pig?!? Ok, what's their number...
AS: XXX-XXXX
Me: OK thanks...

Ringing phone...

Me: Hi, this is Dr. G from BVC.. I got a call about a pig?!?!? What's going on?
Client: My sow (adult female pig) has been in labor for a couple of days, but hasn't had any of her babies yet? Can we bring her in for a C-Section?
Me: silence ___ uh sure?!? Let me call you back..

Me calling more experienced in pig dystocia doctor....He recommended a couple of shots for the pig, instead of surgery...

Just barely avoided a pig c-section as my very first emergency call...

Working like crazy.. half moved into the house.. camera fell apart and is only taking pictures in purple with stripes through the middle... no internet in house yet... lots of firsts at work in the past week.. will update as soon as internet is in the house... had an awesome birthday!

Last week was a trip to Idaho. The boy is from Idaho, but has lived in Arizona for about 10 years now, give or a take a few months. Amid multiple airport diversions, that involved 3:45 am wake up call to 6:30 flight out of Phoenix to a two hour layover in Salt Lake City (I waved hi from the airplane Amalia), we finally landed in Boise around 12:3o to be picked up by his brother, sister-in-law and nephew. A lunch of steakbites, we took over for the 1 1/2 drive to his hometown. That evening met his dad and dad's new wife for dinner at a local restaurant. The (his) sister-in-law and I, with nephew in tow hung out and got to know one another quite well. She's so much fun, I look forward to many more visits with them. The nephew is 14 months and about the cutest thing in the world. The next day we hooked up the horse trailer (part of the reason for the trip) so that boy and his brother could re wire the trailer lights and change the trucks oil before we took off for a trip back to Arizona. On Thursday morning we loaded up and headed south. A 14 hour drive across the southern half of Idaho, all of Nevada (with no radio or cell phone service) and the northern half of Arizona. Thank goodness for laptops and I tunes. The temperature in Idaho was in the 70's the entire time. Spent some time hiking around Snake River at Twin Falls, and managed to not take a single picture, at all! I can't belive I did that.

Now packing, leaving for Belton in T-minus 7 days. As soon as we get somewhat unpacked and get a spare bed, every last one of you is invited to come visit our new little town. I even have an in ground pool as a bribe. I'll be moving 1 hour south of Waco on I 35, which means I'm on the way to Austin/New Braunfels/The river.