I remember this about September 11, 2001: I felt very lonely. It was my senior year of veterinary school. My husband, who had only been my husband for about 2 months, was far away in San Diego. My mother was the one who called me, waking me up to tell me to turn on the news. She was alone too, as my father was on a rare business trip in Texas, one he ended up having to drive home from. We held the phones to our ears together until there was nothing more to do, so I said, well, I guess I ought ... Read more »
I take back everything I’ve said about writing being fun and easy
There is nothing that will make you gain an appreciation for a creative process more than attempting to do it yourself. You know, like those people who scoff at the museum and say, "A kid could do that!" and then go home and paint something absolutely horrid. Or those people who look on Pinterest or food blogs for new recipes. This is how I feel about writing a book. "I write a blog," I said. "I have a command of basic English," I said. This will be a piece of cake. James Patterson ... Read more »
The best day of the year is here!
It's National Dog Day, a day to celebrate the love and bond we share with our canine companions. It's hard to top. What could possibly be better than National Dog Day? Having your birthday fall on National Dog Day. Especially if you've always proclaimed that dogs are pretty much the best thing ever. It is also, in a strange twist of fate that I cannot tell if it is coincidental or not, is also National hot dog day, which is a fact I'm not as excited about so I will choose ... Read more »
Pet insurance- the good, the bad, the somewhere in between
I admit I am biased about pet insurance. I like it, mostly. Clients who had it were, in my experience, much more likely to approve necessary treatments. That dog with a case of happy tail who wagged it so hard and so fast he got a nasty deep infection that ended up necessitating a partial tail amputation? Insured. Hit by car? Insured. From my perspective, it allowed owners to focus on the pet's immediate needs and get them taken care of. I also liked it because I didn't have to do anything to ... Read more »
Phenomenal Cosmic Power
A week ago, I called my husband on a business trip in China for the urgent assistance in locating my DVD of Aladdin. "Why do you need it this very second?" he asked. "You haven't watched that in like 15 years." "I know," I said, "But our daughter is singing a song from Aladdin in summer camp this week and she really, really needs to see this movie." She'd seen it once before, years prior; my son hadn't seen it ever. It was an unforgivable omission, one I felt an almost irresistible ... Read more »
Ebola, the real bogeyman, and you
Ever since I was 15, my sister and I have used "Ebola" as a short form derivative of every bad bug we've ever gotten. "Oh god, I've been laid up all day with Ebola," "that taco from last night gave me Ebola," etc, etc. We were able to say it with such offhand tone because we knew that really, Ebola wasn't exactly a threat here in Southern California. It was simply shorthand for "really sick." After reading "The Hot Zone" I stopped saying the word at all. Faced with the visceral reality of ... Read more »
Clean bill of health…
Can we talk about the fainting schnauzer video? We need to talk about it, because if there's one thing I don't get in this world, it's the current trend for pets with a myriad of medical malfunctions or genetic issues becoming internet sensations. You've seen the video, I imagine. A dog is surprised by the owner she hasn't seen in a year or two, and after freaking out for a few seconds she loses consciousness briefly. Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the ... Read more »
Live from Vegas: Pet Products You’ve Got To See
FTC Disclosure: featured products provided review product and/or compensation for inclusion in the Product Spotlight. If you’ve ever been to a trade show, you know how easy it is to get overwhelmed. A pet show like SuperZoo is an utter cacophony of sounds, sights, and row after row of many things that all look the same after an hour: treats and collars, treats and collars, rinse, repeat. It’s hard for products to stand out in a crowd like that, but when Dr. Andy Roark and I hit the ... Read more »
Cures what ails ya
In the olden days, people used to turn to carnival medicine men or the back pages of Look Magazine for the latest way to solve all of their problems. People don't change, just the technology. Now we have the internet to turn to. If the web is to be believed, and it always is for some reason, there is a new cure for all the world's ills. That cure is coconut oil. It's good for your hair, your skin, your GI tract, your dog, your mental health, and your aura. It's anti-inflammation and ... Read more »
Dog: World’s Worst Coach
I am training for a half marathon. I thought about training for a full marathon, but then the reality what that was like the last time I attempted it kicked in and I remembered that oh yeah, I don't like to run. I think you can do a full marathon once when you don't like to run, just to say you did (Rock n Roll 2001 for me), but after than there's really nothing to prove other than, "oh yeah, this hurts." A half marathon though, is doable. Still not fun, but manageable. I have decided, ... Read more »
Good health is a revelation
When I took my son in for his first routine eye exam, I had no idea he needed glasses. Neither did he. He seemed fine, wasn't running into things, was reading fine in school, but nonetheless the optometrist suggested glasses. OK, I said, let's give it a shot. One week later, his glasses arrived and we went into the office to pick them up. He picked them up dubiously, slid them over the bridge of his nose, and stood there for a moment, blinking as the refracted light hit his retina in new and ... Read more »
Arya of House Potcake
One thing I've learned about going on vacation, is that I don't like to relax. How can I, when there's so much to do and so little time! I want to see ALL THE THINGS! And most of the time I vacation with my husband he responds with a blank stare and a "why would you want to do all of that?" So this time around we went to Turks and Caicos, a small island chain in the Bahamas whose island upon which we landed is only 38 square miles, so I think he assumed he would have me boxed in by ... Read more »
Restful dreams, Red King
I once worked in a very stressful place. It was an emergency hospital, always about 3 staff members short of a full crew and 25 people piled in the lobby waiting for treatment. It was a large staff of doctors, about 10 at the time, and as how things tend to happen in nutso environments the staff would get nutso a little bit as well. Stress does that to people. You never sat still at that hospital; it was run run run, a dog bleeding out in room 1, a dyspneic cat gasping in room 2, five clients ... Read more »
Do we need pet care advocates?
In the depth of my despair when Apollo was dying, the medical resident at the specialty hospital made a comment I will never forget. He was dying of a blood clot, a sequelae of hyperthyroidism and heart disease. I was in shambles, having come home from the gym to find him immobile on the couch, and rushed in straightaway, sweaty and spandex-y. I scribbled his medical history as quickly as I could, which the resident pored over with her intern as I sat in the room planning to say goodbye. I ... Read more »
Mañana
The look on the doctor's face was more bemused than annoyed as he tried to explain what happened to the centrifuge we were supposed to be bringing to Nicaragua for the clinic. The valuable piece of medical equipment had been confiscated by a leery customs official the day before, and the shifty eyed official wouldn't release it to us without running it by his boss. Who would be in tomorrow. Mañana, the official said. Come back mañana. So a local veterinarian, who understands the language ... Read more »
Bosnia floods- when the world isn’t watching, donate a dollar
Massive floods in Bosnia and Serbia are the worst they have seen in 120 years. The world has been silent on this issue, in large part. In a place that is still struggling to recover from years of war, it's hard to comprehend the magnitude of this disaster. Understandably, the people in the affected regions have had little time or money to address the many thousands of animals affected by this disaster. Tens of thousands have died in landslides and floods, and thousands more are still in ... Read more »
Glad to meet you
It is one of the sad ironies of being a veterinarian in clinical practice that most of your clients are majorly unhappy to see you. (Retrievers don't count, they're always happy to see you.) The reasons are obvious: vet clinics mean temperature taking, and shots, and cold tables. Trust me, I don't much enjoy heading off to my doctor's office either, nice as the staff is. Those awful half length hospital gowns they give you (ladies, you know the ones I'm referring to)- cold and humiliating. ... Read more »
One Twenty Over Eighty
A few years ago I ran away from my job. At least, that's what I called it at the time, that is how I framed it in my head. I couldn't hack it, I was a failure as a vet. My mind was wrecked, my physical health was wrecked, and my stomach curled up into knots every time I pulled into the parking lot. It wasn't only me who suffered; I knew my heart was not where it needed to be for my patients. They deserved for me to want to be there. It was a bad place to be in. With the gift of ... Read more »
