On Saturday, I'm boarding a plane yet again and jetting off- strangely enough- right back to Orlando, the last place I went on a trip. The last quarter of 2012 was a blur, and then I had a break the last few weeks. If you consider moving and unpacking a break, that is (it's about as restful as sleeping on a bed of nails, for reference.) I'm not exactly ramping up again, not quite. It's just a wee side trip to the North American Veterinary Conference to man the World Vets booth, one of the ... Read more »
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Buckets of food, Day 5: Pizza
Every bucket list should include a good bit of pizza, I think. So I sliced off a little dog-sized piece of a cheese pizza for Koa, just enough for her to get what all the fuss has been about these last few years. Brody's getting to play along just because I feel sorry for him being left out. That being said, if he wants in on this, he's gonna have to work for it. He has no bucket list excuse. ... Read more »
Pain, masks, and the longest hike
It's weird how the universe works in parallel sometimes. About 10 days or so ago, I broke my toe. And just so you know I'm not making this up: I really did. Not doing anything heroic, unfortunately. I broke it by running too enthusiastically into an unpacked box that was filled with some as-of-yet unknown substance, probably cement, or maybe iron bars or something. Nonetheless, what I thought was a stubbed toe turned into that mess within a day or so. It's not bad. It's taped up and I can ... Read more »
Buckets of Food, Day 4: Sliders
Now this is what I'm talking about. Trader Joe's super lean slider patty with a blob of ketchup. I'm not sure that Koa has ever tasted ketchup, unless she stole something with ketchup on it at one point. This bucket list thing is going over pretty well, I'd say. ... Read more »
Who needs Crossfit when you have a dog?
Like many of you, I started this new year with an extra pound or two that leaped- LEAPED, I tell you- onto my hips when I wasn't looking. The cookies held me down by force and shoved themselves into my unwilling face at the Christmas party. Nonetheless, I'm now in the process of evicting this unwanted excess material, and since we moved, that means I need to find a new exercise routine/ gym. I thought about CrossFit. I really did. But it sounds like boot camp, and not in a good way but in a ... Read more »
Buckets of Food, Day 3: Zucchini
Plain pieces of raw zucchini. I didn't think she would go for this one. She, in fact, ate almost a whole zucchini. Brody, on the other hand...not until I put some parmesan on it. Do you see this? This is him begging for a piece although the piece he JUST SPIT OUT is still sitting next to him. It's the same thing, Brody. ... Read more »
Bucket Full of Food, Day 2: Kale
Don't worry, I'm not going to make her eat vegetables every day. She gets what I get, which today was kale chips, and man were they good. She chomped one up and asked for more. Brody was not impressed. He's holding out for "bacon day." ... Read more »
A Bucket Full of Food: Day 1: Jicama
Well, just because my dog is sick doesn't mean we can't have fun. Indeed, I would argue it is more an impetus than ever to have fun. With Emmett, that meant taking long walks every day until he didn't want to anymore. He was an explorer, a retriever's retriever, and all he wanted to do was splash in the water and chase birds. Koa hates adventure. She's a homebody. I was thinking to myself, what would be on her bucket list? And all I could come up with was, A Menu. So there you have it. ... Read more »
It’s OK to be angry- the topic I hate to revisit
It was the day after Christmas, which is how these things always seem to go. I looked at the x-ray on the monitor and smushed my lips together at what I saw. "That looks terrible," I say to my friend Kristen, also a veterinarian. She nods glumly. A lytic, destructive bone lesion. Pretty cut and dried for cancer. Survival statistics for cancer depend on a lot of things, but one of the main prognostic indicators is type of cancer. Bone cancers are notoriously nasty and challenging to treat. ... Read more »
And then the rescuer drowned: Dumb Vet Tricks Part 5
Being set up in the house with all my computer equipment finally reassembled means I can do what I've been wanting to do for quite a while: fill you in on more of the disaster response trip I did with World Vets in Nicaragua. I think the last time I had left it, we had just spent a day in the classroom learning disaster response techniques and were about to put our skills to the test. Day 2 was the water course. I'm not the strongest swimmer, so this was the part I was a wee bit nervous ... Read more »