Scientists have long been fascinated with the concept of "muscle memory", that subconscious part of our brain that controls movement without us having to think about it. It's what allows us to do complicated tasks such as riding a bike or typing "the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" without having to stop and say, OK, I need to contract my left hamstring while extending my right quadricep and all those tricky things that go into motion. It's what allows me to tie a knot during surgery ... Read more »
Musings
Please God, let me go with my face in a plate of chocolate chip ice cream
Friday things were getting bad, Kekoa's leg was aching. So you know, it's time to go, But not without some bacon. Saturday was super great, All day long we ate and ate, Venison, rabbit, gator too, All day feasting through and through. And when Sunday came around, Gray and rainy, under cloud, I sat down and then I cried, Cause it was time to say goodbye. When the doctor gave the shot, My dear dog, she felt it not Because she had - don't get me wrong- In her paws, ... Read more »
I reject your blogger title and all your blogger baggage
Hi, I'm Dr. V. Veterinarian. Mother. Writer. Amateur chef, aspiring world traveller, insert title here. But don't call me Blogger. Many years ago- more than 10, on a site whose name I don't even recall, I started an online journal. I wrote about planning a wedding, about my senior year of veterinary school, and about the early heady days of my career. About my dogs, my kids, postpartum depression, fat pants, horrible mentors, all sorts of stuff. I never said I was any good at it, but if ... Read more »
Pawcurious Picks: Top 5 Posts of 2012
I like retrospectives. It's a good opportunity to reminisce on what we did well (travel!) and perhaps those things we did not do so well (remain patient during the arduous relocation process, for example.) I'm glad the year is done. All's well that ends well, but man was it a slog for a good portion of the year. Like all things in life, the year's end is bittersweet, with a good thing and a bad thing I need to write about. But not today. Today, it's a day to reflect. And lest I spend the ... Read more »
We are Newtown
I haven't watched TV much this week. Between packing up the apartment and taking care of a really sick little dude, I've had plenty to keep me busy, but the reassuring background murmur of the TV isn't something I could bear this week when it was nonstop coverage of little ones' funerals. We've been watching Christmas DVDs instead, a distraction for me, and the only way I can keep my kids from overhearing news I'm not quite ready to explain to them. I knew right after the news started on ... Read more »
The Long Dark Tea Time of the Brode
This is my life right now: Commute kids to school. Get loan documents. Get more loan documents. Write. Provide more loan documents. I have done this house buying thing once or twice in my life, but it's never been like this. I get it, things are different now. But it feels almost violating, some random 20 something loan intern combing through the minutiae of your life's history, eyeing you with mistrust, as if YOU'RE the one responsible for the current housing mess. While our mortgage history ... Read more »
I am grateful
Normally, I'd be spending today running around like a chicken with my head cut off. Thanksgiving is MY holiday, the one I normally host at my house. My mom gets Easter, my mother in law gets Christmas, but this is the one I take because I love going overboard on things like caramelized squash bisque and focaccia sage stuffing and pretty much every kind of turkey shaped serving dish one can own. Well, all the turkey shaped serving dishes are currently in a storage facility and I barely have ... Read more »
Awkward Massage is Awkward
So I made it back safe and sound from lovely Granda. The Technical Animal Rescue course was absolutely amazing and a fantastic program for anyone who is interested in animal rescue- but before I go into the water rescue, the ropes course, or all the exciting things World Vets is up to in Nicaragua, I promised Sarah I would share the story of the world's most awkward massage so my stories are going to be in reverse chronological order. The last day on our trip was a free day, to wind up loose ... Read more »
Be the Change with a Shelter Drive By! Small effort, big reward
As many of you have heard, it's National Animal Shelter Appreciation Week, though to be fair the news cycle has been dominated by other events. Such is life. As regular readers may remember, I usually end this week with the Blogathon, a 24 hour marathon of posts with prizes and fun, and potentially zombies. But life happens and things evolve, and as it so happens I will be on a plane on Saturday, on my way back to Granada, Nicaragua. I am doing a one week course in Technical Animal Rescue ... Read more »
Disaster Response, Sandy, and Good People
It's been a rough week, right? I think everyone can pretty much agree with that. There has been an awful lot of awful going on. That being said, it's also been an earth-shattering shake-by-the-shoulders to everyone mired in the mud leading up to Tuesday's election that maybe it isn't the only thing in the world that matters. Oh yeah, there's an election tomorrow! I almost forgot. Amazing how quickly things become less important when people's lives are getting washed away on a large ... Read more »
Discombobulated
dis·com·bob·u·late transitive verb \ˌdis-kəm-ˈbä-b(y)ə-ˌlāt\ : upset, confuse <inventing cool new ways to discombobulate the old order — Kurt Andersen> We are now in our new apartment. Just like that, I flew out to Atlanta one day, I came back to a packed house, and the next day we said goodbye and left a decade behind. I would have had a little more mental space to process this, but then a hurricane hit and I felt too guilty and concerned about other people's devastation to ... Read more »
Postcards from Purgatory
I am saying goodbye to my house next week. I didn't think I would be so suddenly sentimental about the place, given how keen I was on getting out of it for the last year or so. But now that it's time, I realize that wow, there's a lot of memories here I'm leaving behind once and for all. We brought home two new babies to this house, celebrating milestones like first birthdays and first steps and first days of school. This is the only place they've ever called home. We said goodbye to two most ... Read more »
3 Ways to Show your Tech You Love Them
Continuing with our celebration of Veterinary Technician Week, I wanted to offer all of you a quick and easy 3 ways you can make your tech shine like the top of the Chrysler Building next time you go to see your vet. Because they deserve it. 1. Bring food But make sure you specify those cookies are for the TECHS. Because I have seen it. I have seen plates of cookies come in for the vet, and the vet does not interpret "for the vet" as "for the team" and takes them all home. NOT COOL. This was ... Read more »
Have you thanked your tech today?
This week marks the 20th iteration of National Veterinary Technician Week. I can't tell you just how happy I am to see this group of professionals get recognized for the work they do. They have one of the most ridiculously challenging jobs on the planet for what is, comparably speaking, miniscule pay, high risk of injury, and often emotionally draining work. As so often happens in many professions, vets get all the glory and all the kudos, the cookies at Christmas and the hugs for a job well ... Read more »
It’s Bad Poetry Friday: Emails and spam
This is what happens when you leave me alone in the first rainstorm of the year with a bottle of port, a pile of Dr. Seuss books, and a backlog of emails asking, asking, asking, asking for me to once again be a Nice Veterinary Writer/ Pet Blogger and do some more free work. Mostly, it's just a silly Friday I need to Apologize to Dr. Seuss Once Again kind of post. I dedicate it to all of you who know this feeling all too well. E-Mails and Spam I'm Dr. V. Dr. V is me. That Dr. V! That Dr. ... Read more »
Good thing we didn’t get those chickens
I've made it no secret that I want chickens. A bevy of Bantams. Little fluffy fancy egg layers that would make me feel, in some teensy way, a bit more connected to my food production. Our house is in a rural enough area, and our yard large enough, that a couple hens running around would be no big deal. But my husband said no, and out of respect for all the other times he also said no but I went ahead and did it- whatever it was- anyway, I respected him, this time. But then we sold our ... Read more »
On the eve of a ten year reunion
My ten year vet school reunion is coming up this weekend. I'm not going, not because I don't want to, but because I just couldn't manage to get the weekend away. It kind of stinks because I really did want to go and see what everyone has been up to over the last long decade. I'll admit I wrestled with feelings of inadequacy in the months leading up to this. I have friends in the CDC and friends heading prestigious academic departments at vet schools and friends running huge practices and me, ... Read more »
Not featured in the Martha Stewart Home Fragrance Collection: eau de Koa butt
As you may or may not recall, we've had our house on the market for a while. It has been a horrible experience, if I'm being honest, and it's turning me into an unpleasant person. The last five months of constant chasing around after two kids and two dogs, keeping an immaculate house for strangers to paw through at whim before dismissively walking away, has taken its toll. We've decided that this is the last week, and after that we're taking a break and pulling the place off the market until ... Read more »
