New Dog Door

I was lucky enough to have my dad come visit this past week to help me out with some things on/around the house. Most importantly, he put in a dog door for the boys. This photo shows the new back door and the dog door. I need to put some finishing touches on it (like paint!) but I think it looks really good. The dogs learned pretty quickly to use the door, and Rabbit would rather use the dog door than the human door! The cat doesn't like it too much because the flap is too big for him to open, so he can't go outside whenever he wants to. I like it because I don' t have to get up when I'm sleeping to let the dogs out.

My dad and I also got a lot of other stuff done - some photo-worthy, some not. I will post some before and after photos of the front of the house once I'm done with it. We also did some things just for fun - we went to the Sandwich Antique Fair, and saw a lot of cool (usually refinished) furniture - when I am in the market for a dining room table I will be looking there. We also went to downtown Chicago for lunch, a boat tour and the Sears tower. Thanks Dad!

Remi

This is my best boy. Remi is almost 3 years old. I got him when he was 4 months old; he had fallen down the deck stairs and shattered his elbow. His family couldn't afford surgery to fix it, and they did not want a 3-legged dog, so they were going to euthanize him. I came back to work after my lunch break and saw him sitting sadly in the kennel (his ears were already this big at 4 months old!) and just couldn't let it happen. I couldn't affort surgery either, so I amputated his leg, and he's done fine ever since. He loves to swim (he has a life jacket because it's hard to keep his head up out of the water with only 1 front leg!). When he first started swimming, he'd go in a circle, but now he's figured out how to steer and go straight. Oddly enough, even though he loves swimming and laying in the lake, he wants nothing to do with the wading pool, is afraid of the rain and doesn't even like to walk in wet grass. His favorite activities are cuddling and giving kisses. He is a very calm, sweet dog, and has always been very good (he did chew up some shoes and sunglasses as a pup, and also chewed up the gear shift in my truck, but NOTHING compared to Rabbit). He tolerates Rabbit (I think he misses his girlfriends Jade and Ursa in Minnesota!), and doesn't seem to care one way or the other about the cat. He does enjoy chewing on bones and rawhides, and has to go on daily rounds of the yard to see if there are any holes in the fence he could get through. Last summer, he and Rabbit got out of the yard and went to a parade in town while I was at work - he really loves people, kids especially. His nicknames are Rem, Remri, and Black Dog. To sum up, I'll quote my nephew: That's some nice Rem.

Rabbit

Here is Rabbit, my younger chocolate lab. The first picture is right after I got him last year at 3 weeks old. He had a broken lower jaw (his mom bit him when he was 3 days old). Several people had tried to fix it before I got him, and it didn't work. He was going to be euthanized and (luckily?) someone knew I wanted a friend for Remi, so she called me up and said, "Do you want a 3-week old lab with a broken jaw, and eats through a tube?". I said, Sure! Right after I got him, I had a veterinary surgeon fix his jaw (the lower picture shows the grey external fixator on his lower jaw). He ate through an esophagostomy tube for several weeks. Today, he is 74# of pure crazy lab. His lower jaw is shorter than his upper jaw (so he has a huge overbite) and he's missing about 1/2 of the teeth on his lower jaw, but it doesn't slow him down in the least. He eats and drinks just fine, and has no problem chewing things up (shoes, clothes, cans, boxes, bags, bottles of medicine, nails, bird seed, dead mice, bars of soap, bottles of shampoo, glue sticks, and on and on. He also ate both passenger seat belts and all the upholstery in the back of my SUV). Puppies that are hand-raised as young as he was can be prone to behavior problems; Rabbit does not like to be restrained (he has to be muzzled and put in lateral for blood draws, etc.) and he does not like being separated from me when he can still see me (he's fine in the kennel when I'm at work, but if I'm in the front yard and he's in the back, he will scream and throw himself at the fence or claw at the windows). He loves to chew on Davey the cat, play in his wading pool, eat anything he can get his mouth on, and he is absolutely CRAZED about tennis balls. He likes to play with Remi, although I'm not sure how much Remi likes playing with Rabbit. Rabbit also has several nicknames: Rab, Rabbie, Rarebit, Stinky, Monster, Monster Puppy, Puppers . . . and "Rabbit, that crazy bastard". I also like to call him the anti-Remi.

My Office

This is my office at work. I don't actually spend much time here though. As you can see, I have lots of photos from former clients and artwork by my nephew, as well as a fish painted by one of our technicians, Shannon. What you can't see is the sleeping bag and pillow I have under the desk for those slow nights when I can take a nap. No, I don't nap under the desk like George Costanza. I share the office with the neurologist, Dr. Barnes, and one of the dermatologists, Dr. Matousek. Dr. Barnes has a small fridge that she graciously lets me use, so I can keep snacks in there. I also have the bottom desk drawer entirely filled with snacks. Sometimes I don't get time to sit down and eat a meal, so it's nice to have granola bars, etc. that I can take with me. Another nice thing about the office is the view - it overlooks part of the lawn and a creek, and there's a pair of geese nesting out there now. Unfortunately I don't get to see it much since it's dark for most of the time I'm here.

My House

So this is the front of my house. It's a 1940's Cape Cod style home that has had 2 owners before me. The original owner was a jeweler from town and his sister lived with him; they lived there for over 40 years. Then the next owners (from whom I bought the house) did a lot of stuff by themselves that they shouldn't have. So there is a lot of stuff to keep me busy - everything from painting to replacing floors. One thing that will be painted soon (I hope) is the blue on the shutters and awning. Electric Turquoise is just not my idea of a good house color, so I hope to replace it with a more navy-type blue. It certainly makes the house easy to find though.

Spring is here in Illinois. It's amazing what a difference moving a few hours south can do! My lilacs are blooming, the daffodils and hostas are out, and the peonies are Lab-height already. Of course, that means the creeping Charlie, thistles and dandelions are doing well too. I was pleased to see that squirrels left a few of the tulips I planted, so I look forward to those.

I have a couple of days off work, so I'll get a chance to do some yard-work. I'm focusing on the front yard, partly because that's what most people see, but partly because the dogs don't spend any time there, so there's no chance they are going to dig up and/or eat anything. So this week it'll be spraying the weeds (better living through chemistry!), mowing the lawn, and hopefully planting some flowers. I got some bleeding hearts, lily-of-the-valley and hen-and-chicks - those, along with the lilacs, remind me of the plants my grandmothers had, and I really want them in my garden too.

Where I Work

So for those of you that don't know, here is some info about my "new" job (although it's been a year already!)
I am working at a speciality/referral hospital in IL, about 1 1/2 hours west of Chicago. There is a general practice section (5 veterinarians), an internal medicine department (2 internists), a surgery department (2.5 surgeons), a radiology department (1 radiologist, with ultrasound, CT scan and MRI), 2 oncologists (for chemotherapy and radiation therapy), a dermatology department (2 dermatologists), a neurology department (a neurologist/neurosurgeon and a resident) and a critical care unit (2 criticalists). We also have an ophthalmologist that comes occasionally, and a physical therapy department.
I am one of the 3 emergency doctors, which means I work evenings and weekends and see all kinds of emergencies. Everything from the very easy (hives, a broken toenail) to the more serious (animals hit by cars, seizures, bleeding in the belly, etc). Some examples of things I've seen recently: a 19 year old cat that the owner stepped on and has a broken femur, a puppy with parvo virus, a puppy bit in the ear by the older dog in the house, a dog with a heart arrhythmia, and a cat with an abscess.
It is very interesting - now I am seeing a lot of the things I used to refer to other people when I was in general practice. I am constantly learning new things - or relearning things that I knew in vet school but forgot as soon as I took my exams. We have an internship program, which means that veterinarians (usually new graduates) do an intensive year of training in the various departments. This means 2 things - I get to teach some things, which I love, but I also have to keep learning so I know more than the interns! We have sit-down rounds every weekday morning, during which we discuss the cases in the hospital (and the interns get "grilled" about them).
I like the hours - I am normally a night owl, so working overnight and sleeping during the day is great. Unfortunately I still have to work several weekend day shifts, and it is SO hard for me to get up in the morning to get to work. I work long shifts, but I don't mind because I work a lot for 2 weeks, then get 1 week off. So I work about 12 shifts a month, but it averages out to around 80 hrs every 2 weeks (like a regular full-time job). I don't have to do surgeries any more, which I thought I would miss - I actually don't. I still get to stitch up wounds and things like that, but I really don't miss the "bigger" surgeries like removing foreign bodies from the intestines or c-sections.
The technicians and assistants here are amazing. I've learned so much from them and they take such great care of all the patients.
The hospital web site is www.vcaaurora.com, and there is a slide show (the staff hasn't been updated, so I'm not on there). I will probably post some photos later of the ICU/treatment area where I spend most of my time.

Willkommen. Bienvenue. Welcome. C'mon in.

Welcome to my blog! Sort of my form-letter to everyone I know so whoever has nothing better to do can see what's new with me. It's not that I don't want to keep in touch personally; I'm just too lazy to do it most of the time. So here you can see what I'm up to, see what Rabbit ate this week, help me make crucial decisions like Should I cut my bangs? Why isn't my lawnmower working? Do cactus and razor wire make an acceptable privacy fence between my house & my neighbors? That sort of thing. And remember, this will be a "family-friendly" blog, so if you want the sordid details, you'll have to contact me personally.