First Semester, Part Two

Meet my classmate Brian and his Vizsla pooch, Jasper, during canine and feline restraint lab.  Jasper climbs up into Brian's lap for hugs.

"What you lookin' at?"

Banks, who is totally chill in a room full of dogs.  We all love Banks.

Princess, the very nervous King Charles' spaniel.

Banks and Amy practicing feline restraint techniques.  Banks isn't aware he's being restrained, he thinks Amy gives great hugs.

"Sigh, he's lucky I love him so much."

Ellie, being restrained by someone who is not her human person.  "Um...where's Michelle?"

Ledger and his Danielle.  (Ledger is the adopted brother of Banks.)

Andy's little Shiba Inu is an almost tripod dog.

He was born with a little bit missing.

"What's going on, do you know why they keep taking turns looking in our eyes and ears?"

"No idea, humans are weird."

Ellie the Boston terrier and her human, Michelle.

Ear cleaning.

Nail trimming.

Cookie gets her paws cleaned by her Stephanie.

Viggo cuddles in Kat's arms.

So chill.

First Semester, Part One

This week is the last week of classes in my first semester as a vet tech.  It's been wonderful meeting like minded people and their anminamals, and getting a big chunk of the book learning done.  Our first restraint lab happened to be at the Horse Protection League,

in Golden.

Beautiful area, even in February.  Everything was gold and blue, and the wind was brisk.

It was our first time wearing scrubs.

It felt so great to be around horses!

It took me a while to put down my camera.

Proper slipknot tying is demonstrated.

Brian and Princess are paired for lab.

Everyone paid close attention

as twitches were explained.

I was paired with an ex-dressage champion named...Romeo.

Romeo was glad to be turned out after having his lips twitched and his feet picked up repeatedly.

Beautiful,

minimalist

Colorado.

Incoming Storm

Winter sunset in the high desert,

the clouds rolling in like waves,

watching the air

turn winter blue.

Moving Forward

This fall has been a very busy time.

Walking across campus,

the air is crisp

and the leaves are gorgeous.

The science building is where I spend a lot of my time these days,

in the study area under the giant monarch made of test tubes,

and in lecture and the lab.

This is the DNA results of last week's experiment.

This week, we extracted DNA from sheep thymus and got to use a centrifuge for the first time.  I will be using this machine A LOT as a vet tech.

It's been a fast semester.

Succcessful DNA extraction.  Interesting?  Yes.  Pretty?  No.

2 Things Challenge: Dry/Boom

The dry high desert wind has helped the flames to demolish whole tracts of land in Colorado so far this year.  And it's only the third day of summer.  These images are from Douglas County.

(I know I posted sunset photos last week, but) I never get tired of cloud watching here.  We've had some great storms come through the last couple of weeks, and the clouds make me think of The Nothing from The Neverending Story.  The lightening flashes and the thunder booms with a loud voice at this altitude.  Sometimes the clouds gather darkly and you can see them coming from miles away,

and sometimes they look like curtains draping over the landscape.

2 Things Challenge: Base/Curl

The sun sets in Castle Rock, Colorado,

and the base of the clouds has a natural curl in it, like roots in the air.

A Time for Tears

Romeo passed away this morning.  He was twelve years old.  He had cancer and we decided it was time to let him go.  The Mobile Vet came to our home and Romeo got to be on his couch with his people when he passed.  Goodbye, sweet little soul.  We are missing you terribly.