Little Es

WARNING: You are about to see lots of pictures of very cute kittens. Please don't hyperventilate and pass out. You've been warned.

Dawn is a sadist.

I get the foster emails from CAT every day as a digest, and she'd posted about a single orphan that needed a home. I don't get the digest until very late at night, but I let her know I'd be able to take the little orphan if it was still available. The next day she texts me to say he's taken, but there are three almost at-weights available. Being the sucker I am, I say okay, because they're older and almost at surgery weight.

When I get there, this is what I find.

"Punk Face"

"Curly Butt"

"Ew"

Dawn knows how I feel about Siamese, yet she failed to tell me one of them was exactly that. Fortunately, Curly Butt totally makes up for it. I have no idea who is who in terms of their shelter appointed names, but the above is what I have dubbed them. And Curly Butt is by far the cutest kitten I've ever had. Well, maybe except for Noodle.

This is why his name is Curly Butt

This is Noodle

I took about 200 pictures to get about ten good ones. These guys do not hold still for one second, especially Punk Face. However, when I gave them wet food you'd think they hadn't eaten in a year, which is pretty impressive considering they've only been alive for eight weeks.

"Hey, I'm sleepin here!"

I'll probably only get a couple of weeks with them, which is probably plenty anyway. But for now I'm already dreading the day when I'll have to take Curly Butt back to the shelter for his surgery. Sixth cat anyone?

Cue my dad's scream heard from afar

For now, though, here's some more pics for your fix.

She'll never get adopted.

Happy Tails!

Compassion Fatigue

Compassion fatigue is something that has been covered many times, and those in the medical/veterinary/social services and many others where you help people in shitty situations know all about it. Unless you have experienced it, though, it's pretty hard to convey in words. 

It seems like a first world problem, but it's a real thing.

Goodness knows I've experienced it many times since I've been in shelter care and now vet medicine. There's always a litter of kittens you can't help, a pregnant mom that needs to be spayed, a dog hit by a car that you can't save. It's the nature of our business, but we do what needs to be done for the times when we can save the kittens/dog/see mom go to a good home.

Thanks to us she will never be a mother. She will only be adorable.

A few nights ago I had a very real case of compassion fatigue suddenly hit me. I picked up an overnight at the animal ER where I work, which is hard enough as it is. As sad as it sounds, often we will try (and fail) to maintain some distance emotionally from our patients. We still give them the best care possible, but if you fall in love you make bad decisions and get, of course, fatigued.

I had been up for 12 hours with a two hour nap already before I started my 10 hour night at 9pm. It had been a long weekend already and I was feeling it. The ER side of our hospital was fairly slow, thank goodness, but ICU was hopping. After 3am I was all alone, and had just gotten word that a dog who had had surgery earlier in the day was not doing well and needed to go back in. She was set up on one of our open "pods" and getting transfusions until our surgeon came. But it wasn't even her that set me off.

This is pretty much how I was feeling by then.

What set me off was a little pug named Lola. She was old, diabetic, and adorable. Her blood sugar was high so she hadn't eaten in a while, but it finally came down enough that I could feed her. I found myself focusing all my energy on her. We had to lay her on her side to draw blood, something pugs don't like because they can't breathe well. The last time we drew blood she got a runny nose and started sniffling and sneezing. I wiped her nose, rubbed her face and was allowed to finally give her food, which she happily ate.

She was not even close to the sickest animal in the ICU, but I could see that she didn't have much time left. Even with the diabetes under control, she was just old. I started to think about her owner, and how devastated I would be if this were my dog and she passed. She was adorable, sweet, and full of love even though she wasn't feeling well. Suddenly I wanted to cry, and go home.

Just so you don't get too sad, here's a horse with a cone on its head.

Fortunately the emergency surgery had to start and took my mind off Lola and on to other things. It was a pretty crazy, fast and hectic surgery and I had to concentrate on that. But once I got home, Lola was still on my mind. I don't know if she went home or is doing well, and honestly, I'm often afraid to find out. Lots of times we'll have long term or repeat patients that we get attached to, and it's pretty obvious how much it brings down the whole staff to learn they've passed. If we make jokes or act callous towards death it's because the reality of it would break our hearts, our minds, and make us numb.

It's important to appreciate the people in this industry, and think about the situations we have to go through and deal with daily. It's important for us to appreciate each other, something I think we often forget to do. And it's important for us to appreciate ourselves. 

Animals can't talk, but they thank us every day in their own ways. That's why we do this. 

I'm Back!

Man, I don't even know why I left. It's been one hell of a crazy year and a half! I left my post as Foster Coordinator at CAT, not because a kitten robbed me and ate my fish, but because I had an opportunity to join one of the best animal ERs in the country and I took it. I still foster and am a mentor, so kittens are definitely still in my life. It's just a little more medical now.

Although that robbing thing did happen. No one will convict a kitten.

First of all, I want to thank Cat Adoption Team for helping me to start learning all the skills I have today. I went into my new job with a great background of knowledge and I consider myself lucky for that. Now that I'm in the ER, though, I've learned that this is what I'd like to dedicate my life to.

Plus you get to wear these awesome outfits that aren't stuffy at all.

Let me tell you a story: when I was young, I wanted to be a veterinarian. I could pronounce the word when I was five and spell it by the time I was seven. Throughout my years in school I came to realize math is not my best subject, and resigned myself to not be a vet, seeing as I only passed Algebra by cheating (cheating is wrong- don't cheat kids). Instead I went into writing, as I was moderately good at that and it required no math skills at all, unless I was writing about math, which I was not. That's crazy.

I also thought I could be a unicorn, but that is neither here nor there.  

So I plodded through college and got my English degree, hoping to maybe be a writer or, even worse, screenwriter. As soon as I realized it's really hard to make money that way (I like money), I decided to volunteer at non-profits in hopes of returning to my roots there. I started at cable access as a director and I never, ever fit in at any for-profit retail job I've ever had. I know right now you are laughing at me for realizing writing is hard and going into non-profit to make money, but if I'm not doing what I love there's no point in me doing it at all.

Once I got into the medical side of the shelter, a still newfangled thing called "shelter medicine," I figured out I enjoyed it and was actually quite good at it. I learned to give shots, recognize illness and find the right course of action to treat it. I'm pretty proficient at taking care of kittens as well. Now I'm learning to take care of other things, like these big furry animals called "dogs."

Terrifying.

So follow me on this scary journey into vet school and beyond. I promise I'll try to convey the hilarity as well as the hardships. And hey, you have questions? Let me know. Obvs I can't give medical advice online (nor would I), but behavior questions I am all over.

Questions like "What's wrong with my cat? He's not hanging upside down like normal." will be ignored.