February 17, 2010

Camping on the Peninsula


Some mornings you wake up and wonder 'what the heck am I doing here?!?'
.....this was not one of those mornings

February 10, 2010

PURA VIDA


I have been accepted into the VIDA service program during out August break!!! As vet students we travel to Nicaragua and Honduras to explore new culture, volunteer services, practice mad skills, and wrangle their animals. Should be a blast!!!!!! They su
pport sustainable development and believe in empowering communities by assisting and supporting other non-profit organizations that are based in the communities we service. The patients then have continued follow-up and support after the medical mission team has gone back home. Each year VIDA continues to advance the causes of global health care and animal welfare through our pre-veterinary, pre-medical, and pre-dental programs. Countless lives have been changed for the better due to the medical, dental, and veterinary care and education provided to these communities. We also need continued support from people like you as well. If anyone has any materials that I can bring to donate to the clinic or clients I would LOVE the opportunity to bring materials to that part of the world. I am also going to come up with a cunning fundraiser to help raise funds for the adventure... Until the plan is revealed you can still sponsor me, visit (http://www.vidavolunteertravel.org/payment.php#paynow) Fill in my name, and trip code is RNH082110.

~Pura Vida~



January 18, 2010

keep on keepin' on




Greetings!!! It has been beyond far too long since our last encounter and life is much the same and incredibly different at the same time. Time has been flying by and I try as best I can to reach out and grab as much valuable information as possible. School is getting more exciting as we are now allowed to play with all kinds of fun toys like anesthesia machines that can make you sleepy, sharps that can cause big ouches, and Xrays that can give you cancer just to name a few. Luckily, over the past year and a half I have explored every corner of this beautiful country and experienced all kinds of crazy new things. So now it just might be time to really get down to business, haha.

Roxi has been living the island life for a year now and she has adjusted beautifully. Our days are filled with adventures as she loves to hang out in the back of my jeep where-ever I go. Her favorite target of obsession are the African Green Vervet Monkeys... GIANT squirrels as far as she can deduce. This got me in a funny situation not too long ago. I was training the high court judge's dog Dixen, a young shepherd/pressa mix. I brought Roxi in for some socialization and to try to show Dixen how much fun it is to chase the monkeys out of the yard. Before I knew it Rox had jumped over a 7 foot cinderblock wall into the neighbors yard after the monkeys. Um, yeah, it was the Prime Minister's yard, guarded by 2 soldiers with semiautomatic weapons. And there was a ditch on the other side so it had become a 9 foot obstical for my crazy monkey chaser to get back over. Oops. Luck was on my side. I got on top of the wall and Roxi still trusted me to catch her and pull her up the rest of the way. I went back to training Dixen and turned around to Roxi walking along the wall 7 feet in the air. Of course then I watched, and cringed, as she lept right off the wall (ouch!) and pranced over to me exceedingly proud of her new game. Whew!

Charlie has grown into the most handsome Kittitian Coconut Retriever ever. A few think he's 'too pretty to be a boy' haha. He was diagnosed with elbow dysplasia in his right limb late last year. I am still tracking down more information to see if he is a good surgery candidate so fingers are definitely crossed. Of course he's still loving life and plays fetch like a ball obsessed border collie, only this guy has an 'off' switch =-P