the DVM life - Doctor of Veterinary Medicine

I can name every artery in the front limb of the dog, starting clear from the aorta. I can name most of the major thoracic and abdominal arteries. I'm working on naming all the nerves in the arm and thoracic/abdominal area.

I can name all those arteries, a good handful of veins, but I cannot draw blood. I cannot run a CBC. I don't even know how to interpret the chemistry from a blood panel. But I can name the freakin vessels, tell you where they go and where they came from.

The lack of hands on work and practical application is bugging me. I am in my first year. I will have to wait until my third year to draw blood from real animals in a clinical setting. Agh. I want hands on work now!! Waiting for the good stuff is hard and disheartening.

And the exams coming up make me wonder if I should have gone to culinary school instead. (My other great passion: baked goods and desserts) But that's just my disgruntled self talking. I'm sure everything will be fine. I just need to keep my pants on, take a cold shower, and wait a few more ...SIGH.... years before I do anything "cool". Or useful.

Something neat though, I've trained my rabbit to do a trick. He has a little cardboard box house. He gets really excited for breakfast or dinner, so usually he's runs around like crazy and pounces on your hand as soon as you try to reach for his food bowl. He just bounces off me, but if it's anyone else he'll try to bite. He'll leap into the air and launch his whole body at your hand, teeth first. It usually scares the b'jezus out of most guests.

So I taught him to run around when he hears the food sound, then wait inside his cardboard house until I put the food in his bowl. It's working really well, I'm a little surprised how well he picked it up. He even is recognizing when I tap the box, it's time to go inside. Now I'm trying to link the behavior to the voice command "Box Box". So far it's starting to work. I'm impressed, the dude is a smart little cookie.