zimaleah501's Xanga

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Tue, 26 Feb 2008 00:22:49 GMT

Backstory: Upon noticing their neighbor's house was on fire, two teenage kids broke inside to rescue a litter of 10 pitbull puppies. Said puppies were brought to where I work as the house proceeded to burn to the ground, with momma and papa doggie trapped inside.

The puppies arrive, work comes to a grinding halt to triage them. Ones with only a few burns and healthy suckling reflexes get put into the oxygen incubator while the others are examined more closely. After determining only one to be in real danger, the others are given numbers (written on tape taped around a leg), antibiotic shots, burn cream is applied, the soot is wiped off, they are fed, and their temps/heart rates/respiration rates are recorded. It takes literally 6 people two hours to organize all of this.

I was responsible for Five. Five was the one who wasn't doing very well. Her color was practically nonexistent (she was tan colored in her gums, as opposed to bright pink) and she was barely breathing, her breaths were cries of pain. I sat with her, stimulating her to breathe and move and stay alive while hooked up to a personal oxygen mask for 3 hours. About hour 2.5, she started breathing much more slowly. We intubated, the doctor tried to bring her out of it, but she was gone. I was warned that she almost certainly wouldn't make it, so I wasn't too upset, just drained. Oddly enough, it is one of my favorite things to spend hours sitting with an animal destined to die. Comfort caring is my job, after all.

Midway through all of this, we found out that the daddy dog did in fact survive the blaze - he had somehow broken a second story window (or it broke some other way), jumped onto the porch roof, and then to the ground and ran away. The firefighters found him, walking all on his own. His poor balls were scorched almost completely off, one leg was badly burned, and the pad on the foot of that burned leg was falling off from jumping from a two story window. When I left he was still being worked on, but obviously happy to see his babies were alright.

All in all, not a horrible day. 10 saves out of 12 (assuming none took a turn for the worse since I left) in a house that burnt to the ground when no one was home. RIP Puppy No. Five, I'll always remember you!

Monday, December 03, 2007

Mon, 03 Dec 2007 21:42:47 GMT

Today was Embody the Stereotype day! All the pitbulls were truly vicious, as well as the rotties. All the collies were ditzy, and the cats all had short fuses. Here are the highlights.

I nearly got bitten in the face by a German Shepherd. The dog's head was being held by the owner so I went to encourage her to stand so we could temp her and she freaked out at me, snarling 2 inches from my face. The owner was pale and apologized. Apparently he had never seen the dog behave this way. The owner tried to muzzle the dog and the dog growled at him too - which is rare. In the end, the owner was too scared, so we sent them home with some happy pills to give before they come next time. All this for some damn vaccines.

Then they had to knock down and neuter a vicious pitbull this morning 4 hours ahead of schedule because NO ONE can even touch it, let alone check and examine it. The pitbull was brought in by a completely trashed woman who obviously ignored our orders to not feed the dog that morning, because the dog began to vomit the minute he was unconscious, which is really dangerous even with the tube keeping the airway clear. The dog vomited before and after the surgery and it turns out a fair amount of it got into the tube (which is a risk because the tubes don't fit the dogs' throats exactly) which means the dog almost certainly aspirated it into his lungs. Now they are worried about aspiration pnemonia. They gave antibiotics, but its still a huge risk now.

There was a rottie who was pregnant and tried to bite anyone who touched her. In the end, complete sedation and 3 assistants were needed just to determine that the dog wasn't pregnant at all, but she does have something very wrong in her abdomen.

Then there was a cat who was fine for awhile then went PSYCHO and would try to kill you. Throughout the afternoon she scratched 5 people, bit two more, and escaped from grasp 17 times.

What a day.

Monday, December 03, 2007

Mon, 03 Dec 2007 10:48:53 GMT

I spend the first 15 minutes of every weekday morning truly despising life.

Friday, November 23, 2007

Fri, 23 Nov 2007 02:55:10 GMT

Hope everyone had spectacular food comas today! Mine was a pancake coma, and it was great!

Time to try not to focus on having to wake up to go to work tomorrow, or that I also have to work on Saturday to make up for not being paid today. (my 3 month trial period at work ended TOMORROW, so I didn't qualify to get holiday pay for Thanksgiving. The world hates me.)

Instead, I will focus on having the house to myself through Sunday (an occasional vacation from people is recouperating, plus I can get more done). Also, I will look forward to dinner with my parents on Saturday (crossing fingers for Cheesecake Factory), as well as Sunday lunch with BeccaB!

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Tue, 13 Nov 2007 00:27:54 GMT

This real estate agent directory is useful, fantastic, and very well organized. Simply click on the desired state, then specify the city. It couldn't be easier! This site is essential for any person's bookmarks list.

real estate agent directory

Sunday, November 11, 2007

Sun, 11 Nov 2007 14:03:18 GMT

So, yesterday was basically the perfect day. No joke.

I woke up at 9, a nice moderate time, feeling rested and cozy. I sat on my couch watching 10 Things I Hate About You and Because I Said So all morning, basking in the laziness and playing around on the computer. Then the roomies got home, and watched the end of 10 Things with me. I love the music in that movie. It is so fun to rock out to, which we did, all through the credits. Then we went to Soup's On for lunch, and I had never been there. It was sooooo cute with the awesome soup ladies and the cool Baltimore-themed decorations. I ate my pot pie outside, and it was fantastic. On the way home, me Elisabeth and Jenny made complete spectacles of ourselves, which I loved. We jumped around, skipped, yelled, made wierd faces, and made strangers laugh/run away in horror. The resulting pictures are magically delicious though.

Then me and Elisabeth set off for F&M. On the way, there was a need to merge 2 highway lanes into one. Not particularly remarkable at first glance, but of course, no one wanted to let me in. Then one lady paused, leaving a gap ALMOST the right size, and I thought she was letting me in. Silly silly me, she just wasn't paying attention. She sped up just after I had nosed my way in front of her and boy was she PISSED! Screaming, giving me not one but BOTH fingers. It was insane. And very very funny. I mean, it was an honest mistake, and not worth getting that upset over. I suppose it didn't help that she could probably see me laughing in the rear view mirror. I let some other car in front of me, she went ballistic again! So by now, I of course am enjoying fucking with her head, so the 18 wheeler she had been not letting in for a mile, was let in by.....me. I only let in one more person after the truck, and it was all people who really did need to get in, so I wasnt' being obscene or anything. Just annoying. So after that this woman gave me the finger about 27 times over the course of 10 minutes, screaming the whole way, with me laughing hysterically. If my day had been sucking, those 10 minutes would have turned it around.

So then me and Elisabeth are looking for our hotel, the Value Inn (oh yeah, we are that cool). We begin to worry that it doesn't exist (it isn't where we originally thought it was, and we had never noticed it being where it IS in the 4 years we went to F&M), but thankfully it does. Also thankfully, they take our sketchball online reservation (there were doubts as to the website's legitimacy for awhile). The room was nice. Simple, had everything we needed. Not bad for 80 dollars a night.

Then came dinner. We were going to meet Lauren and Jasneet at the Longhorn, but the wait was an hour. So was Macaroni grill. So we go to TGIFridays and get in line there, being told it would be 5-10 minutes. Well, after 20 minutes we ask as to why we haven't been called yet and we are told by some guy that we were farther down on the list. 10-15 more minutes go by, we ask a different person, and are told we were never on the list to begin with! Unfortunately TWO people screwed up, and we were starving. I was mad, until we went to the food court. I love Saladworks, so I was appeased, and after satisfying my hunger I was no longer ready to commit murder.

So then, it was time for the main event: the orchestra concert in Barshinger. On the way we run into Lawrence, who has somehow grown up a lot and looks so different even though he has always been older than us, I was so happy to see him. Going to Barshinger is practically a spiritual experience now. We went backstage and saw a ton of people, which was lovely. We found seats nice and close to the stage to see everyone. The music was lovely. It was amazing and I love going there. We saw more people after the concert, and decided to visit Ben's for old times sake.

Then, it happened. We went down, and I heard a TROMBONE. What the fuck is a trombone doing at Ben's Underground? We go in and its this group playing, a hiphop/jazz mix of things, and I am blown away. Like, truly blown away. I think I want to quit my job and just follow these guys around. And I am trying to convince Elisabeth to stop teaching those heinous children who hate her so much and to "intern" with Dana Leong. Hey, sounds like a good idea to me! Then it makes my borderline-creepy following around much more legit. Anyways, we buy all 3 CDs, stay for the entire next set, and left being more excited than I have felt about music in a long time. I got the best of both worlds in music that night: perfection in Barshinger, and a new artist to be excited about.

Now, let's hope today isn't too big of a letdown.

Friday, November 02, 2007

Fri, 02 Nov 2007 09:14:37 GMT

Rules for Trick or Treating at my house:

1) If you are obviously 15+ years old, you need to get a damn job and buy your own candy. Get a life, go to a party, someone your age should be done begging for candy. Trick or treating is for children, and you are no longer a child.
2) If you aren't dressed up, or if your costume consists of a name tag or some other single article of clothing or accessory, you get nothing. I refused candy to 3 10ish year old "students" this year, because it is punking out completely. You don't deserve it.
3) If you are carrying around a child that isn't old enough to EAT CANDY YET, you are getting the reject piece that no one wants, because you are essentially trick or treating for yourself, as an adult. I understand you just want your child to see all the people and things, which is fine. But you shouldn't be taking candy from people unless they offer it.
4) If you don't say trick or treat, happy halloween, please, or something else remotely polite, you get nothing. "Give me candy" is unacceptable and repeating it after asked to be polite will only cause me to call your mother over, who will be rightly horrified and will take you home only 10 minutes into your evening. (true story).

Luckily, this halloween, there was only 1 or 2 rulebreakers for each rule this year. Mostly the children were lovely. The trick to not giving in to the rulebreakers: never allow the kids to select their own piece of candy. Not because they shouldnt have what they want, but to give you the power to give reject pieces to the annoying ones. I had two separate bowls, eventually, which I obviously switched to when giving to teenagers or to an infant. I am just so happy to have had trick or treaters this year.

I love halloween.

Thursday, October 18, 2007

Thu, 18 Oct 2007 02:25:57 GMT

California....freaks.

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Tue, 16 Oct 2007 00:15:20 GMT

http://thenextholidayclassic.com/

This is a contest that is very well known in the wide word of songwriting and music, and legitimate. The aim is to discover "the next holiday classic" for the Christmas season. Writing a new Christmas Carol, in essence. Unlike most other contests, it's free to enter, so you have nothing to lose by trying! There are offers of prizes and an opportunity to get your song recorded by a "name" recording artist. You can listen to and vote on the submitted songs around Thanksgiving and can even be eligible to win an Amazon gift certificate for your participation!

Monday, October 15, 2007

Mon, 15 Oct 2007 23:53:23 GMT

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