Sleep deprivation does a body good.

Last night my cats felt they needed to have my attention about once every hour. Problem was I was already deprived of precious sleep and needed to be up at 4am. We went to a local zoo today to take care of some of the animals. Casey and I got to the vet school super early to get our treatments done. I'm not sure how I actually picked myself up out of bed. It was worth it though. Our day was amazing. First thing we got to do was observe a trunk wash and get to feed and pet their two elephants. Then we knocked out a Siamang (a type of gibbon) to clean its butt off. IBS diarrhea badness. It was so cool, I got to do the anesthesia and listen to its heart and touch it! It was amazing. There were all sorts of animals today. A barn owl, opossum, cotton mouth, long-nosed viper, hedgehog, even a baby miniature zebu. To be able to touch and examine these animals that are so rare and interesting was amazing. It was every animal lovers dream.

Today made me think for just a moment about going into the zoo medicine field. Just for a moment. It would be so cool to be a zoo vet but the competition is ridiculous. There are several people in my class alone who want to go into zoo med and who have real experience with it. If they're lucky one of them will get a residency. I may satisfy my need to see exotics by seeing them in small animal practice. People are always looking for someone to see their birds and bunnies and guinea pigs. This rotation has been an eye-opening experience for me. It really has made me want to branch out from just dogs, cats or horses. And that's going to be an asset for me. I think.

Last night we got the best message ever from the phone room. "Beta fish. Bloated, not eating, floating at the top of the tank." When read this Casey replied: "So its dead?" That person must have loved that fish to call the vet school about it. Or he was crazy. Probably the latter.

James has tried to make contact again via a MySpace message. I guess I'll throw the guy a bone and respond. I still think he's an idiot.