ben franklin the pug

recently at work, we had a boarder come in named Ben Franklin- and he is now my favorite animal that has ever come!   i put up two pictures that are kind of the same, but i had to put both because he's so cute in each of them i couldn't choose!  

So Ben Franklin is a pug, but his face was smushed more than any other pug i've ever seen, and it made him so much cuter!  but so i would sneak off to his room to hang out with him, and he ended up having the cutest personality, too!  

all you had to do was say his name and he would stare at you and tilt his head-- and he would make the cutest little whiny noises and would just stare at you like he was wanting to tell you something.  he knew how to sit, stay, and shake- and if you asked him to sit, he would sit and then whine and stare at you anxiously.  

i kept sneaking off one day so i could take some video of him, so here's one of the videos!

my thanksgiving 2008!

this thanksgiving was the first year i wasn't able to visit home!  i had to work, because we had so many animals boarding- there were over 50 animals!  40 something dogs and about 15 cats!  so i had to get up early and go to work and walk and feed all the animals, which took about 2 1/2 hours!

so after that, i was leaving and was going to wait for my dad to get in town, because he came up to visit me!!  i was expecting to have to wait around for a long time, but i called him and at that exact moment we passed each other on the road!

so we went to a holiday inn he made reservations at, and we got to each a thanksgiving lunch!  it was really nice- there was a really big buffet, and it was delicious- definitely not as good as granny's corn casserole or diane's cheesey potatoes, but it was still good!

after that, we went to the nearest movie theater to see what was playing-- not really much choice.... we decided to think about it and walk around outside because there were some interesting things nearby.  we walked over to the grand ole opry and found out the rockettes were going to be performing soon!  so we got tickets to that and walked over to see what this other place was since we had a few hours.

it turned out to be an ice show!  a whole walk-through of ice sculptures telling the story of the grinch stole christmas!

here we are with our giant jackets about to go in!  the people told us it was only 6 degrees in there!

the who babies are sleeping!

haha!! daddy in a giant hallway of ice!

i got to slide down an ice slide a couple of times!

we got out of the ice show just in time to go see the new james bond movie-- i really liked it! and the movie got out just in time for us to walk over to see the rockettes!  i didn't get any pictures there because cameras weren't allowed.  it was a really good show-- i love entertaining things like that!  and it was so unexpected and unplanned, but it all worked out so perfectly!

at the end of their show, they did this nativity thing, and they had camels and sheep on stage!  daddy and i kept laughing, because the camels were just standing up there chewing their cud and looking around while all these people were dressed in robes with canes and stuff! haha!!  i wonder what they were thinking.

after that, the show ended just in time for us to drive over to my work so i could walk all the dogs for a second time!  so daddy was able to come in, and i got to show him around everywhere!  i was really glad he got to see everything.

me in front of my work!

me with dee dee the dachshund in the "princess suite" that i painted!

and this is me in front of a dog eye chart in one of the exam rooms!

so that was my thanksgiving!  i was sad about not getting to go home, but i got to see my dad, and everything worked out perfectly, and i had an awesome day!

Hank

This is Hank!  He came in about a month ago because his back legs were swollen and the skin was coming off from where someone had had him chained up.  So every day for the past four weeks, I've been taking care of Hank, and he finally left on Saturday!  He did take a lot of time and attention, but I'm sad he's gone! 

And usually he had a big cone around his head, because he kept chewing at his feet- and then towards the end, we had a huge bucket on his head because he kept running into things and breaking the cones.  In this picture it looks like he's eating my hand! But I was just holding his head up...

Hannah and Chloe

Here's Hannah at the hospital!  She was so cute walking up and down the halls and smiling and talking to people!

Here's Chloe all bundled up

This is my favorite one I got of her!

And here's a little video I got of when Chloe first got home...

hmm

So I've come to have a realization that my life is now mainly going to consist of working and being at work and getting ready for work and going to bed early for work, etc.....  This was my main worry right before graduation, and that's exactly what happened... :(  luckily, I love my job, but I'm sad that I don't have time to do a lot of the things I enjoy doing.  By the time I get home from work, I'm too exhausted to do anything, and I don't have enough time to do anything except eat and take a shower!  And when I have a day off, I feel like it's way too short of a time to get everything done... :(  So I'm trying to figure out how to get everything balanced and manage my time better.

And also, luckily I was able to get time off to visit my sister in Texas and spend some time with my family and be there for Chloe being born!  I got some good videos of Hannah, too, so I'll post those later.

Random fact about today:

At work, a cat came in for an appointment named "Fathead."

kitties

here's an update on the little kittens we have!  

the three little ones that were found under a house are getting a lot bigger!  they're still tiny, though.  and the tiniest one is still looking a little rough, but a lot better, so she's improving!

and they have found a home!  we've been hoping that there would be someone who would take all three of them together.  so the perfect people came along and want all three of them.  i'm really sad though, because it's always a good part of the day to go and play with them- they're always so cute and sweet!

haha!! the third one(that's the runt one) is sucking on the bed! they will all suckle on the bed sometimes- it's funny.

Here is the kitten we've had for a little while longer that roams around everywhere.  unfortunately, the other day when he was playing, he got his paw stuck under a door!  we x-rayed it, and he'd broken a toe.  so doc wrapped it up, and he has this huge cast on his leg!  when he'd first had it on, he laid on the floor like he couldn't get up and was whining/crying, but now he's used to it and runs around!

aww!  

i've never really been a cat person, but after these kittens and all the awesome cats that have come here, i'm looking forward to someday getting my own little kitten!  it will be a new experience.

funny story

we had a crisis the other day at work.

at one point, we were pretty busy- rachel had paged me over the walkies asking if i could take "Toto" up to the front.  so i went to the bathing room and she didn't have the cage tags up and there was one dog that kinda looked like it would be named Toto, and I paged back asking if it was the dog in the top cage, and she said yes.

So i took this dog up to the front and gave it to the lady up there.

Later on when we were getting ready to leave for lunch, i'd been walking alllll these dogs by myself and was wondering where rachel was.  when we were clocking out, she walked by with "Toto" and was like, recognize this dog?

Turns out, it wasn't that lady's dog!  She was a big, pretty old woman.  and she had no idea this dog wasn't the right one- her actual dog Toto was a different color, a lot skinnier, had a tail, and was a completely different breed... 

When I'd taken the dog to her, she said she'd carry him and was like, "oh he's so sweet!" and he was licking her face and she was hugging him.  She couldn't really carry him, and she was like, "he's heavy!" and i'd had to take him from her and put him on the ground- we'd even had a hard time putting its collar, because it was too tight!

But so for a while, unknown to me, everyone had been running around going, "where's Molly?"  and this dog is going on this crazy journey with some woman! Luckily, they had finally gotten in contact with this woman, and she was like, "I can't believe I took the wrong dog!"  

So I couldn't believe I'd given this woman the wrong dog, but she'd seemed so happy to see him that I wasn't thinking, oh, this could be the wrong dog.

It's also funny to me that that Molly seemed so happy to see this woman and was all licking her and just went along with her and was driving home with her!

Recently, I've started going to run/walk on the greenway.  The other day, I discovered a cool area that cut through to the Stones River-- it was really shallow and had a lot of rocks and was really pretty and had these huge stones you could walk across (like on the labyrinth, when ludo does that call and the rocks come up out of the water).  So i decided to walk across them and get some neat pictures.

This is the view towards the greenway from the middle of the river!

And right after this, I dropped my iphone in the water.

I wasn't even doing anything with it- I was just holding it!! And the next thing I knew, I was fumbling it and it flew into the water!

At first it seemed fine, but then a weird message kept popping up, and then after that it started making these really fast clicking noises, and then after that it froze.  So I can't get into anything that's on it, and I'm supposed to be getting a new phone in the mail soon...

I'll have the same number, but for now- I'm phoneless...

more vet stories

This is our little kitty that someone brought in because they didn't want him- he stays in the back surgery area and plays with all of the cords and practices pouncing, and he's so funny!

And these are three little kittens someone else brought in- so we've been raising them, which is fun.  One of the black ones is really, really tiny and scraggly, so we have to bottle feed him still.  

And lastly, this is Buster!  I already knew I liked bulldogs, but after working here, I've realized even more how much I like them!  They are so cute and have the funniest personalities.

yay

at work the other day, i got to paint a landscape in one of the boarding suites!  we decided to start decorating all the rooms, and for this room, Linda (the manager) had bought a giant Disney castle sticker and a tinkerbell sticker.  so i got to spend most of the day painting, which was really fun!

they're going to put up a frame around the castle picture so it will look like you're looking out of a window!

some of the dogs...

so my favorite dog so far that has come through the vet hospital is a chunky bulldog named Chief!  he has the most adorable smushed face i have ever seen.  and his colors are really neat looking, too... you can't really tell from these pictures- he was hard to take a picture of, because he was always wiggling and could never stay still!  he knew how to sit, but when i told him to stay and would try to move back to take his picture, he would stay sitting but would wiggle and scoot across the floor because he really couldn't just stay still.  it was so cute!

this is another little puppy that just left today- i was sad to see her go!  she looked almost exactly like my roommate's dog Coco when we first got her... but this one's name is Princess Smoochie!  

lastly, this is Sammy!  she is a Samoyed that someone just dropped over the fence one day, so now she is up for adoption...  she is sooo pretty and so sweet!  i hope someone perfect comes along for her soon, because she has to be in a cage a lot, which is sad!  if i had my own place, i really think i would like to have this dog- i usually don't prefer bigger dogs, but she has a really sweet personality and is really playful and has the fluffiest, whitest fur!

trip to dyersburg

i had saturday off, so i got to spend the night at mary beth's in dyersburg, which was a lot of fun! she already wrote about it on hers... we went to chris's parents house, tanning, to a pet store, to the mall, to applebees, and then to hastings!  chris's parents are so cute and funny!  we stayed up with the kids watching bob the builder, and i actually enjoyed the little episodes!  after kayla and preston went to bed, we watched prom night- interesting movie... haha

the next day was preston's birthday party- there was a moonbounce, a pinata, hot dogs, cake, and presents!

there was one point where all of the men took over the moonbounce- they were all wrestlers, so they were in there for a while acting crazy and doing wrestling moves!

here's preston enjoying his cake and ice cream!

and here's me and mary beth in the moonbounce... haha

books!

I realized today that now that I'm not in school, my free time can be spent doing whatever I want! Instead of worrying about studying and stuff.  I knew I'd miss school a little, because I really like learning about so much interesting stuff- so I also realized today, now I can focus on learning about anything I want without thinking about the pressure to do well on a test or having to learn it in a certain amount of time!

So today I ended up at Hastings and Barnes and Noble, and I added five new books to my "library."

Finnegan's Wake and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey

Why People Believe Weird Things by Michael Shermer

and

The Science of Mind by Ernest Holmes

A couple of those are gonna take a looot of time to read, but I'm excited about it!  I have a problem with starting books and not finishing them, though... I went through all of my books and I am in the middle of 16 of them!  I guess I get excited and want to start reading all of them at once.

Zoo Stories, Part 1: Singwah and Dixon

Dixon and Singwah are two of the white-cheeked gibbons I worked with at the zoo!  Singwah is the female, which is white, and Dixon is the male, the black one.  This is how they would always sit together!  Singwah always would sit in a little ball with her arms crossed, and Dixon would sit next to her with his arms around her!

When I first started at the zoo, I was warned to watch out for Dixon, because he was known for trying to grab people!  He was in a hold inside and wasn't allowed outside on the islands because he had escaped shortly before I had started working there!  I wish I could have been there for that!  So since he wasn't allowed outside, he was really moody...

So on my second day, I was standing in the hold area, and I was suddenly pinched!  Dixon had swung over so fast, stuck his arm out of the cage and grabbed my arm and then swung away again!  haha!

Sometime after that, they were moved to a bigger hold and Dixon was allowed outside again, so after that he seemed a lot better!

Dixon and Singwah each had their specific song, and they would always sing together!  I miss hearing them, but I got video of it, so I could listen to it whenever I wanted.  In the background of this video, Kelly, one of the zookeepers i worked with, is training Cory(red ruff lemur) and the radio is also playing... there's not some woman in there singing.

Also, a lot of the time when Singwah would sing, she would jump and swing around and grab that rope on the shelf thing so it would bang and make a lot of noise!  She does it once in this video...

And each day, there would be a new enrichment item-- wood blocks, plastic ducks, hay, balls...

In this video, they were given hay- To make it fun for them, we stuck cheerios in all in the hay so they could dig around in it!

...

So I've been at Two Rivers Vet Hospital as a kennel attendant/vet assistant for a week, and so far, it's been crazy!

I've learned a ton so far, and I've already gotten to help the vet with shots, putting animals to sleep for surgery, and taking care of hospital animals!  And today I got to do a urinalysis on my own.  I also have a lot of dogs in the kennels that I have to take care of and a couple of cats and some birds. 

One of my favorites so far has been a black cocker spaniel named Brandy and a funny little shih-tzu mix dog named Mickey.  Also, on my first day, I got to walk a giant st. bernard named Beethoven.  He was actually really easy to handle, and he was really sweet!

There's also a parrot here, and the only thing he knows how to say is "come here"- haha!  So I'll be down the hallway, and I'll here "Come here!"  It's funny.

It feels really weird that the only thing I do is work, and there's no school or anything.  And it's a pretty stressful and intense job- there's always something to do and always something going on... unlike hastings where i sat around and read and make coffee drinks...!  

And every time I close my eyes, I see dogs!  And today when I came home from work and took a nap, I dreamt that I was working and taking dogs from the kennels up to their owners and looking at paperwork!  This happened to me when I worked at target- whenever I closed my eyes, I would see myself scanning items!  I guess seeing dogs is better.

horrible

i would not recommend watching this video, but i also really think you should-  i have known about farm animals being treated horribly and stuff, but this goes through all the different animals and the different things they have to go through.  it's really hard to watch, but at i think everyone should know what is going on. (amy, maybe you shouldn't watch it since you're pregnant...hah)

http://www.chooseveg.com/animal-cruelty.asp

so i have decided-- i want to devote part of my life to stopping this.  i don't know how in the world this could be legal, and i don't know how there could be people out there so heartless and selfish that they would actually DO it and work at these places.  but i have to do something- i am going to start researching about it... 

and i've considered being a vegetarian before, but i really like meat... :(  but i am going to try to stop eating meat.  

everyone is so concerned with money and profits and stuff that these animals are completed disregarded as living beings with souls and feelings.  the major food places are allowing this to happen, because they only care about the money and the business.

i wanna be like in boondock saints-- except i kill all the people that work at these places killing these animals.  

 

brief scenes from some of my recent dreams...

-me in a school covered in bubbles trying to find the exit

-me carving a sandwich into a star, sticking it on a stick with ribbons and giving the "fairy wand" to someone as a gift

-me wading around in some water with a hawk under my arm, dipping its face in the water so it could catch fish

for the best-tasting gummi bears...

according to a recent dream of mine...

gummi bears will taste their best if you put them in a ziploc bag and go around capturing good sounds in the bag.  after you collect different beautiful and interesting noises, you seal the gummi bear bag and let the gummi bears soak in the sounds.  

then they should taste way better than normal.

...

something i always hate to see in movies-- those dressing room scenes where people try on different clothes while music plays over it, and they goof around in random, stupid outfits.  i don't wanna watch you trying on these clothes with this music playing.  

i think everyone knows what i'm talking about- but if you don't, i think amanda bynes and the olsen twins like to do this a lot.  

dream...

i just had one of the weirdest dreams i've ever had.

i was at this stadium thing with a ton of people on this side stage type thing.  in the middle was the biggest, fattest bull i have ever seen.  you had to jump in and run from this bull and find the exit out of the stadium.  so there were just tons of people leaping in and running around this enclosure thing.

so finally i got the guts to jump in and start running.  i realized i was wearing blue jeans, and i felt really frustrated that i couldn't run as well in them.  i ended up finding the exit really easily.  

so i was walking around outside and got on this other platform thing and felt this weird urge to sing.  and in that moment i knew that jesus was returning... haha!  this music was just flowing out of me without me controlling it, and everyone was singing together like a choir or something.  and i wasn't allowed to walk across this certain wood plank because supposedly jesus was supposed to be walking on it. 

so then i looked over to the platform where the people jumping into the bullpen were and noticed this guy holding my pillow.  so i was like, man! i wish i had my pillow, and he looked up and threw it all the way across to me, because he somehow telepathically knew i wanted it!

then it transitioned to me walking through my high school parking lot.  so i was walking around, and the marching band was marching in a  straight line, zig-zagging around everywhere playing some song.  and i cut through the line to get somewhere, and the director yelled at the guy i cut in front of to go run laps.  and i felt bad b/c i didn't realize they got laps if someone cut in front of them.

so i walked in the school and i was thinking there was no way i was going to remember where my locker or classes were because i hadn't been in school for a week because of bonnaroo.  so i wandered around for a while and ended up back outside where it was nighttime.  i wanted to leave the "campus," so i walked all this way and realized for some reason a big gate had been put up where it used to be open.  so i couldn't get out... the marching band was walking like they were going somewhere, so i started following along.

and then i got a phone call, so i woke up.

that dream made no sense.

when i grow up

this is a random list of all of the stuff i wanted to be when i grew/grow up... 

none of them are in a specific order

ELEMENTARY SCHOOL-

1. illustrator

*i spent a lot of my time drawing animals, and i also spent a lot of time mimicking my older sister Amy's drawings

2. writer

*i wrote a lot of stories- i still have some books i wrote and illustrated from this time

3. something with animals- vet

*anytime you like animals, people assume you want to be a vet- at this point, i figured the same thing i guess

MIDDLE SCHOOL-

1. inventor

*i spent a lot of time "inventing" and making stuff- particularly really cool playhouses for my gerbils

2. artist

3. writer

*still loved writing...  my writing got a little more technical around this time- instead of writing about rabbits going outside to play hide n seek like in my elementary years.... 

3. something with outer space

*later middle school, i became really interested in space and planets and black holes and all of that stuff... never had a specific job in mind

4. vet

HIGH SCHOOL-

1. crime scene investigator

*i very seriously considered this, because i love forensics and mysteries and all of that stuff- if i didn't love animals so much, i could see myself going for this

2. exotic animal sanctuary or zoo- specifically not a vet

*finally decided i definitely didn't want to be a vet, and definitely wanted to work at a zoo or wildlife sanctuary

3. artist

*i discovered my love for painting in high school... 

4. film producer/screenwriter

*decided with a couple of my best friends that we could make a really funny movie about ourselves...

5. musician

*got my first guitar when i was 15 and since then have wanted to be in a band

NOW

1. zoo or animal sanctuary

*100% sure this is what i want my permanent career to be

2. artist

*i'm gonna paint and do artsy stuff for the rest of my life whether it's a career or not... 

3. business owner

*i have some ideas that i'm not gonna say so no one steals them... because i'm serious about eventually figuring out how to start them

4. film producer/screenwriter

*i definitely want to make a movie... i have some ideas that i think could turn out pretty awesome... 

5. musician

*i have a fantasy of being in a progressive hardcore/metal band that fuses a lot of other interesting music styles into it- world music, irish stuff, jazz, etc... and i would even play my flute in some of it

6. inventor/idea person

*again, i'm not giving away my ideas for safety purposes-- has anyone had those "sweet shots" at chili's?? i invented those- my idea got stolen, because obviously someone overheard me talking at the hardback cafe about inventing sweet shots for my restaurant!  i even made up that exact name for them!  coincidence that they showed up at chili's less than two weeks later?

Hmm

This is my first official entry-- 

I was looking at pictures of my niece and nephew at a petting zoo, and there was a picture where Preston looked SO happy and excited, and i had an interesting thought...

have you ever wondered how crazy animals must seem to little kids?  as adults, we've seen tons of animals and we're used to them and know what they all look like.  but imagine little kids when they see all these animals for the first time- animals must seem so weird and crazy and funny.  

imagine being an adult and getting to see a goose or a donkey for the first time ever without ever knowing or hearing of one before.  you would be like, "what in the world?!"  it's weird to think about, and i'd never really thought about that before.  

here's the picture that inspired this entry... AND it's weird, because this goose is almost his size- imagine a goose being the same size as you!

uhh...

i have nothing to say right now... i have two finals tomorrow and a paper due.  that's probably why i'm on here for no reason.