Long Overdue... and Foster Pup

I can't remember the last time I blogged... which means it has been far too long. I finished a month long rotation on anesthesia and moved right into equine medicine and surgery. This meant that my "cushy" 7:15am-5pm hours turned into 5:30 or 5:45am to 6:30pm (or later) every day. Weekends were only 6am-12pm... but still, lots and lots of time spent at school and not a lot of time doing other things. Like wedding planning. I'm getting married a week from tomorrow. Holy sh*t. I'm excited, but nervous because the coming week is going to be busy!

Equine has been amazingly fun. Aside from the long hours, I've had a couple interesting cases and have had an awesome rotation group - and really awesome clinicians. This is the first rotation that I've really felt comfortable with the clinicians and can make jokes and feel more comfortable in my own skin. This is kind of ironic because equine medicine is what I am LEAST confident about - I definitely know infinitely times more about small animal medicine. Nevertheless, I have never laughed this much on any other rotation and our trio of clinicians are really great. Its a group of three younger guys that are really chill and laid back and not intimidating at all (as some equine folks can be). Us fourth years, on the other hand, are a group of four girls that are constantly giggling and cracking jokes - we try to be entertaining and not distracting!

On a side note, KJ and I are currently fostering little Ally, a small 12 pound long haired Dachshund mix. She presented to orthopedic surgery 6 weeks ago with bilateral angular front limb deformities with short ulnas. She was actually "walking" on her carpi - completely weight bearing, although she did like to sit up on her haunches like a meerkat. They performed a bilateral radial and ulnar osteotomy in order to correct the curved long bones and lengthen her ulnas. A few weeks later, she came back for recheck radiographs and she had a fracture across the most proximal screw on her left radius... so then they put on an external fixator. At that point, her new adoptive mom had just adopted a two year old child and was having back surgery, so she asked our rehab specialist if she could find a temporary foster home for Ally - they thought of KJ and I right away because we were frequent visitors during Ally's first two weeks after surgery and rehab.

So now Ally lives with us for awhile - we will have had her for one month tomorrow. Last night, we were sitting in the living room and KJ was sitting in the leather chair with Ben and I was on the couch with Ally on my lab, playing with her like a baby and talking to her, and he said, "You are getting attached...". I just looked at Ally and replied, "I know... but I just want her to know love". It will be so hard to give her back, but I just want her to know that so many people love her... how is that not the best gift you can give to someone - human or animal? She is an amazing little girl - a real fighter and she tries so hard - we can slowly see her little personality come out as she has started feeling better - she plays with toys that the big dogs throw around and they are too good of dogs to steal them back from her. It melts my heart to see how good our furballs are with her.

As good of a time as I've had with little Ally, I'm not sure fostering is for me - I get too attached and have a difficult time letting go :(