Animal Kingdom!!! (#yaylife)

Well I've had some highs and lows last week for sure! 
Thursday my awesome boyfriend took me to Disney's Animal Kingdom!  

It was kind of funny when he asked me because for some reason I was expecting him to tell me that his family wanted to go or something and he just wasn't telling me. I kept trying to ask questions via text to figure out what the catch was. I finally just asked if it would just be us and he said yes! Cool! I mean I like his family but I also REALLY enjoy spending time just us. Animal Kingdom is by far my favorite park at Disney (are you surprised?) and I haven't been since just shortly after they opened. The last time I went they didn't have any rides except for the Safari but there wasn't much else to see. They hadn't completed Africa and Asia wasn't even built yet. I was in such a bad mood after work I almost told him that I didn't want to go. Once I calmed down I went online and started looking at all the exhibits and what there was to do and I got soooooo freaking excited. I boycott most zoos and captive animal exhibits unless its a refuge of some kind. The reason for this is because usually the animals seem fairly stressed out to me in their very small enclosures. The thing I love about animal kingdom is that their habitats are quite large. Animal Kingdom is the biggest park at Disney in Florida but most of the landscape is used as habitats for the animals. I am always rather impressed by the amount of space and care that goes into these animals. 

There are several "walks" where you can view animals in their habitats playing or doing whatever they do naturally. I took soooo many photos! I had my camera (although I didn't bring fresh batteries and its a 7.1 megapixel but has better zoom than my 8 megapixel iphone 4s) and my iphone--both of which died by the end of the day. The only animals I missed out on photos were the lions and cheetahs which only came out around 6pm. I will be uploading all my photos and videos to my facebook account if anyone wanted to see more. You may have to friend me, I can't remember what settings I have for photos. Here's the link to my facebook account:  https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=57208657
So I really don't have a favorite part of the day, the whole day was amazing!! One of the really cool parts was going to their "Conservation Station" where you can meet some animal handlers and get behind the scene views of their laboratory and some of their veterinary areas. So total eye candy for me. hehe. You didn't actually get to go into their hospital but some of the walls are actually glass so you can see them working in their diagnostic lab and they also have cameras to show the holding pens where they do treatments. We hopped on the last Safari of the day hoping to see the rest of the animals that were hiding from the heat (BTW--if you go make sure you go early as there is a lot to do and the animals won't come out or be active when its super hot) which was awesome because we did get to see them, the only thing that sucks is that the park closes early so they can start feeding before dark. While we were on the last safari all the giraffes were gathered by their gate where I can only assume they are let in to be fed. By the end of the day my boyfriend was feeling a little crummy as he has a toothache and also some trouble with one of his crowns. 
This actually leads me into the low for my week and as I don't want to dwell on it I'm going to keep it short; my boyfriend may need to have surgery to have an implant (tooth) placed into his jaw bone as the crown (or whatever it is) won't stay in because the tooth root is fractured. This may cost us in the upwards of $3000 and we have no idea how we are going to pay for it. This weekend I may be in over-drive trying to create crafty gifts to stock my etsy shop, I may even have to create a chip-in account. We shall see, there's a small possibility that we can get his dad to cosign for a medical credit card called care credit (www.carecredit.com) so that we can make monthly payments (FYI--it can also be used for your pets in certain vet offices!!). Whatever has to happen we'll make it work but wish us luck!!! 
I hope everyone is doing well and a huge thanks to my BF (who doesn't read this site..I think) for giving me a much needed animal filled day of fun, even though we walked for almost 8 hours straight. OH and those Rhinos in the photo...there are only about 5000 left on earth. They are highly endangered and killed for their horns :(
peace, love, and pawprints

OCAS I was so proud of you…

UGH!
So I know you can’t have it all, all the time. But I was freaking proud of my county animal shelter last week. Since they are doing the ASPCA challenge (bah on the ASPCA too btw-that’s entirely another story as is HSUS and PETA) they are doing all kinds of awesome things to get pets adopted (yay!).  They have been doing an adoption event at a credit union near my clinic—started Sept 9 and is every friday in Sept. Awesome mobile adoption bus complete with AC and kennel. Really neat (photos to come) And I thought “awesome, my county shelter isn’t like all the others I am hearing about.” And I’m not completely wrong, our county shelter does work hard but this week I have just had it. Here are a few problems with this county shelter:
1. Some pets weren’t sent to their new homes with any paperwork (all my one client had from OCAS was the shelter cage card which only displays basic info: name/number, breed, age, color, gender, etc.) THE COUNTY—the people who enforce the animal laws. Like requiring them to have a rabies tag on at all times and to be vaccinated. These poor people didn’t have anything! AKA their dog could have been impounded (temporarily) due to no proof of rabies or receive a citation. (sept 9)
2. To make matters worse this was all on a friday. Saturday apparently the shelter DOESN’T ANSWER THE PHONE! You can call the county and they can TRY to transfer it over but it just rings to administrations voicemail (damnit I should have left a fucking message!!). I was un able to obtain any records for these poor new owners. They ended up driving down to the shelter, and I hope they were successful. I was BEYOND PISSED that they were open but wouldn’t answer the phone. (sept 17)
3. Adoption hours SUCK! They fucking suck. My dad and I were looking at dogs a few months ago and they flat out refused to show us any pets once it hit 15 minutes til closing time. Mind you this is a saturday afternoon and they were closing at 3pm. So no more visits after 2:45pm. Also they aren’t opened sundays. When the fuck do you think people want to adopt pets? ON THE WEEKENDS!!! (and we were looking at those who were up for review—review dates at shelters mean they are re-evaluated for adoptability, AKA euthanized if they aren’t kept longer)
To make matters worse for me this specific day I was visiting the shelter with my dad. I TOLD the staff that I was looking for a dog whose time was up. They had the audacity to tell me not to concern myself with that and to take into consideration their personalities and not their time limit. I looked that bastard dead in the eyes and said “Can you not seem how much personality there is here? I’m here to save a life. I can’t go on personality there is so much, tell me who needs to get out of here today.” Still not very helpful. When I brought up the no kill movement I always get the same bullshit. Blah blah blah owners responsibility, blah blah blah, pet overpopulation, blah blah blah living in cages isn’t a life. NEITHER IS FUCKING BEING DEAD.
*Seriously what kind of logic is this? Does that mean the homeless people and orphan children should be euthanized as well?
4. I’m not sure exactly what animal control is supposed to do other than CONTROL ANIMALS. I’ve heard numerous people complain that animal control doesn’t’ come pick up the stray animals or the wildlife that is harassing them (honestly it’s probably our fault for building in their habitat). If there are raccoons like terrorizing you and your pets you are SUPPOSED to be able to call animal control and have them do something. Apparently they like to try to make it seem like that’s not their job and they want you to call wildlife trappers—which you have to pay. WTF am I paying taxes for which pays county employees?!?!?!
NOTE: However I have recently learned, if your county animal control refuses to do the services they are paid to do by our taxes…just call the mayors office. That really lights a fire.
5. A client adopted a kitten over the weekend from the county. And she said if she had no fallen in love with her little boy Bingo that she would have told the staff (and one woman in particular) to take this cat and shove it. She said they were so rude and basically told her once the kitty is off property it is no longer their problem regardless if it gets sick. NICE. assholes. They ALSO told her if she didn’t adopt him that he would be euthanized. WTF?!
6. This is not the first time I have completely had it with them. Complaints pretty much go nowhere. My clinic has called animal control for a cruelty/neglect case and they did NOTHING.  I’m so tired of this crap. I stood up for them last week and the next day this shit is thrown in my face.
I mean honestly they aren’t nearly as bad as Memphis Animal Shelter but damn learn a little customer service and compassion.
**Note: Now the workers at the adoption event were very friendly albeit uneducated. They did their best.
Oh and PS- using the whole “these animals are going to be euthanized if you don’t’ adopt them” is bullshit, because it doesn’t even have to happen. Tompkins County SPCA went no kill OVERNIGHT. IT IS POSSIBLE.
*calms down* Ok well let me show you some photos of that day because despite these recent annoyances they do seem to try to find homes for their shelter pets.

Top photos: Inside the mobile adoption bus (its pretty cool)
Bottom photos: Left-from the road, right-outside of bus

These photos are of my clinic’s booth. We were giving out free stuff to adopters and answering any questions people may have had.
Top: left-cleaning up, center-our booth, right-close up
bottom: my chair and my dog River
It was a fun event, I just wish OCAS would get their shit together. We’ll see how they do in two weeks (they are going to be there this friday and next also) at Downtown Orlando’s Lake Eola Barktoberfest. I will be there for my clinic with a booth as will other vendors. It is a german themed event with beer and food. Should be super fun. If you are in the area come visit River and I!!
Peace.Love.Pawprints.

52 Photos Week 2

Sooo this is probably one of the cutest pics ever and i may never have another chance at this as wynnie isnt affectionate like this with me usually (saves it for her daddy, but thats why I have River--shes my partner in crime, well dog partner anyway)

So yeah this is me and Wynnie.

52 Photos—Week 1

Does that explain it enough? :) Basically every Sunday I will post a photo from my week. This is something that often goes on around blogs-it helps give you inspiration on what to write about. The point is to post something once a week. I’ve chosen photographs <3 I started this once before (back in July?) and it didn’t pan out with crazy life stuff and then August Break came and I kind of gave up. But I’m determined to do this!!

Behold….Week one…

The first Harvest from our Patio Garden!!!

August Break—Final Photos and Wrap up

Whew, so this was harder than I thought. I really only had to try a few times to take at least a photo a day this month, the majority of them I just happened to take because I try to photograph my life/surroundings as much as possible. Last time I posted up thru Aug 20th, so I’m going to do a little recap and throw in the last ones also :) This was really fun!!
Descriptions of photos are on the original post (excluding the final photos, they are below)

CLICK for August 1-6 * CLICK for August 7-20

                             
Descriptions of August 21-31
21: That would be Wynnie (black and tan), River (red and tan), and EV (black and white cat)—they are just chilling on the floor together
22: Missed, what a bum!!
23: Delicious dinner my love made for me, Go David! <3
24: Super cute puppy at work
25: New jewelry made by little ‘ol me :) Will be listed eventually on etsy…heh
26: Photo of super HUGE pit dog with owner so you can see how big he is.
27: Pretty sunset behind me on my way home from work
28: That is our basil plant but there is a cool green colored bee type insect creature on it, out of focus…
29: Kittens at work, these little guys are up for adoption if anyone is interested. Please email me! We are in Orlando, FL area.
30: Cute ancient dog boarding at our clinic indefinitely while owner is in hospital/nursing care.
31: Missed, loser face. :)
Welp, I hope you enjoyed my photos.  I enjoyed sharing them. I’m working on figuring out a blog schedule. I have one thing I’m going to start: 52 Photos—its basically a restart on Project 52. This will start tomorrow (or tonight if I post it, not likely). Once a week I will share a photo, every week, for 52 weeks, so yeah a year. It will be on my flickr as well. Links will be provided.
Other ideas:
~Behind the Scenes of a Vet Clinic: does this sound interesting to you? I work as a full time vet tech and I can offer glimpses into my life/job and also many of you I assume are pet owners—some people don’t know what goes on in the back! This would be likely once a week. I can share my experiences, photos, and weekly health topics/advice. <3
~That’s all I have now…wait…something about yoga. Yeah. I love yoga, so I might try to do a weekly video review or something. I know a few free websites!
Let me know what you think. AND did you see that I’m sponsoring over at Bubby and Bean? Melissa made me a little button since I didn’t have one, check me out on the right side bar. Yay :)
Tomorrow: 52 Photos begins, would you guys like to play along now and then? I can add a linky widget, let me know :)

Time to catch up and GIVEAWAY UPDATE

This was a photo of our patio garden after we re-potted for the first time. Tomorrow’s post will show you how it looks. These plants won’t need to be repotted yet but our vegetable plants will be repotted. Those aren’t shown here as they were still seeds. They won’t look very good tomorrow as the FL heat is really brutal. However it rained the last two days so I’m hoping they will do better. My neighbors garden is better…
Anyway, I owe  you all some things and giveaway details (giveaway details at end of post in case you don’t care about 26 things….)

Things:

(remember the 26th things  ^ ^{about me} before my 26th bday)

22. I love the beach. Love the sea, the breeze, the sand—when its not in my bathing suit, the waves, AND fried chicken with beer and fresh fruit. The best beach food! Don’t forget water too, you don’t want to get too dehydrated. We always stop at Dairy Queen and get mini blizzards on the way home. YUM!
21. I have two younger brothers. I dunno I just threw that out there.
20. My boyfriend is going to culinary school—yay! He’s an excellent cook as it is so once he’s done with school he’ll get a great job where they won’t take advantage of him.
19. I may decide after all to finish up my bachelors in biology and eventually apply to vet school. That’s all I’m saying on the matter ;)
18. I talk to my pets. Out loud. A LOT.
17. I don’t usually mind webspeak. But I HATE lol. (lol) no really, hehe is how I roll.
16. Overly religious people make me uncomfortable. Sorry.
15. I believe we are all innocent until proven guilty BY FAIR TRAIL.
14. One day I would like to adopt a horse. Hehe. Horsey!
13. I can be super picky about foods…and random other things.
12. Sometimes I HATE my apartment, but I’m learning to make peace with it.
11. I recently started trying to restructure/schedule my life more. I don’t plan to always adhere strictly but its nice to have a guideline.


And….that’s all the things for now :) trying to get back to once a day until the birthday!
Giveaway details:1. Will open July 1st and end midnight July 6th (my birthday) eastern time.
2. Winner chosen via random. org
3. Gift item to be announced but I’m making it so you know its super cool. Think purse type items.
4. MUST be a follower to enter giveaway—all you need to do is be a follower and leave a comment on the giveaway post. There will be other ways to get extra entries (I know this may be annoying but I’m trying to get my blog out there a tiny bit more—plz love ya) like twitter, facebook, etc.

OK—that’s its for now. Thanks for watching. haha. I know this was a long post but I think its worth it.