warped

That's right.....I can park here, finally!

Burrhoda is camera shy

Nic enticing Che che with Cheerios

Gloria lookin' for some treats

we will surely miss south friar's beach when we leave

First round of exams were my best so far. The professors probably figure we've been through the ringer and have proved ourselves worthy. We got our donkey "Burrhoda" and MuFossa our Sheep. Burrhoda sure does have an attitude, but she's coming around slowly. Sharie and the girls come out to watch me SOAP (assess) Burrhoda. Twice, someone (on cue)has stopped to want to take a picture of "the family" watching papa SOAP so we try our best to pose.

Of course here at RUSVM taking photographs is against school policy due to some pro PeTA student. Such student (1) has warped the facts and released photographs of our post operative animals. It's unfortunate because implementing such a rule will not be effective (but it's a try) and more importantly will make it seem as if we have something to hide (which we don't). Anyhow if your interested read the article from our local St. Kitts paper, our dean put it very well and I support him 100%:

http://mail.rossvet.edu.kn/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://sunstkitts.com/paper/?asknw=view%26asknw=view,view%26sun=171540048302272008%26an=400549086502262008%26ac=Local

In my opinion if PETA really does feel that we treat animals inhumanely here then I have news for them.....the way we surgically treat animals is at the same if not higher standards than the average US veterinarian. So perhaps the veterinary profession as a whole should be condemned?

Indee's latest hang-out

Homestretch

future construction worker?

So far the semester has been kind. We're in the middle of midterm exams and I've managed to pull of my best grades thus far in Large Animal Surgery and Theriogenology. I still have Large Animal Medicine on Monday but I don't feel as prepared so far....I still have a full day of studying left tomorrow.

Today I met with the Ross Board. Apparently the CEO, President, etc. of DeVry (own Ross) wanted to meet with three Ross students. I'm not sure why I was selected maybe it was random. Regardless I showed up and expected only 5 or 6 folks. To my surprise it was like 20 or so folks ready to hear us share our background and experience at Ross. They asked us a few questions and then we were on or way. Nice people.

We had some very special visitors recently, Auntie Mek from Ventura, Uncle Dave and Auntie Carol from Bakersfield. Even though their visit was brief it was special to have them here. I know for sure Nicole very much appreciated seeing them. I'm not sure that she understands the way we are all related. She does however, understand that they look similar to Grampa and have a similar body language so she warms up to them immediately.

Auntie Mek and Nic

Uncel Dave and the girls

Nicole has been asking to go to school so we called around to see if we could get her enrolled. Now she's officially a Ross Prep School student. Occasionally I sneak over to their playground and see her from a distance in action....it's great to see her grow up, what a privelage!

let the education journey begin...

We got our surgery donkey and sheep last Tuesday. So far our donkey Burrhoda has a bad attitude. I've taken the time to look at other groups with their donkeys and it seems like they are so friendly. We SOAP (assess) our donkey and sheep in the mornings before class and at 4:30pm. This last Thursday Burrhoda gave us a glimpse of hope as she showed a little love to us. I'm sure my surgery partners thought the same thing......it's gonna be hard to see her go for our terminal surgery. Im definitely not looking forward to that day, but I remind myself that she is serving a noble purpose. I will make every effort to learn as much as I can from her in the hopes that my future patients will benefit someday.

Oklahoma State

backyard at Leeward

grampa working on dinner!

That's right! Stillwater, OK to be exact. My first official day isn't until May 19th, 2008 so that means we have exactly a month to transition from the rock to Oklahoma. If heard nothing but great things about OSU: they were the first ones to break the mold and invite foreign graduates for clinicals and they love Rossies. So it sounds like I have a reputation to maintain at OSU. I had them down as my 3rd choice, Colorado was my "longshot" but I put it down anyways and Missouri my 2nd. I'm so excited about going to OSU especially for their large animal/food animal rotation.

This semester we are taking Large Animal Medicine II (LAM II), Large Animal Surgery (LAS), Theriogenology, and Practice, Management & Jurisprudence (PMJ), and Introduction to Clinics II. Intro to clinics has us go through various rotations (emergency, clinic, surgery, ambulatory, etc) as an appetizer for clinicals stateside.

So far I'm enjoying all the classes, especially Dr. Wallace's LAM II. Here were learning everything and anything about all cattle, sheep, and goat breeds.

Grammy and Grampa were over for a week. Grampa enjoyed golfing nearly everyday! Grammy was content chasing the little ones around.

dinner has been served!