The ticks are out!

Blahhh, my least favorite creature has arrived in full force. I found a couple ticks on Winnie a few weeks ago when we had that weird warm spell, but they all disappeared when it got cold again. I just pulled the fifth one of the day off of her... ewwwww. Her Frontline is doing its job and keeping them from attaching to her, but that still means we need to do a good tick check every time she comes in from outside. Low-hanging doggies attract lots of ticks!

Anyway, the past week or so has been busy. We had a big physiology exam on Friday (55 out of 60, go me!), and then I headed down to Northfield for the Valhalla anniversary. It was a ton of fun to see Valhalla alums and see my band friends again. Our founder James Miller summed up what being in charge of Valhalla is like with the following story:

I learned pretty quickly that, as a leader, you get a lot farther by taking responsibility for anything that goes wrong, rather than passing the blame onto someone else. After our first concert, someone from the music department came up to me and asked, "How are those chimes getting back to the music building?" I replied, "Don't worry about it- I've got it covered, we have a guy, with a dolly, and a plan, and it's all taken care of." Then, as soon as he left, I asked the band, "What are chimes?!"

We had a great concert in the evening, and I got one last taste of playing with "my" band. I really hope I can afford time to play in a band in the future. It was so wonderfully absolutely not vet school... I told people on Monday that I spent my Saturday at a band reunion and was told that I'd "reached an entirely new level of dorkiness". ;-) Band geek to the end!

On Sunday, I started the day at a rabbit physical exam wetlab, which was fun, although not a ton of new information. I was happy to learn that the Minnesota Companion Rabbit Society decided to distinguish themselves from the national House Rabbit Society due to a conflict of ideals. I've always thought the HRS too radical for my tastes (all rabbits must live indoors, all must be spayed/neutered, no rabbit should ever be bred, and anyone who uses rabbits as meat- or even discusses the fact that rabbits are a meat source- is pure evil). Apparently the MN club didn't care for the HRS "our way or the highway" attitude and branched out into their own organization. Go MN CRS!

Sunday evening, I was back in the large animal hospital on foal team duty again. This time we had three sick babies in, and somehow I got stuck with a foal who truly wanted to injure me, while my partner got a tiny fluffy white cria and a tiny miniature horse foal. Not fair! At least my foal's momma was nice. I had no idea that a week-old sick baby was capable of biting and double-barreling people!

We are a short 7 days away from moving in, and I think the next few days are going to be a blur! I've barely packed a thing, and Saturday is the acupuncture wetlab, Monday is a huge pharmacology exam, and Tuesday is my Virology presentation. Er, start packing Tuesday afternoon....?