Bleh. It's finals time, and I'm behind on my work. I've had some issues with my health this semester, and admittedly wasn't really putting my all into schooling as a consequence. It's biting me in the rump something fierce right now. Normally I can tough through it and generate an academic miracle, but... well, frankly I've been seriously depressed for few months now, which interferes with my drive to do much of anything, and on top of it have come down with something nasty! I'm not sure what I'm sick with, but I'm coughing and sneezing like crazy, oozing nastiness from my eyes, have swollen lymph nodes, and have muscle aches all over. Oh, and I've spent most of the last two days sleeping when not at work. No good! I have an unfinished final project due TOMORROW and can't get up the gumption to finish working on it. I never take OTC pharmecueticals for things like colds, but I think I'm going to have to break that behavior if I want to finish this assignment and pass the course, oye x_x
On a less whiny note, because I suppose I haven't the right to whine about a situation of my own making, I am happy to say that Steve's Dumeril's boa is healing up nicely. Did I mention she got hurt? Here's what happened:
Every year, our college holds an Earth Day celebration. We brought some of Learning Gone Wild's education animals, and I also set up a wildlife rehabilitation booth with educational materials. Steve usually brings Big Guy, his adult male Dumeril's boa, along since he is just the most sweet, mellow snake you can imagine. Unfortunately, the female Steve has been trying to breed him with? Far from being the most sweet, mellow snake you can imagine.
When he was pulling the male from their enclosure for the show, she came shooting out of the hide and struck at Steve. The movement of the female must have startled the male, because he struck at HER. Aaaand the next thing you know, we need to wrestle apart two freaked out snakes that are constricting around each other. Not fun by a long shot.
The female had apretty nastybite wound, which we are of course VERY worried about because snakes' mouths harbor some nasty bacteria. But thankfully, we were able to clean and treat the wound promptly, and with 3x daily treatments (which is a BLAST with an ill tempered 6ft constrictor btw), the injury is already looking worlds better with no signs of infection. Plus she ate her rat today, so she can't be too stressed by the whole ordeal.
That minor gaffe aside, Earth Day went well. I managed to get out some good educational information on some important wildlife issues, like not moving firewood, properly containing cats, and how to properly deal with distressed wildlife. Steve's critters were a HUGE hit, though it was a little sad to see just how uneducated many college students are about animals. One girl was shocked to touch the snake and realize it had
bones. She apparently thought they didn't have any :?I guess that's why getting them young with the educational programs is so important, though I'm a little shocked by the utter failure of highschool biology in this instance.
I also participated in Beacon Barks this weekend, a fundraiser for local rescues. Local people bring their dogs out for a big parade and to buy pet products and support rescues. Vendors buy booths and the proceeds go to the SPCA, plus rescue orgs are allowed to set up booths to solicit donations. I
maybe donated away the last little bit of cash I had left over from vacation
I was there for my pet sitting company's booth; we got a lot of business cards and flyers out, so hopefully I'll have more work soon (a few hundred bucks a month, while better than nothing, doesn't really cut it).
I was bothered by how many badly bred, untrained, un-neutered pit bulls were at the event, however. I adore pit bulls; they are fantastic dogs. They also presentlymake up the largest population of unwanted, mass-euthanized, most legislatively targetted dogs in the country. When rescues are there trying to scrounge up money to deal with the massive influx of unwanted, neglected, abused pit bulls, it's really a slap in the face to see so many unaltered males and CLEARLY breeding females. One guy was even trying to sell two pit puppies at an event for rescue groups! The effrontery!
Overall, however, it was great to see so many happy dogs and loving owners, and I really hope that the generosity of the donors helped out the local rescues that are really struggling in the face of the economic downturn.
