it begins

Tonight we're listening to The Smiths... The Queen is Dead album.

My name is Marina. Several years ago I graduated Rutgers University (Cook College, to be exact) with an independent major in Animal Behavior, Psychology Minor. Like 99.9% of Cook College students (minor exaggeration), I started out with a Pre-Vet concentration. By my junior year, I had changed my concentration from Pre-Vet to Lab Animal/Research, back to Pre-Vet and then back to Lab Animal once over. It was a frustrating time, 2008.

That fall saw two of the most important events in my life thus far. Firstly, I joined the Honors and Service Fraternity of Alpha Zeta...great friendships, leadership experience, and lots of other character building crap. More importantly, that fall I failed Organic Chemistry and decided that maybe veterinary school was not for me. Fast forward a couple of years.

For a little over a year I had been working at a doggy daycare/boarding/rescue in Brooklyn. I came on board after graduating with the impression that I was going to be the rescue dog trainer. Though I did gain much experience working with different breeds, ages, and behavioral issues, ultimately I was more of a "front desk bitch/slave". Mostly checking dogs in and out of daycare and boarding, cleaning up lots of dog shit (not complaining about this one, as I never really mind fecal matter as long as it's not human), and running the photo-blog. At the time I was still very "into" photography, and taking photos of playing dogs allowed me to release some of the frustration I felt about not being able to work with  dogs that had behavioral issues that actually needed to be worked on. So, mostly photos of shit like this:

As a side note, these three dogs are playing. They look like they're killing each other, but most of the photos I took were about half teeth and half fur. 

Last year, right after new years, my boss's wife (who was NOT my boss) fired me and one of the other front desk "managers" (lovely Agnes) who I had gotten to be great friends with. You can't really make a long story short, here. The rescue had taken on three or four dogs from the AC&C that were in pretty awful shape. One in particular was extremely emaciated and could barely walk. This group of dogs lived in a bunch of cages in the basement of the rescue until they got over the kennel cough that every dog coming out of the AC&C carries. So...maybe a week. Maybe less. It was pretty clear that one of the dogs, Dexter, was not really improving. As it turns out, Dexter had thyroid cancer and some other awful crap. I say this very loosely. 

Ultimately, what lead to us getting fired was that we had voiced out to one of the newer employees (who was good friends with the boss's wife) that we believed that certain dogs (that were either critically ill and in pain or so aggressive towards people that they were obviously never going to get any type of rehabilitation) were probably better off being humanely euthanized. I'm not a person who takes euthanasia lightly but I do understand that sometimes it's the kinder option when it comes to quality of life issues. The boss's wife did not take this very well and Agnes and I were sat down in the back room, fed a bunch of lies about how all the other employees hated us and that we were not wanted there. We were also delicately told that we would have been fired before the holidays but that they knew that they would not be able to run the place without us, as, over the holidays we had upwards of 100 dogs that boarded with us. 

While joining AZ and failing Organic Chem had been two very critical step stones, I believe that being fired from that place was quite possibly the best thing that had ever happened to me. It was an almost instant 180 degree turn to investing all my resources and energy into getting in veterinary school. Within a few weeks of being fired, I was hired at two jobs: a GP veterinary hospital and the emergency/specialty hospital that I still work at today. I stayed at the GP from about February to September. When I re-enrolled in classes I could only realistically hold one job so I decided to stay with the emergency hospital as it is a five minute bike ride from my house. Onto some lighter notes before I get back to studying for tonight.

Big tongue. Bigger ears.

This is Rem. Remmy. Remington. Booger. Dogface. Fuckface. He has a lot of nicknames based on whether he is barking at the poodle down the block, eating fistfuls (pawfuls?) of goose shit, or being a perfect angel who can do no wrong. He is the light of my life. An almost 12-year old German shepherd with the heart of a whale and the emotional stability of a hormonal teenager. Terrified of firewords (this should say fireworks, but thanks to Alex, I'm leaving it as firewords because...who wouldn't be scared of firewords)  and thunderstorms. Loves people, kids, dogs, cats, and above all else, the water hose. It loves to get the hose again.

Very puny bug.

 This is Sully. Year after year of attending Cook College's "Ag Field Day" and pouring over their hissing cockroach tanks, I did what every vet and vet tech alike judge people for doing...I made an impulse buy. In my defense, Sully only cost me a dollar and the instant I arrived home I did hours of research on how to care for hissing cockroaches. When telling my friends and co-workers about my newest addition, I received a unanimous response of "...why"

The only way he looks at the camera is if I hold the ball just above it.

What you'll get from this blog: 

• A start to finish process of application to veterinary school
• Maybe some laughs, but probably not as I'm not that funny
• No good photos: I don't have a working camera and I use my iphone, exclusively
• No cute drawings like on Hyperbole and a Half - though I adore that blog I myself have no artistic talents
• Lots of insight into the world of Organic Chemistry. Since failing Ochem1 I've made a turn around, did awessomely in retaking Ochem1 and now am trying to get through Ochem2 with the help of a brilliant genius man named Lenny. The man is a brilliant genius who could single-handedly (is that even a word) cure cancer and any other ailment if he put his mind to it. God's gift to organic chemistry and biochemistry. This one is NOT an exaggeration 
• Whatever you make of it.

I think that's enough venting for one night.