I've been putting this off for myriad reasons, one of which some isn't so fun to talk about, and writing about it ain't that much better. My last spate of posts has all been frivolous or rather light in tone, and that's simply because I rather needed to mark all the brighter things, to show even myself that it's not all gloom. So.

What's been going on with school.

The college I'm going to is pulling some rather unwelcome moves, and has been for a while now. Apparently, during my first year, they told the director of the program of 20+ years, Dr. Fellner, that they were going to close the program. Two years ago, they'd tried to do the same thing, he and the staff rallied, got community support, and the school straightened up and said okay! We're sorry! No closing! And now they were doing it again. He'd been fighting the administration for years, and after thinking he'd gotten the program stabilized - new facilities and everything - to be told this just was the straw. He took a position as Dean of Sciences at another college, and left one of the other longtime teachers, an RVT named Lisa Couper, in charge as interim director. Because he and another longtime teacher left, it was a scramble to get the courses covered this year, but by the skin of her teeth, Lisa not only got vets in to teach, but excellent ones at that. But only for the second semester of my first year. The one that's ending soon. And, though she's fought tooth and nail, even she's had it with the sheer amount of bullshit being heaped on her plate by the college administration. She won't be coming back next semester either. And she's taught in the program for years - I've only now and again caught some of the crap she's had to deal with, and I can't tell you how disgusted I am with the long, greedy, unprofessional weasel Hartnell has as its president. Nothing is his fault, no, that was never said (when it was, several times), it's all his/her fault, that's not my job, etc. He has no respect for anyone, either, or a firm grasp of reality. *snorts* He wants vets to contribute money to the program - well, they raised a few thousand dollars the last time, and it was impressive. Not enough for him, though. He just doesn't seem to get that most vet practices are the last of the "mom and pop" type operations. Small businesses. They don't have the kind of funding that even a human hospital does. He's an idiot. I've been to several board meetings and spoken, as well as other students/teachers/community members about what the college is doing to the program. What it boils down to is that they're not taking a 1st year class, they have no instructors for the current students, they're only advertising for a temporary ONE year full time position (because we're required to have a vet), and who the hell is going to come work there for one lousy year, for the pittance they're offering?

So my future is very much up in the air, and I have no idea about the quality of the education I'll be getting, or the stability. My next round of classes might very well be postponed if they can't get someone into the vet position, and yet, they're doing diddly squat to advertise the spot. *shakes head, growls* They squawk about the money for the program and faculty positions, and yet they're paying some outside source to come in and "review" the program. Nevermind it's not the complete program, since they're not letting in a first year class! With a stressed and angry second year class that's suffered attrition because people are going elsewhere, teachers who have little to no time to prepare IF we get them, and no steady guiding influence in a director, just what the hell do they THINK they're going to find? *snorts* Idiots.

And finals are hitting this week. So far, no luck in finding a paid externship, though if I have to, I've got a volunteer one lined up to fall back on. Need the money, though. In part, because of the massive vet bills I've been racking up.

Toofers.

Evidently, I now need another root canal. It already needed a crown, and I'd almost paid that off - only a couple hundred to go. The dentist didn't think I'd have to get a root canal too, but he was working on it, and found, as he said "That the problem is, an x-ray is a two-dimensional image of a three-dimensional surface". But he doesn't do root canals on back teeth. So, on went the temporary. I have to go to a specialist. Who will cost $900 frikken dollars. Gonna be a while on that, with everything else. I average a bottle of Motrin every couple of weeks.

My cat.

Mithril is still going to the vet for her chronic congestion. We had blood taken and ran tests (bye-bye $235) to compare against last year's results, and they're good, at least. She's on antibiotics again (about $30, with another refill to go), and yesterday I picked up some antiviral meds as well ($47 for 7 pills). The goal is to get her well enough for a dental (which will run between $300-$400), and hope that that might be some of her problem. She does have bad teeth - I tried to get her into school for cleaning, but she was too old and her health too iffy for the teacher's peace of mind, which I understand. *rubs forehead* Now I have to get a credit card, because there's no way I can scrape all that together at once. In the meantime, pilling her has become a chore. She figured out I was stuffing them in her treats and now won't eat anything. So I have to shove them down her throat manually. Easy enough, just... obviously, she hates it. She's running away whenever she sees me now. Very disheartening.

Sorrow.

I inadvertently acquired a foster kitten - some customers came into the store where I worked and asked if we carried milk, holding up a kitten wrapped in a towel. He still had his umbilical cord, he couldn't have been more than a few days old, since it ended up dropping off about three days after I got him. Anyway, I looked at the kitten and said "Oh, no, you don't want to give him milk. He needs kitten formula, you'll have to feed him every two to four hours, and you'll need to stimulate him to urinate... *pause as I take in their wide-eyed stares* and poop... and you'll need to keep him warm..."

"You know what to do?"

"Uh, well, yes, I've had fosters before, though not quite this young..."

"Will you take him?"

"Uh... sure. Okay." And I looked down at the kitten and thought... Sucker. You know you just said goodbye to sleep, right? Yeah.

So I took him. Got him settled in a big shoebox, bought water to dump out and put hot water in, bought some towels, bought kitten formula (because hey, Kmart carries it, how 'bout that) and did my best to get some into him. He was in pretty good shape, really, nice and fat, not starving. Mom probably just got spooked while moving him and dropped him, but never came back, because the people who found him said he was cold when they picked him up. Tiny little guy, mostly white with a couple black spots on his tail and hindquarters, and one big one on his head that extended down over one eye, but didn't touch either ear though it covered the rest of his crown. I dubbed him Nightcap.

So began the days of carting him about, feeding every few hours or whenever he demanded it, rubbing his bottom and celebrating when he peed or pooped. And not really sleeping. He went to school with me, he went to work with me, and he already had a rather loud little protopurr. And though I had no intention of keeping him (I have had fosters before. I may love them, but I can give them up as long as I know it's to a good home) I still began to fall in love with him. The funny thing is, so did my parents, even though they were real quick to tell me when I first walked in the door that we couldn't keep another cat, which I agreed with. But even Brad liked taking care of him once in a while and holding him.

I had him for about a week, and he was doing so well... and then he aspirated a little during one feeding. Not a lot, and he seemed fine after sneezing a little, but then he developed a small rattle... and then, though I took him to a vet and got antibiotics and even an xray... he crashed that night, when he'd been doing so much better. I know when they're that small, they can crash so easily... but I still cried about it. I miss him. I wanted to see him grow up - he had such a personality, and his eyes had just opened when it happened. I had to make the decision to euthanize. He was just having too much trouble breathing, and it was too hard on him. I didn't want to put him through it when his chances of making it were so very low.

Dammit. You'd think I'd have stopped tearing up every time I mention him. Moving on.

My dog.

A little over a week ago Watch had a stroke. Elderly dog vestibular syndrome, is what the vet called it. The good news there is that he's doing a lot better. All that's left to show what happened is a slight head tilt, and the occasional stumble and waver. Really, he's at 90%, and with things being as they are, that's a whole lot better from where he was when my mother woke me at 5 in the morning to look at him, in a panic. There's every likelihood that he'll continue to improve, and even if he doesn't, he'll still have excellent quality of life. Even so, it was a very long week, worrying about him, watching him, and though relief came relatively quickly as he improved, it's not been a fun time there either.

And my poor mouse.

And now Masquerade seems to have developed something with her eye and a spot under one ear. Putting BNP on it and it seems to be slowly improving.

Here. I can't leave it on this note, so... look at some art.

Did this as a present for RedKam.

A pic for a friend's story character, a young female minotaur named Ihlsirrak

Oh, this was that gift picture I talked about from the nice guy in the Creator's Lounge at FC '06.

More pfutzing around with the tribal style. One, and two.

Messed with the colors and took out the awkwardly placed braid to make a new icon.