Traveling With Pets

My blood really boils every time I fly with Rhyley.

Airline policy is that pets must be in a carrier and put underneath the seat in front of you. I get why the pet needs to be in a carrier, it prevents a lot of chaos that could ensue. But really, underneath the seat? Not only in that unsafe for the animal, but where are my legs supposed to go?!

I got pretty lucky yesterday - on my first flight, the attendant let me hold Rhyley's carrier in my lap except during take off and landing, and I was able to keep her carrier in my lap the entire duration of the second flight. I wasn't so lucky earlier this year when they made me stuff her under the seat on a flight across the country. I think this is just awful.

I know that some pets are fine in a carrier and don't panic like my dog does. But it is beyond stressful when your dog is flipping around in its carrier, scratching at the walls, and panting like crazy. I kept taking her pulse and checking her breathing the entire time (I gave her some xanax prior to the flight) and her heart was POUNDING, I mean probably 200 beats a minute! I felt so terrible for her. Not to mention that she was incredibly overheated even when in my lap, but can you imagine being in a tightly enclosed space and being stuffed under a seat where there is less airflow?

Now I don't want to come off as sounding like pets are equal to children. (Well, personally my dog is like a child to me) but how is it any safer for a parent to have their baby/child in their lap during take off than for me to hold my dog's carrier during take off? Last I checked, babies and pets have a lot in common - they both breathe, eat, go potty, they both have sensations of pain and discomfort - and it obviously would be "unethical" to stuff your child in that space under the seat. So why is it any different for a pet? God knows that if something were to happen during take off or landing, I'm going to be reaching down and grabbing my dog. It's a hec of a lot safer for me and my dog to just have her in my lap.

I think I speak for many people when I say that it is a lot more disturbing to be next to a crying child than to be next to my dog sleeping quietly in her carrier on my lap. You have allergies? Oh, I can switch seats with someone. There is just no excuse. I even had a father tell me on the plane that traveling with pets is just like traveling with children. It really isn't that much different except that one is a human and one is an animal. How people can feel right about the treatment of animals on airplanes is beyond me. My dog's life is much more important than policies put in place by people who clearly have little care for the welfare of animals. And don't even get me started on pets in cargo...never do that to your animal!!

I really like this article about flying with pets. I absolutely think that planes should have a "pet class" section. I wouldn't even mind it being in the back of the plane and very limited to just a few people. Just to have a place where your pet could sit safely in it's crate next to you would be ideal.  How is it that a living, breathing animal is considered property? My hope is that one day pets will no longer be thought of as property but as part of the family.

Growing the CVM

Excited for the advances our school is planning to make [and maybe a little excited to be in a school video!] They filmed our class during our live dog labs and my lab group made the cut. Fun!!

Keeping Your Sanity

So I know the semester isn't over until Friday, but whether I get a zero or a 100 on that final won't change my letter grade so I'm basically done :)

With that said, I've been thinking back on how I made it through and have compiled a list of tips on how to survive (both to future first years and for myself to remember to use in the future). Read on!

1. Organization is key. I'm an organization freak, so I really love this part. Having the tablet really helps to stay organized (everything on a laptop rather than papers scattered all over the place), but if you're like me then you like to write things down sometimes instead of just studying them on a computer screen. In the beginning of the semester I made a flash card box to keep all of the subjects separated and in the order we learned them. I also used sticky notes for each lecture section of flash cards. This made it a whole lot easier to pick out what I needed to study for finals. I also kept a notebook for extra notes, rather than loose pieces of paper. Color coding is another nice way to organize your thoughts. One last thing I recommend in a study space that you want to use. Personalize it! I bought a desk and decorated it with a sea lion sculpture my mom bought me when I interned at Sea World, and a few other knick knacks that have memories associated with them. I also bought a board that's half dry erase and half cork, which has important dates, inspirational quotes, the veterinary oath, and Bible verses on it. So it may be cheesy, but sometimes when I was feeling over whelmed [or bored of the material] I would glance up at that and remember what I'm doing this for :)

2. Stay on top. I can't sit here and tell you that I came home every day and reviewed all of the material from that day's lectures, but I can tell you that I made time during the weekends to catch up. I never got behind, and it definitely helped me to get really good grades. It does depends on how your testing schedule is though. I used the evenings to study for exams (held on Fridays) and used the weekend to organize (there's that word again!) my notes and make flash cards for all of the material (yes, in every subject) that I learned that week. If there was a really bad exam coming up, I would figure in some study time on the weekends for that too.

3. Keep a schedule. This sort of goes hand in hand with the first two items, but I think it's really important. Invest in a nice planner and use it! Each weekend I would plan out the following week to make sure I had enough time to get through all of the exam material. Basically I divided up how many lectures there were and split them evenly among the days I had to study, and I always made sure to keep Thursday as a review day. This worked out most of the time and kept me from pulling any all nighters, which brings me to my next point...

4. Get sleep. I never got less than 6 hours of sleep this entire semester. Honestly, it is way more detrimental to force yourself to stay awake than to just get a good night's rest, wake up refreshed and review before the test. [I say this now, but we'll see what happens second year, heh].

5. Plan "me time". I really didn't have much "me time" this semester, but I did at bare minimum give myself Friday's off from studying. I also took a half day on the weekends to do something I wanted to do, whether shopping, reading, taking photographs...whatever it is, make time to do it. It will keep you sane!

Hopefully these keep me on track next semester too, but as for second year...all I can say is I am scared!

Alright, time to do a little reviewing and a lot of relaxing. This has been a great semester! :]

Almost there!

It's hard to believe this is the last week of classes. Finals are next week, and then I have a month of freedom before next semester :)

Man, I used to think undergrad finals week was bad...but it has nothing on this. I have three exams this week..yep three exams the week before finals, and we begin finals on Monday! Sure, Integration is a breeze, but 3D anatomy is going to take a little studying. And of course the anatomy lab exam is proving to be a lot more in depth than I thought! On top of studying for those, I'm trying to start studying for Monday's final (cumulative micro anatomy, ugh). That exam is going to have an ungodly amount of material on it, and waiting till the weekend to go over it all is a horrible idea. So needless to say, I'm going to be exhausted by the end of next week!

In other news, it is super cold here, I don't think it got above 30 degrees today. Brrr! I'm hoping for some snow at least once before I leave for Florida, but I'm definitely ready for a good dose of the Florida sun! 14 more days until I fly home!

Time to grab some coffee and head into the lab...it's gonna be a long week.

And just a little comic relief:

No, this is not Rhyley hahaha but I thought it was pretty hilarious :