Yes, even with a tub of toys, some of our pets are acting like bored kids with all of the snow and cold weather that's been going on.  It seems like my animals are alternating between hyperactivity, and going into hibernation.  
Honestly, even the Yellow Peril isn't asking to go outside with all of the snow that we've been having.  He's still meowing his head off at me for food. "MEOW MEOW MEOoooowWwwww...." runs to the food bowl..  (I showed him the meme "I don't know who's cat needs to see this, but you literally just ate."  He doesn't care.)

The Challenge: keeping the pets safe and entertained during inclement weather!

For my cats...
Well, the Yellow Peril has decided that RC cars pretty cool to chase!  He's too "smart" to go for a LASER pointer, or a feather on a string, but the tiny car he feels is an adequate challenge.
After a few rounds with the car, and my freshening of the  cat nip on the scratching post, and he was good for a few minutes of activity.  
Dwight (De-grey cat), has taken up a cappella singing while watching birds on the feeder outdoors.  The birds don't mind, and it keeps him awake :)
​Adding Feliway Friends pheromone diffuser has helped the two cats get along better now that they are spending more time in each other's space during the winter.
The cats don't share a bed, but they don't hiss and spit as they pass each other, which is a pretty big improvement.

One project that looked super fun, but I haven't done it yet, is this "craft" using a ceiling fan and toilet paper: cats for lovee  will take you to FaceBook. 

The dogs...
​I get BarkBox toys delivered.  We seriously have soooo many dogs toys, I feel a little bit guilty.  But to have "fun" my dogs seem to need to either destroy their toys (fluff and squeakers EVERYWHERE), or have me play with them.  My dogs don't like playing in the snow in  the back yard on their own.    
​We haven't been walking much (only because I'm a wimp in snow, they are good to go!) but try to get to a close by field when we can.  

Challenges with snow walks include: me falling on my can.  Yes, I have been told that I need to "walk like a penguin", and I do have some microspikes that I bought from Costco, but I'm kinda clumsy.
Also, the "toe snow balls".  Do your dogs get these?  I've tried paw protection balms and waxes, but they soon get a major jam of snow between their pads.  Other than trimming the hair short, have any of you had success with battling what I call "snow toe"?
I am looking forward to the mud and rain!  As a Wet-Coaster, I know how to deal with dirty paws :)

I will also be building a "Snuffle-Matt" for my dogs.  Have you seen these?  I made one for the clinic for someone to win in a draw, and I'm thinking that I might make one for my dogs.  
​ 

What are they for?  Well, hiding treats for your dog, cat (ferret?) to slowing find by snuffling around through the floppy bits of tied on fleece. 
Want to make your own?  Go to This Link .  I used a section of anti-fatigue matting from Home Depot for the base, and some older fleece blankets for the strips.  My advice: double count the number of strips needed to make the blanket - I counted wrong the first time :(
​

True believes all of the best toys are anyone else's toys.  She is a greedy little thief!  Don't let her adorable brown eyes fool you!
To keep her a bit happier, I make sure to rotate through the too many toys, and bring up some from the bottom of the bin.  
She believes the solution is going on a play date at her friend's house, and stealing their toys :)

Some of our clients have been bringing their dogs in for extra under water treadmill sessions to help with the lack of outdoor exercise.  Pyper, the eleven year old Aussie Shepherd, still comes in for her 30 minutes of trotting in water.  She is so fit, it's really amazing! 
​Check her out! Here's a clip: https://tinyurl.com/PyperTrotting 

How are you keeping your pets from "cabin fever"?  Let us know!

Nowadays, most people that frequent veterinary hospitals know what a "Vet Tech", "AHT", "RVT", or Veterinary Nurse is.  We've done a pretty good job on letting you know how these people fit into our veterinary family, and why you want to make sure that your veterinary facility has licensed vet techs on hand.
What we haven't done a good job on is letting you know about another important member of the team: VOA or Veterinary Office Assistant. Other titles that you may come across include VAA (Veterinary Administrative Assistant) or VTA (Veterinary Technician Assistant), or VOAC (Veterinary Office and Animal Care), depending on where the individual took their schooling.
So who are these people?  And why literally, we cannot get enough of them.  As in we cannot hire enough of them.
Typically, VOA's are women.  They work in many different parts of the hospital. Often a VOA is your first line of contact with the hospital.  They answer the phone, reply to emails, and greet you as your enter our reception area.
VOA's assist our veterinarians during exams, acting as stenographers, animal handlers, make up pharmaceuticals to go home for pets, and provide support for clients that may not understand all of the instructions and information that veterinarians share with them about their pet's health.

VOA's clean up poop.  They set up the surgical suite and after surgery, they clean (so, so many fluids).  
And they take "poop".  They literally are stopping point number ONE for clients who feel the need to vent at ANY aspect of their veterinary care.  Complain about a price?  Usually people will aggressively share that with a VOA.  Don't like that their pet is sick and not getting better?  The VOA hears it first and loudest.  The debit machine is slow?  Don't worry, your VOA is dying a little on the inside while they are waiting for your transaction to complete.  They do not have their foot on the internet break pedal, slowing things down, so that you get to spend more time with us :) .  Also, if you are brusque with your VOA, and then sweet as pie to the other members of the staff, please know that we DO talk to each other and share that information.  Not that any of you, gentle readers, would dream of doing that.

So on this, Veterinary Technician's Week 2019, I want to celebrate VOA's.  Because as much as techs do so many great things, and we would never be without them, we need to cheer on the VOA who is supporting them and the rest of the hospital, with the blood and the poop.  
VOA's - we love you because you care so much, you work so hard and support the rest of the team so very well. 
Thanks for being there!  Thanks for putting up with the rest of your veterinary team when we might get a bit "shirty" with you, and forget to use our best manners when you ask us questions, or come to us for decisions about "what to tell the client now".
Thanks for staying so positive, doing all of those other jobs that are so important for a smoothly running hospital.  Thanks for loving that puppy and that geriatric cat.  Thanks for knowing that the size and the cost of an animals doesn't determine its worth, or how much it is loved.
​Thanks for putting up with the veterinarians, the technicians, the work placement students, the loud noises, the stressed, the sad, the happy - all the people, pets and events that just keep coming at you.
Sincerely, you rock, and I don't think that we say it often enough!

On our walk this morning, I was ruminating on the idea of what it is to love another being - specifically a "non-human animal".  
What creates this bond?  Why can the loss of a pet be so very devastating?
Not uncommonly, we will have clients express to us that the loss of a pet hit them harder than the loss of a human family member.  How did this love come to be so deep?
Some clients have told us that they will never get another pet again after their beloved animal companion has passed away - that they cannot stand to go through a loss that profound again.
I mean WOW, that is a lot of emotion - a huge bond - with something that some people will describe as being "just a" cat, "just a dog", or even "just a" lizard.  

For me, my attachment to my dogs comes from the activities that we take part in, the adventures we have, or the training we do to learn a new skill.  We go through these things together: we share, we compromise.  We look into each other's eyes and smile.  We like the team that we are, and what we do.  For me, my dogs are not "fur babies", they are dogs, but they are unique and lovely individuals.  (Sometimes I tease our son that he's my "skin baby", just because it sounds creepy, and we have a weird sense of humor!)

Now cats.  I have cats.  I chose to have cats, but I love them differently.  Maybe not equally to the dogs.  (Is it OK to say that? Well, I'm blogging, so I say that it's OK.)
And I have great cats.  I think they like me too, sometimes!  Well, especially the one that is named Marco, AKA, The Yellow Peril.  
Marco isn't an easy cat.  He was a young adult rescue that transitioned to being an indoor cat quite well, until I kept a kitten from a litter of bottle babies that I had courtesy of the SPCA.
At this point, Marco decided that he would like to go outdoors, si vous plait, to escape our new kitten, Dwight.  Knowing the hazards of the Outdoor Life for cats, we heartily declined his request.  He continued to YELL at us that he would like to go outdoors.  We declined.  
We medicated Marco with neutraceuticals (Zylkene - ask for it at your local vet office, it really does work well for some pets), enriched his environment, changed his food, gave him safe spaces away from the kitten... Multiple litter boxes were provided.
Then began the revenge of the urine.  
Down the heating vents, Marco decided to urinate.  When he wasn't STILL YELLING AT US THAT HE'D REALLY LIKE TO GO OUTSIDE, he was peeing.
After replacing rusted, urine coated heating vents, we made the decision to give in.  And feel horribly guilty every damned time that we let him outside.  But now, no more bad peeing, and much less yelling from the cat.  He still yells a bit, because he cares.  Or because he can.  He's not saying which.
Oh, and Marco does not cuddle, he does not want to sit on anyone's lap.  He is his own cat, thank you very much.
But I love him.  And I think he has some small measure of affection for me.  He'll be sleeping on my bed, curled in an adorable cat ball, open his eyes, see me, and start to purr.  He reaches out a paw to encourage me to continue patting him, if I stop too soon.  He is pretty charming, if he does say so himself.  And yes, I agree.

I also really really really like my bees.  But I fear them, too.  As a new bee keeper, I'm afraid of killing them off en mass through some misguided management technique.  I might take too much honey off.  They might be over crowded and decide to swarm.  I could kill the queen with a poorly timed mite treatment.  What about wax moths?  Yikes! 
But I am really fascinated by them.  I could literally watch the hive for an hour.  I don't want to go on vacation for more than a week at a time in the summer in case they need me.  (Don't tell my husband!)
I've squished a fair number of them inadvertently as I move around different parts of the hive, and I've been stung.  Have your heard about "large local reaction" after being stung by an insect?  It can be quite spectacular.  As in I had to miss work, because my hand was so swollen that I didn't think I could do things like touch my finger to my thumb, grip a pencil, hold the steering wheel... 
All that being said, I don't think that they give two whoops about me.  They might hate me a bit when I crack the hive open.  When I feed them pollen/sugar they might enjoy or appreciate finding it miraculously in their hive?  What do bees feel?  They certainly get angry.  And I think they experience contentment when everything is right in the hive.  But I doubt they think that I have anything to with it.  

Three kinds of animals.  One human brain interacting with them.  But still, I care for them.  Differently, not equally.  If you put a gun to my head and wanted to make me choose one of them, I'd have to find a way to take the gun away from you, because I would not be able to choose who would live, and who would die.  Well, I'd let you have a few individual bees, but not the queen, because that would kill the hive.

How do you form your bonds with your pet?  Does it vary?  Have you loved one pet more than the others?  What does loving an animal mean to you?  Could you ever care for an unconventional pet?

Write a blog they said.  Your friends and clients will like to have some sort of insight to life at a veterinary hospital, they said...
And well, here I am with writer's block :)  You're welcome!
To begin, I thought that I'd share a little bit about what some of us do to unwind when we're not taking care of you and your pets.  
Vet life (unlike the Pug Life), can be emotionally, as well as physically stressful.  It can be extraordinarily rewarding as well.  Finding the balance between what we give at work and what we need for ourselves as humans that continue to function can be a hard go. 
Quite a few people who work at vet hospitals (just like humans everywhere else) can struggle with their health.  Like many others we deal with the physical reality of having a bad back or aging knees.  A lot of us "take home" the emotional burdens of the day.  Some days someone gets angry or upset at with us, or maybe a beloved pet that we've known since it was a baby has crossed over the rainbow bridge.  That stuff hurts.
That's not to say that we don't have a lot of really, really great days too.  We get to see new life come into the world.  We love our team and seeing each other succeed.  We love how hard our clients try to help their pets live their best lives.  All of this brings us a LOT of joy.  
But how do we balance it all?
Me - I get out in nature.  I love that I work a variety of shifts here at the hospital (all though I dislike that I can't be here whenever someone needs me) because it lets me get outdoors when it's not so darned crowded.  You can often find me on the trails opposite Ledgeview, or up on Sumas Mountain, with my dogs Gunner and True.
I love taking pictures of nature (often just with my phone, because the camera that you have with you is the best one that day), and sharing them with my friends, often on Facebook, because honestly that's how I stay in touch with so many friends and family these days.
We have a few exercise enthusiasts here at CRPH: do you know who's currently training for a marathon?  Guess who goes to the gym a LOT?  Do you know which staff member can be found on the trails around Abbotsford?  We have a few skilled archers on staff.  At least 4 of us enjoy target shooting - don't worry, only paper is harmed.
We have "games" enthusiasts!  As in board games!
We love food - an we love sharing it with each other.  I think that I need to do a blog post about foods eaten at the veterinary clinic :)  We eat a LOT. 
The coveted "work / life" balance for me comes in the form of really taking care of myself, the best that I can - eating real food, getting really well exercised a few times a week, getting more than 6 hours of sleep.  By doing this, I can usually hold it all together, so that I can help support my fellow team members, and do my best for you.
So what do YOU do "to hold it all together" so that you can be your best self?
​Comment below - we can all use a few tips to be our healthiest selves :)