Heavy rains bouncing off my window before sunrise woke me well before my alarm. The rain ceased by the time I was ready to walk out the door. Ohio is starting to remind me of Florida. It rains for an hour or two but the sunshine returns promptly.
On this day, the rains had been enough turn the drainage ditch into a swiftly flowing stream of flood waters. The lake survey we were set to complete this morning someplace on the other side. Lake Team searched for an easy route to cross but none was to be found. If we were to reach our destination, we needed to get creative. With help from the forest team that was surveying a site nearby, we found a way across. We would need to use a small tree growing next to the drainage to pole vault our team across.
Some were better vaulters than others, but we all managed to make it across without much water in our boots. Next we were faced with a choice. Either fight through heavy cover and cattails or climb a steep forrested hillside. The hillside appeared to be the path of least resistance.
Somewhere nearby, we heard a crackle of breaking branches. I lifted my eyes just in time to see a large tree fall no more than fifty yards ahead of us. We all agreed that it was unsafe to attempt to survey after Rena retold the story of a girl being smashed under a falling tree at her summer camp.
With no afternoon survey, I went to the vet hospital to assist with Amy Ray's feeding. She is growing more feisty by the day. When I first met her, she would squirm a bit when we cleaned her wounds. Today she was bawling her malcontent as the disinfectant destroyed any bacteria in it's path.
She has begun to munch of the small green alfalfa stalks in her stall. When I mentioned it to the zoo keeper, she said that she would be sure to find more for her. While I look forward to seeing her rereleased back into the pasture with the rest of her family, I know I will miss caring for her whenever I am able.
Highlight: My blood smear technique is steadily improving. Soon I will be able to make passible work. The last preps that I did were only slightly heavy handed.
Lowlight: I was unable to focus the fancy lab microscope at the vet hospital under fourty power when trying to ID the cells in my blood smears. I asked another vet student for assistance and she was not able to obtain a clear image either.
At this point, I had become frustrated with the blood smear and decided to look at a fecal slide that I had also prepared. The head veterinarian heard that I as having trouble with the scope and came over to assist me. She wiped the lens carefully, deftly twisted the microscope controls and asked me to take a look. The image I saw was perfect.
It was not until I switched back to the blood smear that I realized my error. Since I was only doing practice smears, I had not labeled the slide with an ID number. I had been looking at the slides from the wrong side. I quitely flipped the slide over and resumed my work.
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