Week 68: Tripple the Sadness

This week many people began prepping and seriously focusing on the impending finals. We already had our training finals going on, and mine was this week as well. I did pretty well, getting an A on Mau and a B on Bwana. On Tuesday, we had a vaccine clinic for our vet lab where people associated with or in the program could bring their dogs or cats to receive some core vaccines (not rabies) at a cheap price and we administered them as some what of a practical exam. It was pretty fun and interesting to see some peoples' pets, and I even stuck a super adorable kitten that didn't seem to notice anything was happening. About halfway through the clinic, Dr. S got a call that she was needed on the zoo and went rushing in. I found out it was Darwin, our old sugar glider, being unresponsive. I went to the zoo and found them in the treatment room, trying to help him out, but after a bit I could see he was already mentally checked out. If you'll recall, I am a sugar glider trainer now, so I was needed as good emotional support for my co-trainer that was dealing with this alone since the other one was home sick. We sat with him for a bit until he was gone. It was quite sad, but he was also quite old. Possibly 12 or 15. Seeing the necropsy the next day, it was shocking to see all that was wrong. He either had cancer or a massive internal infection, we'll have to wait for the lab results. Sad, but definately his time. Crazily, this very same day (Wednesday), at the end of the day, I saw Wendell, our goat, out for a walk doing his normal thing. I find out not five minutes later that he keeled over and died. Initial necropsy reslults told us it was a brain anurism that killed him instantly, nothing to be done. Again, incredibly shocking and sad, but he was also incredibly old.
On Thursday, I had a zoo day in Santa Barbara, so I was praying that something else didn't die while I was gone. It was an OK day, just doing the reptile string, so boring for me, but not necessarily bad. I came back to learn that on Thursday, Forrest, the camel, was taken back by the company that owns him. We knew this was happening, but they never told us when they were coming, so it was sad and unexpectedly sudden to the trainers. While he didn't die, he is still another loss to the zoo. It's really just been an outrageously crazy week... (Pics: Me & Darwin, Wendell, and Forrest)