Why I'm doing this....

Not the blog. The blog is for fun.

Why am I swimming upstream?

Why am I knowingly going to school for fourteen hours a day, struggling in math classes that I know I can't get more than a passing grade in, dissecting animals to compare digestive tracts, and researching animals?

Because I need to be a vet. More specifically, I need to be an exotics vet.

There are plenty of vets available to treat your dogs and cats. But there aren't many to turn to when your reptile, small animal, or bird gets sick. I have so many horror stories of vets that will not admit their incompetence but it becomes evident.

...Googling treatments for a hamster with wet tail. Seriously, Google.
...Prescribing Ivermectin to a leopard gecko as a precaution when the medication could potentially kill it.
...Mistaking fecal matter as eggs in a snake that never met a male.
...Mistaking rat mites for a neurological disorder.
...Ordering the euthanization of a rat with red tears.
...Ignoring overgrown teeth as a reason of weight loss.
...Mistaking the hairless spot behind the ear of a guinea pig for ringworm.
...Rather than giving a longshot animal a chance, they immediately want to euthanize it.

Not only are there issues with the diagnoses and treatments but the prices. For an exotic animal consultation, it tends to be fifty dollars. Fifty dollars just to be in the same room as a vet. That doesn't include any testing or treatments.

...Fifty dollars to trim overgrown teeth.
...Twenty dollars to clip bird wings.
...Eight hundred dollars to let a frog sit in warm water til he pooped.

There is also the vet that looks at you and pegs you for a sucker and tries to milk you dry by running up the costs of tests and treatments that may not even be necessary.

Then there is my ultimate favorite. The vet who is seemingly trying to be nice by saving you money. But asks you... "Why not just buy another one."

Why would I rather take my animals to the vet and spend large amounts of money when I could by a new one for a fraction of the consultation price?

Because these are my pets. They are just as much of a family member as a dog or cat. And they deserve just as much love and care.

Scribbles for a Cause

I've been drawing and painting since I could remember and probably before then. I am talented but only with one focal point. Animals. I donate the art to rescues to raise money for their causes.

I have donated my kitten drawings to Homeward Bound and Foreclosed Upon Pets. The artwork is sold to raise money for vaccinations, spaying and neutering, food, and litter. I try to draw or paint cats similar to the ones in their adoption centers when the creative mood strikes. Both rescues take in cats abandoned during foreclosures, financial distress, and marital issues. The rescue gives these cats a foster home when they have none and then finds forever homes for them.

Jackson was a large Maine Coon with special needs due to his allergy to chicken.

Dinah was a sweetheart but terribly afraid of the world and it made her defensive yet through fostering she has come along way.

Colossal Canine Care has been able to auction off my puppy drawings and paintings. Despite their name, they don't take in just the larger dogs but all sizes of dogs are welcome.

They rescued a king malamute named Balto and found him a forever home.

Max Sadler was used as a bait dog for dog fighting rings until rescued by Colossal Canine Care.

Gavin and Pete were two boxer puppies struck by a mysterious illness that required blood transfusions. Colossal Canine Care pulled them through and found them homes.

I have an ocean life series that I plan to donate proceeds to the Sea Shepherds.



I do also have a wildlife series with over sixty drawings of endangered and vulnerable species. Any money from those go to the World Wildlife Fund.

It's not money. I understand that people don't have money to spare. But there are are ways to help without giving up money. Like donating artwork. Every little bit of help counts.

Extinctions...

WWF and the International Rhino Foundation (IRF) confirmed the extinction of the Javan rhinoceros in Vietnam on October 25, 2011.
A WWF report concludes:

• Poaching was likely the cause of death. The last rhino was found with a bullet in its leg and its horn removed.
• Ineffective protection by the park was ultimately the cause of extinction.
• Illegal hunting for wildlife trade continues to threaten many species in Vietnam including the tiger, Asian elephant and saola.

The Javan rhinoceros was believed to be extinct from mainland Asia, but in 1988 one was hunted and lead to the discovery of a small population.
In 2004, a survey conducted by WWF, Cat Tien National Park and Queen’s University in Canada revealed at least two rhinos were living in the park. The report suggests that one of the individuals was lost between then and the beginning of WWF’s survey in 2009.
Hope for Javan rhinos in IndonesiaThere are still Javan rhinos left in the wild. As few as 40 critically endangered rhinos live in a small national park in Indonesia. The protection and expansion of this remaining population is crucial for the survival of the rhinos.
WWF is working to:

• protect the remaining Javan rhinos from poaching
• monitor the existing population
• establish a second population through translocation, which establishes different populations of a species in more than one area

Partners in these efforts include the Indonesian government, the International Rhino Foundation, the Indonesian Rhino Foundation, the IUCN/SSC Rhino Specialist Group, Aaranyak, the Eijkman Institute and local communities.

Once again, we are killing other animals. We need to make a change.... One step in the right direction, was Tiger Summit, a gathering held in Russia by the prime minister regarding the populations of tiger. Every one of the seven remaining species of tiger has been declared extinct. The populations are being decimated by illegal poaching and habitat fragmentation. At Tiger Summit though, it was decided to stop encroaching on the natural habitat and more strongly enforce punishment on poaching. This was the largest meeting regarding a non-human issue. It's a step. But we can't just worry about the animal poster children. Species go extinct before we even discover them. Every life matters, from the tiniest lizard to the largest whale. Even the bugs... We have to care.

Save a life. Adopt a pet from a shelter or rescue.



About 50% of the dogs that come into the shelter as "owner surrenders" or "strays",
are purebred dogs. I hear a variety of excuses from the owners of these dogs.
The most common excuses heard are:

#1 "We're moving and can't take our dog/cat with us."
Really? Where is this place that doesn't allow pets? Why not put a little effort into
finding a place where your pets are allowed?

#2 "The dog got bigger than we thought it would and we just don't have the room."
Just how big did you think a German Shepherd would get? Did you even think to ask?

#3 "We don't have time for her".
Why not? I go to school for a fourteen hour day and still have time for my dogs!

#4 "She keeps tearing up our yard".
How about letting her come inside with the pack that is her family?

They tell me :
"We don't want to have to stress about finding a place for her."
How stressful do you think being left at the shelter is?

"We know she'll get adopted, she's a good dog".
The odds are your pet won't get adopted.

Let me remind you that your pet has 72 hours to find a new family... that time starts
the moment you drop it off. Sometimes, if the shelter isn't full and your dog manages
to stay completely healthy, maybe a little longer. But if it so much as sniffles, it dies.
Your pet will be confined to a small run/kennel in a room with about 25 other confused,
barking and/or crying animals.

It will have to relieve itself where it eats and sleeps. It will be depressed and it will cry
constantly for the family that abandoned it. If your pet is lucky, there will have enough volunteers
that day to take him/her for a walk. If there isn't, any attention your pet gets will be from
having a bowl of food slid under the kennel door and the waste sprayed out of its concrete
pen with a high-powered hose.

If your dog is big, black or any of the "Bully" breeds (pit bull, rottie, mastiff, etc) it was pretty
much dead when you walked it through the front door. Those dogs just don't get adopted.

If your dog doesn't get adopted within its 72 hours and the shelter is full, it will be destroyed.
If the shelter isn't full and your dog is good enough and is a desirable enough breed, it may
get a stay of execution... not for long though. Most get very protective of their kennel after
about a week and are destroyed for showing aggression. Even the sweetest dogs will turn in
this environment. A dog perceives what happened to him this way: He had a nice home and
it was his job to protect it. One day you brought him here and left him. Therefore, he is in this
kennel for failing to protect his home. The kennel is his home now.. it's all he has and as horrible
as it is, if he doesn't protect it, he will be taken away again. He protects his kennel and now
he will die for doing his job. Would that confuse you?

If your pet makes it over all of those hurdles, chances are it will get kennel cough or an upper
respiratory infection and will be destroyed because shelters just don't have the funds to pay
for treatment.

Now that you know that there's about a 90% chance that your dog will NOT leave the
shelter with the loving, forever family you thought it would, will you find a way to keep it?

If not, here's a little "Euthanasia 101" for those of you that have never witnessed a perfectly
healthy, scared animal being "put-down". First, your pet will be taken from its kennel on a leash.
They always think they are going for a walk... happy, wagging their tails, until they get to
"The Room". Every one of them freaks out and puts on the brakes when they get to the door.
It must smell like death or they can feel the sad souls lingering in there. It's strange, but it
happens with every one of them. Your dog or cat will be restrained, or held down by 1 or 2
vet techs, depending on their size and how freaked out they are. Then a euthanasia tech or a
vet will start the process. They will find a vein in the front leg and inject a lethal dose of the
"pink stuff".

Hopefully your pet doesn't panic from being restrained and jerk away. The needles
tear out of a leg and cover me with blood. The yelps and screams are deafening.
They don't all "just go to sleep". Sometimes they spasm for a while, gasp for air and defecate
on themselves. When it all ends, your pets corpse will be stacked like firewood in a large
freezer in the back with all of the other animals that were killed... waiting to be picked up
like garbage. That's all your pet is now.

So. What happens next? Cremation, taken to the dump, rendered into pet food? Any of these
could happen but you'll never know. Why would it even cross your mind? You left it here to
die... it was just an animal... you can always get another one, right?

9 to 11 MILLION animals die every year in shelters and only you
can stop it.

DON'T BREED OR BUY WHILE SHELTER PETS DIE!

-stolen from unknown author

Desert Tortoises

I have a desert tortoise. His name is Tortuga.

Desert tortoises are Nevada's state reptile.

Not many people appreciate desert tortoises. Every summer, people come across them and bring them into Petsmart to get some more information about them. It is against the law to take a desert tortoise from the desert. But it is becoming more common for the tortoises to cross into neighborhoods as construction destroys their natural habitat. So it's best to be familiar with the species while living in Las Vegas.

My favorite customer interaction regarding desert tortoises... After I removed the desert tortoise from the bowl full of water...
"This is a desert tortoise, an endangered species." I informed them.
"What's endangered mean?"
"That it's in danger of going extinct." I replied.
"What's extinct mean?"
"That if they die, there will be no more." I sighed, cursing the lack of knowledge regarding the fragility of the natural world.

Gopherus agassizii, the desert tortoise, is a tortoise species native to the Mojave and Sonoran deserts. They are able to live in areas where ground temperatures can get higher than 140 degrees Fahrenheit due to their burrowing behavior. They are herbivores that eat grasses, herbs, wildflowers, cactus, and soil. They get their water from the foods they eat and concentrate their urine to conserve moisture which is precious in the desert.

Female desert tortoises lay three to five eggs. Unlike other reptiles who have leathery eggs, the eggs of the desert tortoise are hard to prevent water loss. Ravens, gila monsters, foxes, badgers, roadrunners, and coyotes often prey on these few eggs before they are even able to hatch. they have a high mortality rate as juveniles. Threats to adult tortoises is habitat destruction and illegal collection. The populations have declined by as much as ninety percent. The species is listed as threatened.

Very few baby tortoises survive to adulthood. Please do not risk losing the species by being a danger to those adults that do survive.

It is possible to adopt captive tortoises through the Tortoise Adoption Program.

The Leopard Geckos

Originally, I didn't like leopard geckos. I didn't mind them but they weren't something I was going to keep myself. The little ones always hissed and acted like they were going to bite. They aren't very intimidating when they are only three inches. But I didn't like their attitudes.

Until I met House, the most incredible leopard gecko ever with the most horrible story. Someone brought this leopard gecko into work with his intestines dragging through sand. NEVER house two male reptiles together. It ends badly. His name was Killer and the other gecko had ripped his abdomen open. The owner had allowed the gecko to stay like that, walking around with the aggressive gecko still attacking him and his intestines dragging through the sand for three days, before he decided to do something about it. And what he does, is brings it to a Petsmart. Not a vet, but a Petsmart. My reaction... Take it to a damn vet before it dies, moron. I kept it more PG than what I really said. Of course, being an irresponsible pet owner, he didn't want to spend the money to take the leopard gecko to the vet. So I took Killer. And renamed him House after Dr. House. It was nine o clock and no vets were open. So I used a saline wash and betadine to rinse out as much sand as possible before bandaging everything within the belly. I took him to the vet the next day where they told me that there was nothing that could be done and he was going to die. I couldn't really afford the cost of euthanasia so I took him home. Melissa and I cleaned the wound further and stitched him up. He actually laid really still and did not struggle even though I'm sure it hurt without any sedatives. His lack of reaction either meant he was a really mellow gecko or he was too far gone to even notice what was going on. I fed him Repti-Aid with antibiotics twice a day. His energy picked up and he did manage to hunt crickets on his own but he wouldn't keep the bandage around the stitches to keep the area clean. One cleaning, he struggled and part of the intestine came out through the stitches. the intestine began to turn purple from lack of circulation. The stitches were hastily removed to free the trapped tissue. Brent stitched the wound back up. The wound healed and I removed the stitches. But three months later, he passed. Guessing from some sort of slow building infection. But I tried and that's what mattered. And his tought spirit made me fall in love with him and leopard geckos.

Gojira was intended to be House's girlfriend but he passed before they ever got to know eachother. She isn't as handleable as House was. She's a lot more nervy. But not skittish, not scared. Just sassy and full of attitude. She will let you hold her on her terms and her terms only. But she doesn't bite.

Pudge came from Petsmart with no tail. She doesn't heave a tail. Rather she has this big bulge that one could almost mistake for a second head. She is mellow but a little scared sometimes.

Ghidorah is the male that I got from Jennifer and Charles. He's beautiful with a purple tail and a yellow body. He has been losing some weight since he came to my house but we're working on getting him fat and happy again.

Rodan is a royal brat. She definitely bites. No matter how much I handle her. In fact, the only way to handle her is if she has me in her mouth, then she'll sit happy in my hands. But it's like a pinch and not too painful. I keep her around because she is like a komodo dragon when eating. She eats pinkies and anything she can with a voracious appetite.

Godzilla is a jungle pattern leopard gecko. More spots then any of the others. I stole the name from Jennifer and Charles other leopard gecko.

Kilojara is the baby. A customer had brought in a pair of eggs and gave them to me. I put them in my incubator and waited. One egg began to decay so I didn't have much hope for the other. But sure enough, it eventually hatched out a baby leopard gecko. It is missing part of an eyelid and the eyes are missized but doesn't effect it at all. It loves life.

The Crested Geckos

Spike was my first crested gecko. He isn't the most prime example of a crested gecko. He never can put on weight. But he's a mellow happy little critter. He's an orange tiger.

Trickle I got from Jennifer and Charles. She's a olive green harlequin with dalmation spots.

After a couple months of love-hate relationship, Trickle laid a pair of eggs. Two months later, Sticky and Wicked hatched. They couldn't be more different than night from day. Wicked is a olive tiger with spots with a mellow laidback attitude. Sticky is an orange tiger with spots and he's trouble especially when he climbs up my wall to the ceiling.

Nine I actually got from last year's reptile show for nine dollars hence the name. He's an orange and brown harlequin. He's an infertile male that just chills with Trickle during times when I don't want breeding.

The Corn Snakes

Mouser is an Okeetee corn snake about twelve years old. She was the first snake.

Slytherin is an Anery corn snake. We got him three years after Mouser.

Tavi is the offspring of Mouser and Slytherin. He's dominantly Okeetee.

Ghost is a ghost anery corn snake. Old picture. She's all grown up now.

Butters is the hatchling butter corn snake. Can't find a picture of her at the moment.

Toast is the yearling butter corn snake. She was a gift from Amanda

Sunkist is a motley bloodred corn snake.

I've had two oddball corn snakes. Both hatched out deformed. Pretzel was the original deformity. She was an okeetee hatchling out of Slytherin and Mouser. She had several bends in her spine to the point where she honestly looked like a pretzel. Her scales sealed her in that shape. Exotic Pets told me the most humane thing to do would be euthanize her. But I couldn't. She had an incredible personality. So I force fed her. She could eat the mouse, have it pass through her digestive tract, and then poop. After eight months of forcefeeding, she did decide to eat on her own. She survived an entire year.

SideFlopper is the current deformity. He is an anery hatchling out of Slytherin and Ghost. He hatched out with several kinks in his spine as well but the ventral side of his kinks had no scales, just pink stringy muscle. An even more unelikely survivor. The open flesh was a possible point for infection if the kinks didn't keep him from eating. I was surprised when he pooped the yolk out with no issues. So I helped him shed his first time and forcefed. A little early. I probably could have waited to see if he would eat on his own. But in all honesty, I didn't want to waste time on trying to get him to eat if he would never be able to digest the food. Yet he did. And he's growing nicely with the forcefeeding. he has shed three times and each time he's shed, the exposed pink tissue has been covered by scales. He no longer has any pink showing. The scales are very scattered and irregular there but they cover and protect his tender flesh. Crossing my fingers that he will eat on his own.

Las Vegas Reptile Show

Melissa, Nichole, Zoey and I went to the Santa Fe Station for the Las Vegas Reptile Show. It was only eight dollars to get in.

There were tons of vendors. LLL Reptiles, the Snake Keeper, Sin City Geckos, Eccogeckos, and even Petsmart.

The reptiles were beyond amazing. Definitely more variety and exotic species than we could ever get from a pet store in town. There were so many morphs of crested geckos and leopard geckos. But sadly I didn't fall in love with any crested geckos. Most of them had snub tails which meant they were either being handled improperly or kept too crowded. Kinda depressing. I loved the color varieties in the leopard geckos but I don't need any more than the six I got. Was sorely tempted to get a gargoyle gecko female which I could breed to my crested gecko males supposedly and get a hybrid. That's going to happen. Just not this reptile show. There were so many boas, pythons, monitors, skinks, geckos, and more.

I couldn't pass up on a female rosy boa though for forty five dollars. Gotta think of a name though. Nichole got a blue tongue skink and a breeding colony of hissing cockroaches. Melissa wound up taking home a tarantula. Not to mention all of our free stuff. We won critter keepers from the Petsmart booth and had them stuffed with calcium and water conditioner free samples.

The dogs

My first dog was Shadow the bassett hound, chaos incarnate. He loved to steal my sister's bottles and pacifiers. Then he escaped several times and had Dad chasing him across the 95. He was a handful.

Mama Dog was rescued by my uncle from the side of the road with three puppies. The name Mama Dog stuck. She was loyal and followed me around everywhere. She was also intelligent and could learn whatever goofy agility course I would set up in the backyard despite her football shape.

Gregory was our fifteen dollar rescue from Lied Animal Shelter. He was past his expiration date so his adoption fee was only fifteen dollars. But he came with all his shots, neutered, and microchipped.

They each died of cancer...




Tuxi and Chesi are the corgis. They were rescued from Utah the day after Christmas.

Tuxi is the five year old papered Pembroke Welsh Corgi. His registered name is Shorty's Little Roper. He is a chunky little tricolor snausage of a dog with a block head and fat nose and tongue. He's adorable. But he has his faults... He's also a chicken. Took him months before he would use the dog door. He's afraid of spoons. No matter how many treats you place on a spoon, he will not touch it. Also afraid of rolling suitcases. The worst parts... He passes gas and needs his butt wiped after he goes to the bathroom.

Chesi is our four year old fawn and white Corgi. She may be part fox, it's rumored. She has huge bat ears. She would make a great agility dog demonstrated by the way she leaps and bounds over the couchs. She is a bit rotten when it comes to her dinner though. She hates the food. We switched her from Kibble's N' Bits to Natural Choice and she hates it. She lays beside her food dish with this miserable bored expression. She's also a demon when it comes to coming when called.

But I love them. Now that I have them, I couldn't imagine life without them. It would be boring, that I can guess.

Halloweiner!

Today was the Halloweiner party. And yes, it's exactly what it sounds like. Unless your mind is in the gutter, then it's not. It was a party celebrating daschunds in Halloween costumes.

John and Cherryl invited us and our Corgis. Mom wouldn't let me get the cow and chicken costumes for the two corgis, not that that would have helped them blend into the sea of costumed Daschunds any better. Our three daschund friends came. Zero, Sophie, and Chewy. They looked adorable as Superman, a lady bug, and a pumpkin. It was pretty fun.

There were daschund races, raffles, food, treats, and doggy fashion booths. We discovered doggy ice cream which Chesi wasn't impressed with so Tuxi ate his, hers, and part of Sophie's. He was incredibly spoiled. But he deserved it. They both behaved surprisingly well off leash with so much going on. Tuxi did have a near panic attack when the loud speakers crackled. But he calmed down and stuck close to us. Chesi was as unfased as always, trying to find people to take her home that had better food. But she came when called.

We did somehow manage to spoil the cats while at the dog event. Found an incredible cat tree from Puppy Huts for less than any Petsmart cat trees. It's huge, made from trees with two huts and a lounger area. I will post pictures once it comes Wednesday.

The dogs are now exhausted and asleep on the floor.

This is why wild animals should remain wild... Or at least properly taken care of by zoos.

After dozens of animals escaped a 73 acre zoo today, October 18, 2011, in Zanesville, Ohio, 48 have been shot dead after their owner died and the gates to their enclosures were opened. These animals, at no fault of their own, have threatened the safety of people and domesticated animals in the surrounding regions and had to pay for this with their lives.

Ohio has some of the most lax regulation of exotic pets, and after this disaster, it is apparent that this lack of regulation has been a threat to public safety and the welfare of the animals for too long. The collection of animals had been considered a bad situation for a quite some time by local law enforcement, but there was nothing that they could do to stop their owner, Terry Thompson, from keeping the animals nor to push preventative measures onto the property.

And these animals aren't the only ones, hundreds of exotics are currently being kept as pets in the state without any regulation. Ohio is one of less than 10 states in the US that do not regulate the ownership of exotic animals. Owning a wild animal is difficult and causes them suffering with a lack of proper knowledge as to the handling and care of these animals by their owners. Wild animals have been known to attack, maim, and kill humans and domesticated animals without any warning and due to these circumstances, law enforcement have no choice but to destroy them.

The best thing we can do for the exotics and ourselves is to keep them in their wild, natural habitats where they belong by outlawing their sale and ownership in Ohio and any other state that doesn't have laws against keeping wild or exotic animals.

-stolen from petition

Volunteering at the Feral Cat Spay and Neuter Clinic

Heaven Can Wait does a monthly Spay and Neuter Clinic for Feral Cats. As part of PAWS, the pre-veterinary club at UNLV, I was invited to volunteer.

10-16-2011. The cats were brought in that morning. There were a total of 426 cats brought in. Each cat was given an identification number. The cats were checked for ear tips which indicated whether or not they had been through this experience before. They were then sedated in their cat traps, possibly the hardest part because they are wild animals. Sometimes the cats were scared stiff which made injecting the sedative easy. Others were fighting all human intervention. There was a large gray tom cat that sounded like we had caged a lion. Once sedated, they were moved into the next room where the sedative took effect. The cats were removed from the traps and checked for gender. The females were placed onto a table where they were shaved, bathed, and sprayed with betadine to prep them for their spay. The males were prepped for the neuters. The females were taken into a sterile room where they were cut open. The fallopian tubes were tied off and then cut from the uterus. The males underwent an less invasive surgery where the scrotum was sliced open and the testicles removed. After the surgeries, the cats were taken to a separate table where they were inspected for any issues. Mites, fleas, and minor wounds were taken note of and treated. The cats were then vaccinated, including rabies vaccines. The cats were taken to recovery where the fae was washed, ears were cleaned, and coat was brushed out. Some of the young kittens required stimulation to revive them after sedation. Once the cats were beginning to wake up, they were placed back into the traps before they were fully conscious. By the time they woke up, they were back in the same traps withe some fur missing and a funny smell to them. They were very ungrateful to what we had done for them.

But if not for this, there would be more kittens to suffer the life of a feral cat. Feral cats live an incredibly hard life without stable food sources or shelter; not to mention the dangers of diseases like rabies and feline leukemia, animal attacks from other cats and other animals, and cars.

Total there were four hundred and five cats fixed that day making our goal. And a happy ending. One of the feral cats had a collar and when the number was called, they informed us that Camo had been missing for three years.

If every cat had a home, we wouldn't need feral cat spay and neuter clinics. But we can at least stop the number of kittens that grow up feral.