My friend Amy has too good of a heart.  When I first met her in veterinary school, I was watching this young woman stop on the road walking on the way to class, pick up a roach, and carry it into the nearby safety of the grass.  It doesn't stop there.  Much to her current boss's dismay, she is always trying to save something.  If it is 2:00 am and she is on her way home from a night out, and there is an injured animal in the road, she will stop to save it.  And, by saving it, I mean she will put it in her car and bring it to the office.

One night, she was heading home from a late night, and she could see a squirrel dragging across the road in front of her.  She doesn't have a box in her car, but she does have an old blanket.  She lovingly wraps the injured creature into the blanket, and turns her car around for the 30 minute drive up to work.  Once inside she sets the squirrel down on the treatment table to open up the lock box to gather medication.  The little squirrel seems too injured to be saved (she figures it was likely hit by a car or attacked by another animal) but the least she can do is humanely euthanize it.  She pulls up the euthanasia solution, and that is when the trouble begins.

Amy is making her way back to the squirrel, when suddenly it springs up and starts to scamper from the treatment table to the nearby counters.  A mad dash ensues as Amy (in a nice dress and heals from an exciting night out) desperately tries to snag the wild creature that suddenly has a new grasp on life.  Finally, the squirrel finds an open door to pass into the ancient cabinets of the clinic and scrambles deep inside.

Amy spent about an hour that night pulling everything out of those cabinets, with no luck at finding the squirrel.  She eventually drove the 30 plus minutes back home.  I don't know if she left a note for the staff the next morning or not, but she did show up (on her day off) to return to the search.  I wish I could have seen the look on her boss's face, as she had to get a screw driver to remove some of the wooden paneling of the cabinets that the squirrel had wedged itself behind.  Once it hopped out, I think they just guided it for the outside door.  The squirrel would live after all.

             Until Next Time,
              Josie

The Numbers:  Food:  Sweet potato (I used olive oil and the sea salt to make "chips" today...it will have to do), pear, olive oil, sea salt, plum, asparagus, orange roughy, plums.  Dinner was brand new: Venison in the crock pot, carrots, celery.  Medications:  Prosed DS TID, amitriptyline SID, Zyrtec SID, Advil 1 time.  Pain:  Felt fabulous this morning.  Around 3pm, the standard bladder urgency/focal vulvodynia started up - maybe a 4.  Took an advil around 6, and it vanished...back to a 1-2.