February | 2010 | Pawcurious Vet Blog: Pet help, stories, and information with Dr. V

My name is Dr. V. Actually, it’s Jessica, followed by a long last name that no one can ever pronounce correctly, so I think it’s best that we just do what everyone at my work does and call me Dr. V. You can call me Jessica if you insist, but don’t expect me to answer any questions about your dog if you do. READ MORE >>

Tech support has decided we need a Picture of the Week. My husband promises he will produce one, each and every week. I told him in no uncertain terms that this was a Big Commitment and made him swear on his camera honor that he would keep it up.

“Well, you can contribute too,” he said.

“But I don’t want to,” I said. “This is your idea and my only good pictures are ones I got because I was lucky. I can’t produce good photos under pressure.”

Then I told him this was a good way to force him to up his game. Yep, I issued a challenge.

Doesn’t this look like a promo shot for a 70s cop drama? I call it “Brojak.”

Poor Apollo. He is now presiding over the fifth fur-monster to infiltrate his quiet life. Perhaps there is some secret camaraderie amongst our shadow-shaded friends, or maybe we just got lucky, but this is the easiest doggie transition we’ve had yet. Kiki/Koa/Ricola is pretty ambivalent about him. I now have TWO pets exceedingly difficult to photograph. That’s OK. It’s a throwdown challenge for my husband to work with the infamous photographic challenge.

I work with a cat lady. I don’t mean this as a pejorative- she really does love and adore cats and is a tremendous resource for all things feline. Yes, she has 13 of her own, but they are all well taken care of, and many of them are cats given up by their owners for various reasons.

My point is, she knows all sorts of things about cats and cat breeds and loves to share trivia. When she met Apollo, she declared he was a black tabby with a touch of Bombay. “You do realize,” she said, “that black cats are actually dark brown tabbies?” And I did know this, but only after getting a black cat of my own. I’m still learning about different cat breeds. Working with her, seeing her enthusiasm, makes me more appreciative of the finer joys of living with cats. And she helps me be a better vet for it.

Instead of referring to him as the arm-humping jungle ocelot, I looked at Apollo through my co-worker’s eyes and saw the other side of him: regal, composed, and possessed of an old-Hollywood-like ability to find the perfect lighting:

I’m ready for my close-up.

Will you look at that- he is brown! And I do say so myself, perfectly photogenic.

I was terribly saddened to read the news yesterday that a trainer was killed at a Sea World park in an incident with a captive orca. It’s not the first time this sort of thing has happened- it’s not even the first time it’s happened with this exact same orca.

We live fairly close to a Sea World park, and I view it with an uneasy apprehension. We went a few times in school when I was a kid, and I remember the focus at the time on Sea World’s conservation efforts and education. At least they kind of made an attempt to be educational. My friends are used to my moue of distaste when the suggestion to go comes up, so they don’t bother inviting me. But it’s hard to be the killjoy all the time, especially with little kids- so against my better judgment I agreed to go with them, hoping the experience would be a positive one for all of us.

Every time I bring a new pet into the house, I have a week or two of complete and utter panic, thinking I’ve made a huge mistake, this is a terrible match, and we’ll never make it work. Then we figure it out and all is well.

Honestly though, I haven’t had that moment yet with Kekoa. Granted it’s only been 2 days, but she has pretty seamlessly integrated into the house so far. Brody is jealous- make that insanely jealous- but they are getting along just fine, no arguments over resources or anything like that.

She does not inhale her food in 10 seconds flat. She does not eat Barbies. She asks to go outside. She is a perfect houseguest.

Her tail never, ever stops wagging. It takes out glasses on the coffee table. It knocks stuff off the shelves at work. She looks at you so imploringly with her bright brown eyes, almost desperate in her appeal for approval and love. “Please don’t leave me,” she begs. “I promise to be good and happy- see?”

As some of you astute observers noted, the person standing above the black lab in the last picture yesterday was indeed wearing Pet Doctor Barbie boots. 37712 came home with me.

And promptly was outfitted with a shamrock hat by my daughter. She is much more compliant with our family’s costuming requirements than Brody has been.