Out There

Stay where I can see your hands, lady.

Not to be going too crazy with the weather posts, but it was warm enough today to squeeze two sets of anal glands outdoors. This is unusual for January because Chicago is in a perpetual state of holy-crap-it's-freezing-out-there until May 15.

On this lovely day, however, my boss and I were outside doing necessary glandular things. (In truth, Lisa McIntyre, DVM, does the gland expressing while I hold the dogs. She is, of course, the brains of the operation. I am the Sherpa, paw holder, admin, owner consoler, feral cat coraller, occasional saline-drawer-into-the-shot-thingy, driver and scheduler.)

After 10 sedentary years, it feels great to be liberated from a computer and the unholy glow of fluorescent light. These days, I am in and out of a car with the Doc, weather be damned, making house calls on cats and dogs.

It's been a lot of fun, I must confess. (And because the boss reads Naperville Now, I am not just blowing smoke up her blood centrifuge.) It not only feels great to be moving physically again, but by and large, pet owners are great. Devoted to their animals. Kind-hearted. Big-hearted. I've met some really great people and creatures through the practice, which operates out of the Doc's car.

Every veterinary practice needs a Journalism major on staff because hey, we have mad skills.

And I've only been bitten twice, so it's all good.

Our Bandit was the Doc's first patient this morning.

Having someone manipulate your rear end is no way to start the week, so apologies, old boy. 

I may share a few pet stories down the road (have to look into the HIPPA thing first). Maybe I'll write a book. Or an e-book. Or a movie script.

I think all of this sunlight is making me giddy. And ambitious.

It feels great.