And.... stop here if you want to be surprised.

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Yes, Baby Heber is very likely going to be Baby Boy Heber (much to my sister's chagrin :) ). He looks perfectly normal, and had a heartbeat today of 139 beats per minute. His head measurements and leg measurements, etc, were all perfectly normal, and there was no signs of anything going wrong. So far, he looks like he's going to be a healthy, normal baby boy come December! The person doing the ultrasound said she was 99% certain our baby was a boy, since she couldn't be 100% certain. All of the bones looked good, and we paused for a bit to just watch the four chambers of his heart pump. Yes, I am still a biology geek. On that note, his bones were awesome! I could have just looked at them all day. At times, since it's a moving picture and not like the stills we uploaded, you could see pretty cool details, like his little legs kicking, and his head turning. It looked like he was waving at us when we snapped the picture of his hand. I think his little face is just adorable, but that could be just mama-hormones coming out in me :). Oh! and we found out why I haven't felt him moving yet- the placenta is in the front, so that's not uncommon.

We almost immediately started tossing names around, though we have a long time to decide. We have some names we like, but we also want to make sure they fit him when we finally get to see him face to face, and we have time to think about alternate names and add and subtract names from the "like list". The ultrasound technician said from the measurements that our due date should be the 9th, but our OB is keeping it the 13th, since it's an estimate anyway. She did say she wouldn't let the birth be later than the 19th, as she doesn't want pregnancies to go past the 40th week. So we'll definitely get to introduce little Baby Boy Heber to the world face to face by Christmastime! ]]> http://blog.quamada.com/?sv=24 http://blog.quamada.com/?sv=24 Wed, 23 Jul 2008 13:49:46 -0500 While at work (I work at a shelter), I received a call about a lost cat. This was an all declawed, older cat who was pretty shy and I was told she was an indoor-only cat. Since I've been doing a lot of reading and such on how best to find particular types of lost pets (indoor versus outdoor cats, shy versus confident, etc) and so I gave the lady the information I had on how best to go about finding her cat (which I do a lot nowadays), and I also put her down on the lost list at work. She was very happy with my suggestions, and then out of the blue, she asks, "Why doesn't someone train a bloodhound or something to look for animals like this?" It just hit me, the similarity between this and how this whole Boo-training thing started, and I just felt compelled to tell her that I was training my dog for this sort of situation, but she was far from down with training. Nevertheless, her need just reached out and grabbed me, and I offered to bring Boo along and talk with her later that night after work around 8 pm. I made sure to tell her that neither Boo nor I are certified yet and that Boo wasn't very good, but that we would do what we could to help her.

My husband tagged along, and we met the cat owners just a little before 8 pm. They were two very sweet nuns, and obviously distraught about their missing cat. I introduced myself, my husband, and of course, the Boo. Since the nuns had had a confirmed sighting, we tried up that way first (which I realize now was a mistake, but I wasn't exactly thinking clearly), and I got a little worried when I found out that the sighting was about 2 or 3 blocks away from the exit point. It nagged at me, and I kept telling my husband that it didn't make since, as everything I had read said the cat should be close to the house (so we should be searching close to the house). But I thought perhaps something had happened to run the cat off, and then maybe she'd hang out close to the area she was spotted. This area was filled with excellent hiding places, and I took Boo around and pointed out good spots to set traps and feeding stations. Boo was okay, checking where asked for the most part, but I wasn't sure if she would alert or not to a cat. Maybe half an hour into the search, we approached a stand of trees. We saw a cat in the trees, which spooked out of the brush and away across a neighbor's lawn. It was not our cat. Then, we saw another cat, and Boo alerted to it. It also spooked, toward a lean to which I had identified already as a good hiding spot. Boo, of her own initiative, stuck her nose to the ground and tracked that cat all the way to the lean to, under a wagon. She repeatedly alerted there when asked to find a cat, and I'm pretty positive there's a hole in the lean-to wall that leads under the shed, and around to where we set a trap.

We kept looking, and Boo alerted to a neighbor's cat, and I identified some more likely places to set up feeding stations, and then we went back to the nuns' house. I told them I wanted to check by their house, just to be sure, since it seemed so strange that this cat would be spotted so far away. We looked around, and I advised them to change the location of the feeding station they had near their house. Then, finding nothing, we stood near their garage and I was giving some final advice and also trying to boost their confidence. All of a sudden, one of the nuns stopped- she heard meowing. It was coming from the garage. We quickly opened the door and I very gingerly went into the crowded garage, without Boo so as not to spook an already shy and possibly frightened kitty (hoping this was our Katie). Finally, I lifted a sheet, and there she was! She must have heard us talking long enough to gain the confidence to meow in response to her owners voice.

I of course felt very silly, as I should have searched the house first, and I definitely should have thought of the garage! It seems so obvious now. But it was a learning experience, and Boo did very well in her search- better than I had thought, and this was when it counted!

The nuns were ecstatic. I was just so thrilled and humbled to be able to take part in their joy! It was so very amazing and... I just can't find the exact words. I am so very excited to keep training both Boo and myself, and I can't wait to truly begin helping people. I got home at 9:45, thoroughly exhausted, but I wouldn't trade this experience for the world. I knew right away that I just had to tell you about this. I learned a lot, and can't wait to learn more.

]]> http://blog.quamada.com/?sv=23 http://blog.quamada.com/?sv=23 Wed, 23 Jul 2008 13:20:00 -0500 I just have to say, life is good right now. I'm feeling incredibly blessed. I have an awesome husband, a great house that I can decorate to my heart's content, a well-behaved dog, and a fairly well-behaved cat. Boo is a 50 lbs tornado of energy now, at 7 months old, and Zuggy is..... actually kind of getting fat at 11 months old. He comes when called now and is learning to sit on command. He also responds surprisingly well to "No", especially for a cat. I'm going to teach him to shake- it'll be awesome! Boo has thousands of tricks at her disposal, it seems sometimes. She's getting incredibly good at all of them, which means I need to come up with new ones soon. Actually, yesterday she went and brought my shoe to me when I asked her to. It was a fluke, but a funny, funny one.

Work is great. Sure, I come home and complain to Sean about customers or coworkers or whatnot sometimes (just ask him), but really it's quite nice. I'm doing a job that I love, and I'm doing something that matters (at least I think it does). It's not glamorous, but it has intrinsic rewards. For instance, after a couple weeks of sitting in a kennel with two horribly neglected terriers from Iowa City, they are now up for adoption and actually come out to see people! They're still really afraid of the general public, but that will get better with time. When they were reunited after a week of separation (one went up for adoption before the other), they were clearly overjoyed to see each other and pressed up against each other through the fence separating them. They missed each other! It was great seeing how happy they were to be near each other again. They seem to be doing well with their new kennel-mates, too. Each is in with a more confident, outgoing dog, so hopefully that will rub off on them and help complete the process.

Yesterday I helped with a training class, which was excellent. When I decided I'd rather work in a shelter-type environment rather than be a vet, it was because I wanted to work with behavior more than anatomy. Well I got my job in a shelter, and I already wrote about all the awesome things that have happened to me since. Now, I realized that I really am going to live my dream. I'm being groomed, it seems, to take over training when the current trainer goes off to an official training school for a couple months or so. I'm helping him teach his class, and he told me on the 4th class day, I'll be teaching instead of him. That was how the former trainer (before him) became a trainer- she was just told to take over class one day. I'm psyched. I get to learn a lot from the current trainer, and then who knows what will happen? It's incredibly exciting for me.

Sometimes I wonder if all this will suddenly collapse, since it's like I'm living a dream-life. Things haven't always happened like (and when) I wanted them to, but it's better this way, I think. I guess there's nothing for it but to just appreciate it while it lasts, however long that is, and try never to take it for granted. I've a lot to be thankful for, and that's what really matters. ]]> http://blog.quamada.com/?sv=22 http://blog.quamada.com/?sv=22 Wed, 26 Sep 2007 11:16:53 -0500 I'm working salary now at my job. I haven't really been feeling like I'm working too much more than before, and I'm apparently doing a good job. I still make stupid mistakes now and then, but that's a common thing across the board, it seems. I was a little apprehensive about going salary just because I didn't want to burn out. However, I think I'm dealing with the things I need to deal with, namely that I can't save everyone. I use a lot of ethics viewpoints in my work, weighing pros and cons to make a decision, and sometimes it's really hard, but I do like it. I like having to think about ethics.

Sometimes I feel like the characters on the show Scrubs when they were interns and everything was hard. And they learned things about people. People are not always very smart, and they're often not kind, even when coming in to save a life. You'd be surprised how many times customers try to push us around. If you have a good crew that day where everyone meshes nicely, it really helps, cuz you have the support of the rest of the staff right there with you on your decision. But it's still hard when you try to show people why they can't do what they want to do and they get upset and try to make you feel guilty for even trying to help them. There are countless examples, and I won't go into them. People lie, and they are rude, and they try to belittle you. And sometimes they're just plain stupid. Sometimes they're afraid. Sometimes they feel vulnerable and so lash out at you. And sometimes they just are looking for help and don't know where to go. Sometimes you get the gems who understand how things work, or who do their very best to help out. Those are the people who you have to try to focus on. They outweigh the troublesome, even if they don't outnumber.

I don't know if this even makes sense, even to me. But, sense or no, there it is. ]]> http://blog.quamada.com/?sv=21 http://blog.quamada.com/?sv=21 Sun, 09 Sep 2007 10:23:45 -0500 Since we decided to get a house, we knew we wanted a dog as well as a cat. We've of course got Daboo, but no kitty. Well, for a couple weeks I'd started looking for cats at work, picking out calm adults who were nice and clean. I'd picked out three that I thought would work, and then the next day all three got sick. Sick cats often just get sicker and are euthanized, so this was bad. I knew a coworker of mine would foster two of them, so Sean and I decided to foster the third. After all, it'd also work as a kind of trial period for Kitty and Boo. Well, as Sean was putting the cat carrier into the car, it broke, and out ran kitty. We haven't seen him since, despite a sprinting chase up and down the road till Kitty disappeared in the weeds near the shelter. I set traps for a couple days, but no luck. My coworker adopted the other two.

Well, I found a cat soon after that just totally caught my eye the first time I saw him. We'd named him Divit, for he'd been a stray, and we figured he was about 10 months old- almost an adult. Today we tried Divit and Daboo together, and the rest is history. Divit is now Zugzug, and home with us. He's a purring machine and loves people. He doesn't so much like Daboo's eager attempts to play tag with him, but tolerates her pretty well. I think they'll settle in well, and I know Sean likes Zugzug as much as I do.

We need to get Zuggy some toys, cuz he's working on killing the blanket with a death bite right now. :) It'l be nice when Daboo settles down and learns to relax around him. We won't have to keep yelling at her.

A portrait.

Zug and Sean.

]]> http://blog.quamada.com/?sv=20 http://blog.quamada.com/?sv=20 Tue, 14 Aug 2007 20:30:21 -0500 Housetraining is going great. I think she may just have it down. And yesterday I picked up on training her again, which was great! I really enjoy working with her. Daboo's repertoire includes: inside, outside, bedtime (which means go into your crate), sit, lay down, no, slow down, up, leave it, drop it (though she's not very fast on this one), come here, bring it back, go get it (which is also sometimes find it) and wait (which means stop dancing around me and back off and lay down or sit, I don't care which, but settle down). Yesterday, something finally clicked and she learned shake. This means that now I can work with her on learning two variants of shake: high five, and something I'm going to call 'say sorry', in which she'll lay down and cover her eyes with her paws. That'll look so cute! I'm also teaching her roll over and have plans to teach her to army crawl. Sean and I noticed something interesting yesterday after Daboo learned shake. She doesn't quite get lay down yet, and so we told her to lay down, and for this difficult trick she used her most recent difficult trick- shake. Ginger, Sean's parents' dog, does the same thing. If she thinks you're asking her something hard, she'll try shake, hoping that's the right response.

As promised, pictures of the puppy are to follow.

First, this is a picture of Sean's ear now. It's healed very nicely, leaving only a faint line. If you haven't heard of that adventure, read his blog about it.

A picture of Daboo with the flash. I rather like how this one turned out.

Daboo had her head on my knee just prior to this shot, but lifted her head to watch the camera.

Daboo and Sean. Awwww!

This poor tennis ball, by the way, is nearly all unwrapped by now. Daboo loves to play fetch and catch frisbees.

Whenever one of us goes away, Daboo sits in their spot. In this case, Sean stepped out of the office for a bit.

Something interesting on the screen!

So let's see... we've met quite a few of our neighbors. Our neighbors to the right in the white house own the newest house on the block and are now the oldest couple on the block. They were friends with the couple who owned our house and they'd raised their kids together, those kids now being in their 30s and 40s. They are a very nice couple and gave us a nice rocking recliner for our living room. All they asked for payment was for us to shovel or snowblow their sidewalk a couple of times this winter. They have a slight problem with the two dogs on the other side of them, so we try to be careful. The neighbor dogs, Guiness and Sampson, apparently sometimes relieve themselves in their lawn. Guiness is a border collie mix and plays frisbee. He gets along okay with Daboo, but she annoys him with her wanting to play. Sampson hates Daboo and has now tried to attack her twice, barreling out of their yard barking all the way. He's a miniature pinscher, though, so he'll barrel up to her then stop when he realizes she's a lot bigger than him. Still, he has tried to bite her, so we keep an eye on him, but we aren't too worried. Their owners are really cool and really friendly. They told us who lived in just about every house on the block and gave us encouragement in housetraining Daboo.

Our direct neighbors on the other side are cool too. They are a couple with a cat and a little boy, I think. The cat gets taken for a walk on a leash every day. Apparently he gets very very upset if he doesn't get taken for a walk. (So, Kimberly..... cats can't be taken for walks? ;) ). It's such a weird sight watching the cat go for a walk on a leash! The guy, Wayne, is a sub-contracter with a big red dump truck, which is a great landmark for finding our house. Next to these guys are a couple with three boys. The guy apparently isn't the nicest guy on the block, but we haven't seen him much. We met them because they were playing with their border collie puppy outside, so Daboo and Zeus played together for a while. The girlfriend of one of the boys is very nice and friendly, where as the boys may be more shy.

Across the street, there is a biker neighbor named Bruce. He is apparently very serious about his bicycling, and has the gear and everything. He swung by after a bike ride to welcome us and was very friendly, telling us a little about the neighbors on that side of the street, and then after a while took his leave to go get his other bike and go out for more riding. In the back of our house, just right of straight across our backyard is a family with two little boys and a little girl. The parents are friendly, but the kids play outside unsupervised a lot, generally playing with the neighbors, I guess. The two boys love Daboo, although the older is allergic, but the little girl is terrified of her. She comes over anyway, following her brothers, and then freezes and screams and cries, even though all the way over she saw Daboo playing with her brothers. Maybe someday she'll decide Daboo isn't so bad. She has petted her before. Daboo plays great with the two little boys. At one point they made up a game in which they ran all over the yard with the leash and Daboo chased them, catching the leash (but not their clothes) in her mouth and then tug of war! It was hilarious, and they really wore her out.

The last house we know of is the house between the family with those kids and the family that owns Zeus. They're the other house with a large deck in back, and their yard is fenced in with a chain link fence. This house will soon be owned or may already be owned now by our new banker. We switched banks to Dupaco, and the banker who signed us up was really friendly and we got to talking. She and her husband graduated from UNI as well, and they were getting a new house too! Then we compared addresses and they were pretty close to us. Well we got an email from her about a week ago or so just checking up seeing how we liked our new house and stuff, and they bought a red brick house with a large deck. The only house we know of matching that description on that street is the house whose backyard touches ours- and it's for sale. So it may be their house. What a coincidence!

Well I just realized that this blog post is getting mighty long, so I'm going to stop writing for now. I'll post some more pictures of the backyard and stuff later! ]]> http://blog.quamada.com/?sv=19 http://blog.quamada.com/?sv=19 Fri, 25 May 2007 10:45:47 -0500 So I finally finished my thesis, which ended up being 36 pages long, I think. What a load off my shoulders when I turned it in! Apparently I visibly relaxed. And my thesis presentation went well too. I didn't stumble too much (or some said, barely at all) and I had some good questions. It was a lot of fun, and Sean gave me flowers afterward.

Then there was my last finals week, of which the first part was taken up by the afore mentioned thesis. Thursday I took my last final and then came home and cleaned up the apartment, which Sean had finished packing up, and we turned in our keys and went to party with my friends in Roth. We slept in the living room of my in-laws that night and closed on our house the next day and moved a bunch of stuff in. Saturday we were too tired to move, so we just hung out with family, which was really nice, and picked up our puppy. You'll read about puppy later on. :)

The house is so nice. It's really large, compared to the apartment, and I actually have cupboards that are empty so far. I have a box or two of the kitchen to unpack yet, and then it'll be all done. The rest of the house, however, is a different matter. Boxes everywhere! The downstairs is where we have our tv and games and all that (including the dog) and so it's like our den. It's pretty clean, as is the upstairs. But the living room, dining room, and office, all on the main level, are just full of boxes and moving stuff. Speaking up, Michelle I have boxes and paper for wrapping breakables in for you- you should get them from me. We love the house so much. We get to spread out, especially when we get more furniture.

The puppy is a farm puppy from Seth's aunt and uncles' farm. She's 3 months old and called Daboo. Though we've only had her since Saturday, so for five days, she's like, genius pup. She has her own blanket to lay on and a bunch of toys which she carries around with her. Her favorite is a green bunny the vet gave her which squeaks. She's chewing its ear off right now. She's already learned mostly how to walk on a leash (she walks better than some adult house dogs I know who've lived inside with people all their lives) and knows her name and come here and no and she plays fetch. She's learning drop it, leave it, and sit. She was basically reverse house trained, but after the first two days (which were mega-stressful), she's doing better. Her third and fourth day she only made one mess each, and the third day it was my fault for not getting to her fast enough. So far today, no messes yet, and this morning she barked to go out. Her separation anxiety is getting better, and it helps that we keep her really tired. But everywhere she goes she's praised for being 'so cute!' and 'so well behaved'. The vet and the Petsmart groomer both really liked her.

I guess the next big thing is that I got a job at the Humane Society. I'll be working part-time there. basically doing grunt work, but that's okay. I went in yesterday to shadow and orient, and it really seems like a great place to work.

Well more later- this was basically a huge data dump, I know. Pictures and stories will come later, likely of the puppy and perhaps some about our cool neighbors. ]]> http://blog.quamada.com/?sv=18 http://blog.quamada.com/?sv=18 Thu, 10 May 2007 11:21:36 -0500 So that just makes it all suck more. I just got my final letter today. Last week I got notice from Wisconsin that they weren't going to let me in, and just now I received another polite rejection letter from Illinois. So for the next year I won't be going to veterinary school or animal behavior school. Gar.

I just want to work with animals. One would think it wouldn't be so hard. But maybe Sean and I can move back to Dubuque and buy a house and be close to family and stuff. I don't know- we're still going over options. I have a phone meeting with CSU to review my application and see what was weakest, and I asked for the same with Illinois. Wisconsin sent me a sheet of paper showing the stats for those who had applied and those who they had accepted, both in state and out of state. My scores for almost everything (GPA and my GRE scores) were higher than the average for the accepted in state candidates and than the total who'd applied. But, they were lower across the board when compared to the out of state candidates who were accepted. We'll see what CSU says, and maybe that'll give me some options, like should I retake my GRE's, retake Organic II, both, or if it won't help enough even if I do both. We'll see, and hopefully it won't be that last scenario.

*sigh* ]]> http://blog.quamada.com/?sv=17 http://blog.quamada.com/?sv=17 Tue, 13 Mar 2007 19:11:45 -0500 Eileen Ivers and Immigrant Soul yesterday at the GBPAC. That show totally rocked- I loved it! Celtic Music is just so much fun, and you could see they were having a blast just playing with each other, walking around and playing by this musician or that in the band, challenging each other and just generally having a grand old time. It was spectacular and I relished it. :D ]]> http://blog.quamada.com/?sv=16 http://blog.quamada.com/?sv=16 Sat, 03 Mar 2007 12:30:43 -0600

It is in those bad times when you can’t see up from down that your faith is tested, whatever your faith might be in. That’s when faith lives or dies. If you pray fervently for something and your prayer is answered with a “no”, you have a decision to make. You can either decide that whoever you prayed to actually doesn’t exist or just plain hates you, or you can decide that you have a lesson to learn. The former path can lead you down a road of denial, and blame, while the latter path can lead you down a path of growth and understanding. You can look back or go forward; you can wallow or continue on with life, however painful that might be. Friday night my beloved iguana whom I had rescued died after a risky surgery. Her rehabilitation had made her so healthy that her body had decided to try to lay eggs, and that process took her life. I can blame myself for any of a number of actions which may have been mistakes, or I can accept the fact that while I may sometimes make mistakes, she got a better life for almost a year and a half. I could lose faith in a God who would take something so precious from me, or I could try to learn something from the experience to take with me in a positive manner and remember all the good things about my iguana. When my first iguana died, I felt very guilty and I doubted my faith in myself and in God for a long time. This made me feel lost quite a bit of the time and very uncertain of any decision I might make. I couldn’t understand why this had to happen. This time around, I felt lost for a bit too, but not so much anymore. My tears come not from rage or guilt or uncertainty, but from the simple fact that I miss her. So in this way I can look back as see that although my faith faltered for a bit after my first bout with iguana death, it has strengthened and grown in the heuristic manner described in class. My faith is enabling me to make sense of this most recent death and come to terms with it while directing me to look for meaning and something to learn from the experience that I can add to who I am. One needs challenging experiences such as these to grow. If one continually avoids the valleys and anything which might cause a person to question their faith, that faith can never grow. Without challenge, without these trying experiences and tests, a faith becomes stale and dogmatic rather than vibrant and dynamic. I can reason in my mind to make decisions or learn lessons and my faith guides how I perceive life while also giving me a guiding rail when life drops the floor out from under me. ]]> http://blog.quamada.com/?sv=15 http://blog.quamada.com/?sv=15 Mon, 26 Feb 2007 18:24:59 -0600

We'll never forget how much she meant to us, how alive she was. She had such real personality, and taught us both so very much. Her rehabilitation was a joint project for Sean and I, and she captured our hearts. We built her a huge, way awesome enclosure which she loved, and her heath and behavior both improved. She was healthy enough to have eggs, and calm enough to not panic at the sight of us. She recognized us, and it was amazing how much she calmed down when the vet put her in our arms.

To her personality, Her expressions, To all we learned from her, And all she taught others, as well.

If even one child from either program she went to in life goes on to not buy an iguana, spread awareness, or research proper care of an iguana, then her life impacted the world and other iguanas. And even if this doesn't happen, she impacted us, and we can go on to impact the world.

To Kala, in all her sweet life. ]]> http://blog.quamada.com/?sv=14 http://blog.quamada.com/?sv=14 Sat, 24 Feb 2007 00:46:10 -0600 We just got the call from the vet that Kala pulled through- there was happy dancing going on! We'll be picking her up this afternoon.

But she's hypocalcemic, and her back legs and tail aren't working so well right now. She'll be getting lots of extra special care for a while till she makes a full recovery. We'll have to rearrange her cage so she doesn't have to climb, but hopefully soon she'll be back to being unstoppable!

I'm so happy she's alive! I'll keep you updated!! ]]> http://blog.quamada.com/?sv=13 http://blog.quamada.com/?sv=13 Fri, 23 Feb 2007 09:41:58 -0600 She started getting prepped for and went into surgery around three o'clock, with a very high risk of death. The vet said to prepare for the worst and not to get our hopes up. I was a wreck, and I imagine Sean wasn't much better. I puttered away trying to look at readings but I wasn't really there. I think I prayed for nearly two hours, almost straight. A little after 5, Kala woke up from surgery, to my great relief. Her chances of survival increased then to 50%, and the vet seemed more hopeful.

Now Kala is still at the vet, since they wanted to keep her overnight, quite understandably. If they can get her to eat and if she doesn't go into shock from the blood loss and the trauma of surgery, she'll have a good chance of recovering and we might be able to get her tomorrow. If this happens, I'm skipping my afternoon grad class to go with, because I won't be able to concentrate much anyway.

She's had such a rocky life, having just gotten better from a life-threatening disease only to get another. She's probably low on calcium and has broken a toe. They spayed her, so if she survives we'll collectively never have to go through this again, and they extracted 23 eggs from her. If she can tap into her strong-willed bull-headed nature that we know so well and recover, hopefully she can go on with life in a much healthier way. ]]> http://blog.quamada.com/?sv=12 http://blog.quamada.com/?sv=12 Thu, 22 Feb 2007 20:32:58 -0600 We're nearing the close of week three of Kala's egg adventure. She's still active, but she's getting significantly weaker, since she hasn't eaten for about 4 weeks (and before that she only picked at food for probably a week or two)- all except for one bite of turnip greens (her favorite) which Sean force-fed her. He hasn't been able to get anything else down her throat, though. It's very frustrating and worrisome, because I just want her to be better, and it feels like we've spent all this time and effort and research making her healthy just in time to see it all go back down the drain again. I just want her to get through this, lay her eggs, and get healthy again. I read something that said the process takes about 8 weeks or so, so I'm hopeful. The appetite is supposed to wane at around week 4 or 5 of gestation, while at around 8 weeks or so you should be able to see and feel the eggs. I can't, really, but that could be because I don't know what I'm looking for exactly. So I figure she's at 8 weeks plus, and she's going to be going to the vet by next week. I'd rather her just get through it herself, but it's all getting a little too tense for both Sean and me.

My research is going well- I'm making a bit of progress inch by inch now, and that makes me feel better. Plus, I have more ideas now for what to put into my thesis. I'll be presenting my research at the Iowa Academy of Sciences on Saturday, April 28, at Central College in Pella. It'll be an oral presentation, about ten minutes or so, so it's kind of exciting and stressful at the same time. However, since I'm working on my thesis, I'm automatically working on that, so it'll be okay. You all are welcome to come if you want. I can give you more details when I get them.

Well I'm sure there's more I can say, but I'm too hungry to think of them just now, so I'll save it for another day. Take care and enjoy the weather while we have it! ]]> http://blog.quamada.com/?sv=11 http://blog.quamada.com/?sv=11 Wed, 21 Feb 2007 18:17:25 -0600 Kala's been very social however, aside from being generally cantankerous when Sean moves her. But Saturday she jumped right onto him so that she could explore the apartment for a while, and she's been calm though active.

Kala also has a lot going for her. She gets a lot of exercise, she's got the right heat, mostly the right humidity (it's a little low, but...) and she has a nesting box now. Plus, she's pretty much healthy again. So really, that's a lot in her favor for getting through this without complications. Besides, I'll be the wiser with this experience under my belt- now I know what iguana eggs look like!

A single egg from Kala's clutch.

A few eggs collected so far.

Kala's nesting box.

Kala poking her head out.

As for me, I've been doing well too. I'm almost done with an application to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaigne. They have a Masters in Biology program with a specialization in Animal Behavior. The specialization is in collaboration with the ASPCA, and is tailored to the specifications of the Animal Behavior Society, the only real professional society in the field. So graduates from the program can pretty easily get certified as animal behaviorists- making it easier to find a job, since it makes one more trustworthy as a behaviorist. Also, a division of the ASPCA (the Animal Behavior Center) is in Urbana, IL, and it's not terribly far from home.

So I'm almost done with the application- I just need to send in my transcripts (tomorrow) and write my essays about why they should pick me (ugh) and what I want to get out of their program. Oh- and ask one final person to write me a letter of recommendation. This can all easily be in by February 15 (especially since the letters of recommendation and the application essays can be done online), in which case then I just sit back and cool my heels for a while till they tell me their decision. That'll come through around the middle of March probably- just like the Wisconsin-Madison decision.

Speaking of... I'd better go write my essays. ]]> http://blog.quamada.com/?sv=10 http://blog.quamada.com/?sv=10 Mon, 05 Feb 2007 16:30:53 -0600 Not terribly surprising, considering how the vet thought Kala might be gravid and she recommended we keep her on calcium supplements for the time being. And now that I've done some research, I can see other signs which I had seen but was unsure about. She'd showed less appetite for a while and had not gotten thinner. Lately she's been really into exploring, and her defecation had gotten smaller and smaller and then nonexistant. All signs of a gravid female about ready to lay her eggs- in fact, the exploration was probably her trying to find a spot to dig a nest.

Now as far as I know, Kala has had no experience with males and has never before laid eggs. So the eggs are almost certainly nonviable- they're like the chicken eggs most people buy in the supermarket. No little embryos inside. She's now laid five, and we'll have to keep an eye on her. If she starts getting lethargic, that could be a sign that she's egg-bound (an egg is blocking the way) and that can kill her pretty quickly. So hopefully she'll lay some 50 or so more eggs pretty quickly with no complications. The eggs are pretty cool looking (or so I think).

She must be feeling better now, in order to make and lay all those eggs! :D ]]> http://blog.quamada.com/?sv=9 http://blog.quamada.com/?sv=9 Fri, 02 Feb 2007 19:12:04 -0600 Well, today I got a letter from Colorado State University's veterinary school. I was declined. This means that if Wisconsin-Madison also doesn't accept me (I'll know around the middle of March), I need to find something else to do. I could wait a year and try again. But I still need to do something during that year.

It really bummed me out at first, not getting accepted. It had become my dream, and then it suddenly was like it flew out of my hands. But as I think about it, really at the heart of me, I don't mind so much if I never get into vet school. Sure, it'd be really nice, and I'd like it. But what I really want to do is train and rehabilitate animals, and I can do that without a veterinary degree. (The vet degree just opens up more doors). This realization, coming back to what I really want to do with my life, made it easier to accept my rejection. It made me feel better.

But now I need to really look out, just in case I don't get accepted at my second choice, for what I'm going to do with my life for at least a year. I could move to Colorado or someplace and live and work there (maybe at a vet place for experience, maybe at a zoo or somewhere) for a year and apply again as a resident. Or I could stay around here and try to find a job that might turn into a career. Zookeeping, animal care, or research would all be fine with me. I can work with the public or I can work more with animals- either one will work. What would be very cool is to work somewhere like the Humane society, rehabilitating and training animals so they are ready for adoption and can be adopted out easier. The problem is how to look for these opportunities...... ]]> http://blog.quamada.com/?sv=8 http://blog.quamada.com/?sv=8 Tue, 30 Jan 2007 16:19:15 -0600 Well really not much has happened. Our lives aren't that exciting, so whenever anyone asks me how things are going it's hard to come up with some answer besides good. Sean wishes it was snowing here- it doesn't feel like Christmas to him without snow. We had a party here last week after finals were all done. Kimberly and I both felt like cooking, so she brought over a whole pile of food- way too much for us to eat all by ourselves, and I cleaned house while Sean cooked donairs and poutine (both dishes we got hooked on in Nova Scotia). Both turned out great, and tasted just like they did in Canada. Kimberly and Celeste were a little suspicious of the poutine at first, but then they decided it wasn't so bad after all, and later that evening they made room for a little donair too. With all the rich treats Kimberly brought, it's a surprise we all didn't get sick to our stomachs! After gorging ourselves and passing around presents, we settled down and played Halo 2 again. I don't know about Kimberly, but Celeste really seems to like it. And then after Halo 2 we continued with explosive fun on the Xbox- Worms! It was really fun, just hanging out with friends and playing Xbox for hours into the night- until we all decided we were bushed and it was high time to go to bed.

Now it's pretty quiet here. I've been going to the lab now and then, taking care of the frogs and such. The lab has a lungfish, a leopard gecko, and a skink now. The poor skink is a paraplegic though; she has metabolic bone disease and most likely broke her back. Poor thing. We're forcing calcium and vitamins down her throat, and aren't entirely sure if she's eating crickets or not. However, the leopard gecko is in great shape and doesn't try to bite you when she's picked up. She eats like a pig and is a great pick-me-up for any down day.

Last Tuesday I went to first grade. :) Some professors and I took a bunch of animals, including Kala, down to the local elementary school and talked to the first grade classes (there are three of them) about fish, amphibian and reptiles. The lungfish, leopard gecko, some fire bellied toads, the big bullsnake, the milksnake, and a bunch of wood turtles (wily little creatures they are) were all taken along. Dr. Olson and I had the toads, gecko, Kala, and the pac-man frog, and we compared and contrasted reptiles and amphibians. We weren't entirely sure what the others were going to do exactly until just before the programs, but really it seemed we fit together pretty well. Besides, it was a load of fun for us and the kids, and even Kala handled it pretty well. It was a good second introduction to programs for her.

Ahh, Kala. So today, Sean and I were sitting downstairs, and he was like, "Does it sound like Kala's out?" So we went up to check, cuz neither of us let her out yet. There she is, sitting in the middle of the floor in her room. Yes, our iguana figured out how to open her door. No joke. It's exceedingly impressive, but now Sean and I have to come up with a good way to lock her in while we're gone for Christmas. The short time we'll be gone won't hurt her, but if she decides that the floor of the apartment is a great spot to use as a bathroom, well, that and her being Kala, there's no telling the possible havoc that could occur. That and she might decide to go downstairs, not be able to get upstairs, and get herself all nice and very very cold. Not so good for an iguana.

Really, she's been showing quite a bit of intelligence lately, and it isn't just pet-owner anthropomorphizm. She's started scratching at her door when she wants out (yes, like a dog), and then has also started coming on command when she wants out of the bath. Well yes, the last one only works in that situation with the associated gesture of my hand held out. But she doesn't scratch and claw quite like normal. It's the first step of a training process.

So yes, this is my life. Tomorrow Sean and I are exchanging presents and celebrating an early Christmas. I'm going to bake a bunch of goodies, for which I am excited. Maybe some Christmas wreaths, some clove strawberries, hmm.. maybe some cookies. Merry Christmas everyone- enjoy yourselves! ]]> http://blog.quamada.com/?sv=7 http://blog.quamada.com/?sv=7 Fri, 22 Dec 2006 01:41:40 -0600 But my Myth class turned less interesting when it suddenly and out of the blue became a feminist class. I mean, I guess I should have been a bit suspicious when one of the texts for the class was entitled "Off With Her Head: The Denial of Women's Identity in Myth, Religion, and Culture" but I was just like, "Huh. Oh well." Well we started getting into the book a little while, and can I say, Holy Feminism. Let me clarify myself- I have nothing against women standing up for themselves or being treated like people, or anything like that. I'm a pretty assertive person myself, and I wouldn't like it if I was forced to be passive and voiceless. What I don't like is overcompensation- women making it seem like they're better than men, or pinning the wrongs of the world on men, or pointing to everything men have done wrong in history, that sort of thing. If you want to see something, chances are you can find evidence for it in the simplest things. The grocer hands your boyfriend the bag of groceries and you get in a tiff because you assume he thought the little frail woman couldn't handle it. But maybe he was just trying to be nice, or polite. Or maybe your boyfriend was closer, or paying more attention. Maybe it had nothing to do with you at all.

Reading my feminist book, I have to write analyses of the chapters. Some of them have been less than pretty, and usually I stop in the middle of a 15 page essay to complain about it to Sean. I don't buy a lot of the preaching they do in the book. I don't think I'm being figuratively beheaded everywhere I look.

One of the things that bugs me is the effect feminism can have on chivalry. My mom tried to raise us girls to be ladylike, and I think we still frustrate her sometimes because we're too independent. But my sister and I have had conversations about chivalry with my brother, explaining the whys behind it to him. My mom always wanted my brother to be chivalrous, just like she wanted us girls to be ladies. I don't know that chivalry is very common right now, or cool or whatever. I like it. It makes me feel good about myself and about who I'm with. But the message of feminism clashes with the message of chivalry, and right now, feminism tries to just eat up anything clashing with it. It's like Freudianism in that way- there's no winning, because if you go against it, you're just in denial. Or in this case, you're sexist.

The way I see it, chivalry is a great way for a guy to tell a girl how much she means to him. It's like, 'You mean enough to me that I want to open this door for you.' Now, if Sean doesn't open a door for me, that doesn't mean he doesn't love me. Half the time it's because I beat him to it. And besides, it's just one way to show appreciation out of thousands. Carrying a heavier box doesn't mean I'm weak, even if he is stronger. It means he's willing to exert some effort so I don't have to. It's that sort of thing. Now it may sound selfish that I like chivalry. But it's not like I want to be waited on hand and foot. It's just a nice thing to see now and again. Just like there are tons of ways a guy can show appreciation for a girl, there's tons of ways a girl can show appreciation for a guy. Things like leaving little trinkets around, or getting him a present he always wanted, and of course, saying I love you and giving hugs and kisses.

I like it when Sean does little things for me partially because I like doing little things for him, and it kind of keeps it even. Neither of us is doing all the giving or all the receiving. And that's the way I think it's supposed to be.

In my brother's case, chivalry could be used to show a girl he likes her. Let's face it- guys have to win the girls a lot of the time. Guys want to get that special girl's attention, not that it doesn't go the other way around too. I just see a lot more chasing going on in the guy realm than the girl realm. Chivalry is a good way to get that attention- if you make a girl feel special and worthwhile, she'll probably like that. And then she'll probably remember you.

It's all good and fluffy in my idealistic world, so I don't like it when feminism threatens chivalry and condemns all guys as bad and evil and women-haters. Cuz they're not, and that's just dumb.

Thus ends my long and convoluted feminist rant. ]]> http://blog.quamada.com/?sv=6 http://blog.quamada.com/?sv=6 Mon, 27 Nov 2006 23:35:01 -0600 Kala's doing great! It's like a switch flipped or something, and she hasn't reverted to fear in a long time. She's been just enjoying pettings and hanging out doing the Kala-thing. Maybe her leg doesn't hurt so much now. She sometimes leans in before you pet her, and will come right away now at the sight of food. I'm training her to come on command, basically right now associating a hand gesture and the words 'come here' with the sight of food, which she comes for. Hopefully she'll associate the words and gesture with the food and think that food is coming when the gesture is given and therefore start coming before even seeing the food. That'll be the ultimate goal- tricking the iguana brain. I'm playing with the idea of training her to stand up for some certain type of food.

Yesterday, Kala gave me a scare which I then promptly began laughing at her about. I came home early, and Sean warned me to 'be on the lookout for roaming lizards', meaning he'd left Kala's door to her enclosure open as an invitation to her to come out if she wanted, but hadn't seen her since. I went in to check in on her, and found her foot on one of my six-foot iguana leashes (the black one I had used for Ginki). ( Go to http://www.petco.com/Assets/product_images/4/4566300066B.jpg or http://www.arcatapet.com/fullsize/5234.jpg for a picture). Thinking that she had gotten herself tangled up in the leash, I lifted her foot, (which she let me do despite being wary), and started following the leash around her....... straight to her mouth. She had swallowed nearly five feet of the six foot leash, leaving the clasp and harness hanging from her mouth. I pulled it out of her mouth, which she didn't like at all. At first it was stuck on a tooth, but after that it went pretty easily (for me, pulling slowly..... Kala was whipping her head back and forth kind of like a dog shaking some poor toy it caught to kill it, except that her whole body would shake from the force, since she didn't have a good grip on the slick floor.) We recovered the entire leash, and Kala seems fine from her experience.

We thought she'd revert after that. After all, having a string pulled out of your stomach is not a cool thing to experience. But she ate readily (even though she was fed the day before and usually only eats every other day) from my hand and let me pet her, and today seemed just as good or better than usual. She let Sean pick her up without a fuss, especially when he took her down for food, and she sat on the back of his chair while he worked like she sometimes does now. Today she even climbed down to the armrest and nuzzled his elbow! We aren't sure if she wanted petting or if it was just a, 'hey human, move your elbow- it's in the way', but either way she definately wasn't afraid. She did try to eat his lemonade can though, and licked that black leash a couple times, too.....

Let's see... what of interest has been going on in my life besides Kala-antics....... Well, though I haven't had success with my research, I did apply for and receive a grant for it. About a week ago, Sean and I had our six-month anniversary (awwww....). It was funny, because we were like, what should we do? Go out to dinner. And then we did errands. :) Either that time or the next time we went to Carlos O'Kelly's, we brought along Settlers of Catan the card game and played it there while eating yummy appetizer things (chipotle crisp, or something like that). Some people came over to see what we were playing- apparently it's not often that people play card games at Carlos O'Kelly's like that. :)

I'm getting a MacBook soon. It should arrive either tomorrow or Friday, and I am excited. I've wanted a laptop for a while now, and this will be my first one. No longer will I be chained to the edge of the couch to use my iMac. Sadly, the iMac may have to be sold. Sean was amused at the arduous process I went through in choosing a laptop bag, doing research to read as many reviews as I could. Apparently his laptop purchasing ordeal went much more smoothly, easily, and quickly. But I have a laptop bag I like, and soon I will have the laptop to match, all in time for Thanksgiving, so I won't have to steal his laptop. :)

The Capoeira club had their batizado. It was awesome, of course. This time, there were kids getting their cords, since they opened an academy on Main Street. It was funny and interesting, watching the kids playing with the masters. The masters would cue them for cartwheels, or throw a kick and pause so they could figure out that they should duck, or sometimes they would duck and wait for the kid to kick. They even had a lot of the kids doing headbutts, which was hilarious.

Oh, one more Kala thing. We recently gave her an iguana blanket (an old blue handtowel). She absolutely loves it. She never knocks it off, she sleeps on it with her head nestled in it, and she often basks sitting on it. You can see pictures at http://www.quamada.com/kala.html with the new pictures at the bottom.

Final random note: I love Wierd Al's Pancreas song. So awesome! ]]> http://blog.quamada.com/?sv=5 http://blog.quamada.com/?sv=5 Wed, 15 Nov 2006 22:19:16 -0600