New Place To Volunteer

This week I found a new place to volunteer. It's at the Weston animal Hospital. I had never even noticed that it was there. Of course, I never really go to that area so it would make sense that I've never seen it before, but still, I've never heard about it. I was so exited when I found it. It looked really nice inside and it seemed to be a really clean place.
Once I went in, I asked them if they took volunteers or if they offered any internships. They said yes and gave me an application to fill out. Since I am still not seventeen yet, I cannot do an internship, so I applied to volunteer. After I finished filling out the application, the manager interviewed me for a few minutes. When we were done, she said that I could go volunteer. I was so surprised because at other places where I have applied to volunteer, after I filled out an application, all they would say was that they would call me back. I still haven't even heard back from some of the places that I applied for, so I was super excited to hear that I could just call in and go volunteer.
I'm still not sure when I'll go volunteer yet, but I think I'm going to call some time this week and see if I can volunteer this weekend. The manager said that the best time to volunteer would be in the morning and when the kennel manager is there. So Hopefully she will be there during the weekend.

Fostering

On Saturday at the Humane Society of Greater Miami there is going to be a fostering class. I have been wanting to foster a dog for a long time and now that my sister has moved out and will be taking her dog with her, I thought this would be the perfect time to try and convince my parents to let me foster a dog. I already have one dog and since he is an older dog, and older dogs usually tend to be calmer, I feel like he I can trust him being around new dogs. I know that he is also going to get lonely without my sister's dog being around.
The reason why I waited until my sister's dog left, was because she is only about five years old and she is the type of dog breed that can become very hyper. Many of the dogs that need fostering are ones that are very stressed out from being in the shelter around so many dogs that are always barking, and need a break. So I feel like my sister's dog might be too much for the dogs to handle being around. I'm so excited to go and learn about what it is to be an animal foster, hopefully I'll be able to foster a dog or puppy soon.

Interview

This week was very exciting! I got to interview a holistic veterinarian. It was pretty hard to find one, especially because there aren't that many around south Florida. I had to search online to find some holistic veterinarians, and many of them were located further up north. After I found a few, I had to make some phone calls to see if they would even let me interview them. I had a little trouble with that because, there were a few that would not answer when I called. I wasn't sure if it was because I was calling after office hours, and since  didn't have their website, I couldn't even check for their office hours. But finally, i found one place that answered when I called. When she answered, I asked the woman if I would be able to interview the holistic veterinarian at the clinic. Then, the next day I got a call back from the clinic and the they said that I could schedule a day to go in and interview the veterinarian. So I had scheduled to go interview the vet for Tuesday the following week.
Unfortunately, as Tuesday approached, I had to reschedule. My father's best friend's mother had passed away that Tuesday morning and my dad had to help his best friend with funerals arrangements. Because my dad was gone, and everyone else in my family is gone during the day, I had no way of getting to the interview. So then, I had to call and reschedule the interview for the next Tuesday. Finally, when Tuesday had arrived, I was able to go to the interview. I was sooo excited to ask Dr. Keller my questions.
Dr. Keller provided me with some very useful information and advice. Some of the things she told me were, that I should get as much experience as I can with all types of animals, not only small animals. She had said that not having enough experience was the only reason that she had not gotten into medical school the first time she applied, because she had never been told that knowing about all types of animals was so important. She also said that getting a minor in psychology was a good thing to do, because it is important to know how to deal with the animal's owners. Some of the modalities that she used were Chinese herbs, acupuncture, and chiropractics.
Dr. Keller was very sweet and seemed to really love her job, and care for the animals. I would definitely recommend her to anyone who is looking for a holistic veterinarian.

Cat Declawing and Dog Debarking

The other day I was watching a movie, and in it there was a dog that had been debarked. Although the movie did not portray it as a good thing to do to dogs, they didn't show that it was actually a bad thing to do to animals.
Many dogs every year are debarked because their owners think they bark too much, or are too loud. De barking is when, by a surgical procedure, a small amount of tissue in a dog's vocal chords is removed. Since a dog's vocal chords are not being removed is still has the ability to bark, just at a lower volume. What a lot of people don't know is that debarking a dog is not a good thing too do. In some cases, scar tissue can build up and cause problems with the dog's breathing. There is also a reason why a dog barks. It's to let us know how they are feeling, whether to tell us if they are happy, frustrated, or scared, they don't bark continuous for no reason. Debarking a dog is just a quick solution that ignores the reason for why a dog is barking so much, in the first place.
I have also seen cats that were declawed while volunteering. Now I know that declawing cats is more common than debarking a dog, but it is also a practice that is not good to do. When a cat is declawed, a surgical procedure is done, where a cat's claws are removed, including the cells responsible for the nail's growth. A cat's claws are very useful and important. They use them to greet their owner, mark their territory, and express their emotions. After being declawed, some  cats may choose to start biting. In some instances they may also become more aggressive, because they can no longer defend themselves as well. Cats may also have trouble climbing, jumping, and cleaning themselves. Personally, I think that people should just clip their cat's nails instead of when they get too sharp, instead of declawing.

Acupuncture for Animals

Usually when you think of acupuncture, you would think of it being done on people, not animals. But acupunture on animals is a lot more common than you would think. I never even thought about it until I was doing research on holistic veterinarians.
Acupuncture is used on animals to trigger a physiological response when treating any type of disease or problem. In acupuncture, small guage needles are stuck into the body at specific points on the body. Although is is uncertain where this practice originated, many people believe it has come from asia. It is also said that the father of veterinary acupuncture is Shun Yang from China.
Acupuncture is based on having a continuous circulation of energy throughout your body, called your Qi (pronounced chee). Any interruption will cause an imbalance, which is when acupuncture comes in to rebalance your Qi.
If you decide to have acupuncture done on your pet, with a properly trained clinician, your pet will not appear to have any discomfort. Depending on the reason for the acupuncture, your pet will have about eight sessions or more to make sure the procedure was effective. But improvements could be seen after the first session.

Miami Metro Zoo

So, during Spring Break I got to do something that was really exciting! My mentor, Mrs. Stoklosa, has a cousin who trains some of the wildlife at the Miami Metro Zoo, and she let me shadow her for part of the day. I was so excited to learn more about jobs working with wildlife.

When I got there, Jennifer, brought me to the section of the zoo where she is located. Since they are doing some construction in the zoo, she had to relocate to a trailer and temporary cages were built for the animals that she takes care of that are not on display, until the new building is finished. On the outside of the trailer, there was a sink and table, where they prepared the food for some of the animals. Inside the trailer, they had cages where they kept some of their parrots. The parrots were really pretty, and they were each trained for different talents, like flying or talking. I even went up to look at one, and it said hello to me.
Then, behind the trailer, was where some of the cages for the animals that Jennifer took care of were located. There were many different and beautiful animals. Jennifer even let me enter some of the cages to pet some of the animals, and take some pictures. One of the animals was a fourteen year old, female cheetah. I wasn't allowed to go all the way in her cage, but I was able to pet her and take a picture of her from the door of the cage.

After that, I went with Jennifer and her coworker to the animal clinic at the zoo. On the walls were pictures, taken during different surgeries that had been performed by the veterinarians. We then went to where some of the reptiles were kept. In there, they kept a snake that had just had surgery on its eye. it was a really big snake, about 100lbs.

When Jennifer was done, we went back to the trailer and she let me interview her. I learned a lot from the interview, especially about the types of courses I should consider taking in college if I want to have a career that involves animals. She also gave me some good advice on what to expect when having a career that involves working with animals.

Since I only shadowed Jennifer for a part of the day, when I was done, my family and I decided to enjoy the rest of the zoo, since most of us had never been there before. Since I just have a regular digital camera, my sister was able to get a lot of really good pictures of the animals with her camera. I can't wait to upload some of the pictures onto my computer, they came out really good!

Orientation update

So last weekend I went to an orientation for the Humane Society of Greater Miami. The shelter is about thirty minutes away in North Miami Beach, and the orientation lasted about ninety minutes. They gave everyone a packet that contained all the rules for the volunteers, it also contained all the jobs that a volunteer can choose from and the duties that are done for that job, along with the requirements for it. All the jobs seemed really interesting, but the ones I was most interested in were dog bathing and animal socializing. I think it would be interesting to learn the proper techniques for bathing dogs and cats, and the animal socializing seems really interesting because I know a lot of the cats and dogs get stressed out and scared of people and  other animals after being kept in cages for so long.
Now all I have to do is fill out the volunteer application and go to the training class. I am thinking of going to the training class that is scheduled on Thursday next week, and then staying there so I can volunteer right away. After the class I will have to buy a volunteer shirt that I will wear every time I go to volunteer, and I will have to buy a lead. A lead is a type of leash that also turns into a collar, it makes it easier when having to take a dog out of its cage fast, since they don't wear collars. I'm really excited to start volunteering at a new place. It looked like a really nice place when I went to the orientation.