Veterinary Technician: It's not just a job, it's minimum wage and poo under your nails.
It's also a lot more fun than writing reports and making presentations.
For one thing, there's a huge coolness factor. Here I am with a Canadian Lynx. Kitty is sleeping, or Kimm would be bleeding.
There's also a large potential for cuteness. Here I am giving a neonatal exam to a newborn pygmy goat. He weighed all of six pounds. Awwwww...
Ok, so not all of the babies are tiny. And sometimes you're kneeling in a muddy barnyard to do the neonate exam. In the snow. And Mommy weighs almost 1000 pounds and doesn't like some Zombie Huntress taking a blood sample from her baby. And boy, does that fence between her and me suddenly look flimsy. Still... Awwwww....
One of the greatest things about working in the zoo vet tech field is the chance to exchange ideas and information at our annual drunken brawl... er, I mean conference. Here a few of us are at the conference hosted by Disney's Animal Kingdom, in diligent pursuit of higher learning. Lisa, Kimm, Nina, Barbara, Pete and Ivan. See the book in Barbara's hand? We're LEARNING!
Sometimes you make a friend where you never expected to find one. This is Spike the goat, the Nubian prince who called Flushing Meadow home.
Even professional and businesslike Vet Tech/Zombie Huntresses have to have a little room for sentimentality. Lucky Duck was my 'clinic pet' for three years. The Lord may or may not love a duck, I know I sure loved this one.
Perhaps most importantly for a Zombie Huntress, animals do not become zombies. So while it is entirely possible to encounter Bad Kitties, the workplace is still a place of relative safety.
