Katrina = frustration

While I haven’t watched much TV news about hurricane Katrina, I’ve been trying to keep up with all the pet-related hurricane news via sites like Petfinder, Katrina Found Pets, United Animal Nations, and I also receive regular email newsletters from the ASPCA, HSUS, and Best Friends.  Without exception the sites make me weepy, sometimes for good reasons and sometimes for bad, yet I can’t pull myself away.  I don’t really feel sad, though—I’m feeling frustrated.  I want to do something, yet there’s really nothing I can do except send money and write blog posts.  It seems like a poor substitute for actually being in the hurricane-affected regions and doing something hands-on.  The situation pushes me (again) towards considering getting training to be a vet tech, even though I might never actually practice those skills at a “real job”.  I think the knowledge would make me a better pet owner, and it would give me something to offer the next time there’s a need for qualified help closer to Nevada (probably during the next bad wildfire season).  It might also make me more appealing to the lovely people at the United States immigration service when I have my “Green Card” interview, as I’d actually have a skill to tell them about (besides making websites and baking scones, of course).  If I did want to be a vet tech, I’d have to take a correspondence course, and I don’t know how valid that training would be.  To make matters worse, just about the only correspondence course I could take at my own pace would be “Thomson Education Direct”.  Yes, Thomson Education Direct, famous for their cheap ads in crappy magazines, and for their scintillating TV commercials, “Have you ever considered a career in gun cleaning?” They say that they’ve applied to be accredited by the AVMA, and they promise that if they don’t receive accreditation, they’ll refund my tuition money.

So, if you’re in the veterinary field, and you’re reading this, would you just laugh hysterically at me if I showed up at your office to apply for a job with my shiny diploma from Thomson?!  The only other course I could take here in Vegas would be from Pima Medical, and I don’t know if they’re any more reputable than Thomson.  Eventually Las Vegas is supposed to get a real, genuine vet tech school built as part of our shiny new animal shelter, but that will be years away.  I’m almost 40, and believe me, I know I’m not getting any younger.  I’d really like to be doing something now… should I sign up for a course or just invest my money in some good books?

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 09/08 at 10:11 PM

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  1. I just read an article on CNN about the pets of New Orleans.  Like you, I just want to jump in my car and go down there to help.  The thought of these hungry and thirsty pets still on roof tops and locked in houses is heartbreaking.  I was quite happy to see that the fellow from Best Friends was interviewed in the article.  It is good to see that our money is going directly to the efforts in New Orleans.

    Ah “green cards”.  I just can’t even bring myself to write about that.  I am Captain Frustration when it comes to that topic at present.  Let me just say, I feel your angst.

    I think that you would make a wonderful vet tech.  You definitely have your heart in the right place and I think that your passion for helping animals will be so much of an asset when it comes to looking for jobs that it will not matter where your degree is from.

    Posted by Expat  on  09/09  at  11:11 AM

  2. Wow, you mean even straight, married people have Green Card problems?  I thought I was just being punished for being, you know, “one of those” wink

    Posted by Mudpuppy (aka Leigh-Ann)  on  09/09  at  08:00 PM
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