Diary of a Dick Vet

I received an email from a previous EMS placement looking for help at their kennels for the next few weeks. With summer vacation, the kennels fill up quickly and staff is short, so I’m taking the train down and staying for two weeks to help. I’m excited to return and not have to worry about filling out a pesky EMS form, and hopefully I’ll remember enough from my last time there to be useful. Plus, dogs and cats! Yay!

Before this popped up two days ago, I was facing two weeks of total free time until my sister arrives. I found the idea terrifying - how does one pass the time without classes to complain about and EMS to fulfill? I don’t think I have a workaholic bone in my body, but vet school so totally encompasses my life, that I can’t be fulfilled unless I’m doing something that somehow relates to it, even if I’m doing that activity for fun. In this case, I’m going to work, but it feels more like a holiday for me: returning to an old haunt, playing with animals, staying in the Most Comfortable Bed In The World, enjoying plenty of wine, and visiting friends.

I’m glad I can be useful. The couple I’m going to help have taken such good care of me in the past, inviting me to their boxing day and new year parties during my first holiday season away from home, and I’m pleased I can do something nice for them. Plus, um, I’m getting paid. Don’t mind that, neither.

My EMS is over, except for a few pesky forms to fill out. My final week, with chickens, went poorly for a number of reasons, but I made it through. At least it was a beautiful location. I took some pictures to prove it.

View of the farm from the road

A little waterfall. We had rain for a lot of the week after this, and the little waterfall ended up quite big.

In addition to chickens, the farm was also host to some cattle and lots of sheep. Thankfully no pigs!

I may not miss the chickens, but I will miss the truly beautiful walk to and from the farm.

I wish I had nicer things to say about chickens, but the truth is, they’re rather unpleasant. A few clucking around the yard might be nice, but a shed full of 2000 of them makes you quickly realise that they’re devoid of much personality. They’re certainly not as likable as sheep. Or cows, or horses, or dogs, or cats….

Still, they’re not pigs, either!

Hello, it’s your faithful blogger once again.

Meh.

I’ve had a rather busy summer with my EMS: 1 week horse, 3 weeks cattle (2 dairy, 1 with a beef suckler herd), and 1 week of small mammal so far. Next week I’m out in the countryside to work with chickens and then I have three weeks of completely unplanned free-time. Well, only vague planning anyway - I will have 4 more EMS forms to complete and there are a few movies I’m planning on seeing, but otherwise I’m not sure what to do. I made a (very nerdish) list of things to do in and around Edinburgh for under £5, one of which I already unsuspectingly completed: my beef placement was all over the Pentland hills, so I can cross hiking the Pentlands off my list. In fact, as lovely as that park is, after spending days trekking up and down pasture in the heat and weeds, I’m not terribly concerned with visiting that place for a while.

As far as my list is concerned, I think I will wait to do a lot of it until my sister arrives in mid-August. I’m SUPER PSYCHED for someone from my other home to come visit my current home, and also to watch her experience the bizarre land and culture that is Scotland. She will have to be very careful crossing streets! The currency will be weird! Old men will call her ‘hen’! And she will have to try Irn Bru! Plus other marvels of Edinburgh, oh my.

The new GEPs will be arriving in town in a few weeks time, as well. It’s nearly a year for myself since I first arrived in Edinburgh, miserably tired and jet-lagged, with three heavy suitcases and no sense of direction. I survived, and they will, too.

Cue ‘The Circle of Life.’