Summer in Davis

Sorry for the long delay in posting, the past month has been incredibly busy for me.  I've been on summer clinics at school which is where we get to be on rotations in the vet hospital at school like the 4th year students working up cases, treating our patients, helping in surgery, and learning hands-on how to be a vet.  This has left little time for much else except Levi and Gypsy. 

Levi has handled the long days alone really well, much better than I expected.  I got him a doggie door and fenced off a little run in the backyard that he could have along with the living room inside. 

We go for walks or runs in the morning and evening and on the weekends I take him out to do something fun like going swimming at the American River or for a nice long walk or hike.  Only two more weeks of clinics and then Levi and I get to enjoy the last 3 weeks of summer down at my parents' house.  We've really been missing the swimming pool the last few weeks when it's been 90+ degrees outside. 

A couple weeks ago my roommate found this new section of green belt that is in West Davis (about a 5min drive) so she, ChaCha, Levi, and I went for a walk there the past two weekends.  It's a nice change of scenery from always walking on the same paths by our house. 

We found this neat community pool with a fun looking waterslide that we never even knew existed.  Funny how we've lived in Davis 2 years now and didn't know about this pool.  Too bad they don't allow dogs because Levi really wanted to join all the kids in the pool.

Back from the Blogging Hiatus

Sorry that I've been MIA lately...life has been crazy!  This past quarter is known as the hardest quarter in vet school and it definitely lived up to that claim.  Normally spring break is a nice time to catch up on things (like blogging) but this spring break was just about as stressful/busy as the end of the quarter.  I drove home to my parents house after my last final to drop off Levi to be puppy-sat while I went on a 5-day vet trip in northern California.  After the vet trip I had a day to recoup before our big symposium for all of the vet schools started in Davis.  I feel like I've been going nonstop for the last month.  It will definitely be nice to get away back to the snow next weekend where some friends and I have rented a cabin for the weekend.  I know Levi will be happy to frolic in the snow again.  It's been really lonely at home the past couple days without my little munchkin running around.  I can't wait to pick him up on Sunday (also his 1 year birthday!).

I don't have any good recent pictures, but here are a few from his 11 month birthday with one of his presents.

I think I've spoiled him too much by buying him presents for his "monthly" birthdays.  How do I top that for his actual birthday now?!

Levi's a Calendar Model

As a fundraiser last year for my vet school class our vice presidents came up with the idea of making a calendar with our pets' photos and selling them to our family and friends.  This year they expanded it so they accepted photos from the first and third year classes as well (in hopes that it would sell more calendars).  This meant that each vet school class would get 4 big pictures in the calendar.

Last year I entered a puppy picture that I had of Kobe, but it just got a small picture at the bottom of one of the months.  We didn't have a digital camera back when he was a puppy so I had to scan the photo.  There were a couple pictures that I liked better but they had dates on the front so I couldn't enter them.  Here was Kobe's calendar picture in January of last year's calendar.

This year I wanted to find a picture of Levi that I thought could win a full size picture in the calendar.  I finally picked one from my puppy visit when the puppies were 6 weeks old.  It is of Ronan on the left (purple boy at the time) and Levi on the right.  My mom and sister got to come meet the puppies for the first time this day, and my sister took this photo.

It turns out that the judges thought that they were cute too and they picked them to have one of the "month" pictures.  I might end up leaving the calendar on Levi's month the whole year. :-)

Finally a Break

I just finished a few weeks of never ending tests and now have a little break for a few days before the studying starts up again.  Nothing too exciting has been going on with Levi and me lately, but we are going home to Templeton this weekend to visit Mom, Dad, and Melissa which will be a nice little vacation.  Hopefully the weather will be nice enough that we can go for a hike or something while we're there.  I know Levi will love all the extra attention!

His Halloween costume arrived today and I already tried it on him.  He looks so cute!  I'm sure he probably hates me for making him wear it. :-)  There is a dog costume contest at the vet school TG (bbq) tomorrow evening that I was going to enter him in but I didn't realize it was the Friday that I was going home so now it looks like he is just going to have his costume for fun/pictures.  I think I'm going to keep it a surprise for now, but there will likely be pictures posted next week sometime.  I know I won't be able to keep it a secret for very long. :-)

I ordered a Perla bed for Levi a little while and it was on backorder at the time but it was supposed to get in the next week.  Well, it's been over a month now and it is still on backorder. :-(  Levi is hoping that the bed will hurry up and be in stock soon so we don't have this old blanket sitting in the corner by itself anymore.  It really wants a bed to go in.

 

Here Levi is trying to decide which Everlasting Treat Ball to play with.  The medium sized one was good when he was a puppy, but he recently graduated to the large sized one.  He still likes to play with the empty medium one though for whatever reason.  He really loves these chew toys but he can occasionally pop the chew part out of the blue holder and then I have to try to squeeze it back in when it's all slimy which is pretty difficult. 

Sorry for the lame blog posts lately...hopefully we will have something more exciting to talk about soon.

Intro to agility class

I am obviously slacking on blogging lately.  School is getting a lot more intense so my free time for blogging is limited.  I have Pharmacology and Bacteriology tests this coming week and then Virology and another Oncology test the week after. 

Levi and I started an intro to agility class last weekend, so today was our second time going.  It is a lot of fun and I am learning so much.  It's nice that it is really low key and there are only 4 of us in the class.  The class is through Precision Chaos in Dixon which is only about 10 minutes away.  Levi seems to really enjoy it as well.  I can't wait until he is full grown and can start doing real agility training. 

No pictures from our doggy class, but here are a couple random pictures from my phone that I thought were funny.

Levi decided he wanted to shield his eyes from the light when I was studying past his bedtime.

My crate that was in the car is really dirty and needing cleaning so Levi has been getting to ride loose in the back of the jeep.  Most of the time he lays down but occasionaly he likes to rest his head on the seats in front of him.

Happy 6 Month Birthday Levi!

I can't believe Levi is already 6 months old!  Time sure has flown by. 

So 6 things I love about Levi:
1. He is a snuggler with his toys/blankets.  He really likes to curl up against things as well as to rest his head on his toys. 
2.  When he is tired he plops down onto the floor like it would take too much energy to lay himself down softly.  He has done this ever since he first came home at 8 weeks old.
3.  He is so well behaved in his crate now and he doesn't even whine anymore (I never thought that would happen).
4.  He loves coming to school with me and getting attention from everyone.
5.  He loves playing with other dogs, big or small.  It is really cute to watch him play with little dogs or younger puppies because you can tell that he is trying to be gentle with them.
6.  He is getting so much more interested in retrieving.

Sorry this has to be a short post today.  Tomorrow is the first test of the quarter, Oncology, so I have to get back to studying.  I think I have a new appreciation/interest in oncology since Kobe died.  It's kind of a double edged sword though because that is also what makes oncology class hard for me emotionally.

Pictures from the Arboretum

I had a couple hour break today between class and a meeting for Equine Medicine Club so I took Levi for a walk through the arboretum on campus.  It's really close to the vet school and is really beautiful.  Today we found these little garden areas off of the main paved path that had all sorts of flowers and plants.  It was really neat and I'm surprised that I hadn't seen it before when I had been there.  I thought it was a good time for some pictures (although all I had was my phone).  I need to start carrying my camera with me.

He really seems to like coming to school, especially getting to play with the other dogs here. The past two days he has gotten to play with my friend's 3 ½ month old miniature Australian shepherd, CJ, during lunch or after class. He is still learning to not be too rough with him since he is so much bigger than CJ but they seem to have a lot of fun together.  He also seems to be taking after momma Sport more and has gotten a lot more into fetching his rubber chuck-it ball.  We've been playing a little bit of fetch on one of the lawns at school during lunch time to give him some fun and exercise and he has been really into it.
 
Right now Levi is acting like a silly boy playing in my room while I write this post. He thinks he is pretty clever tunneling under the pillows on the bed.

Ramblings

Today we got a nice surprise on our evening walk.  We went to this big field near our house to do some training and bumper retrieving, and shortly after we got there a beautiful golden retriever came over to say hi to Levi.  I think his name was Milo.  I chatted with his owner while Milo and Levi wrestled together.  Levi really liked him, and I was glad that he was getting to play with another golden. :-)  Milo is also half American and half European.  I guess there is a normal group of dog owners that all get together at this field in the evenings to let their dogs play.  I decided to let Levi off of his long leash since he kept tangling the other dogs and he did really well.  He stayed nearby and we even got to work on our recall a few times when he wasn't super engrossed in playing.  He did really well, and after coming back the first time and getting a handful of hot dog pieces he realized that he really liked to come when I called him.

All that playing really tired him out.  I thought it was funny how he dug his bed out of the crate so he could lay on the cold metal and then he used the bed as a head rest.

Today was the first day of my second year of vet school.  It was really good to be back and to see everyone again, but it was weird going into the second years class room.  I kept wanting to go to our classroom from first year.  Levi stayed at home today since we had a short day and I got home at 2.  He didn't seem too upset about it, so I hope that he continues to do well.  Tomorrow is a really short day (9-12) and then Thursday we have off for Rosh Hashanah.  Why?  I don't know, but I don't care, it's a day off!  Levi will get to come to school with me for the first time on Friday when I go all the way until 5pm.  I already have his crate set up in the home room so he's ready to go.

Now that we have been back in Davis for a few days Levi is feeling more like this is home again.  He really likes that he has a step so he can go on the bed here.  One thing that I think is really funny though is that most of the time he chooses to lay on the step instead of the bed.  I think he likes it because he can lean up against the bed.

Finished My First Year of Vet School!

It seems like it has been so much longer than 9 months since I started vet school in September!  I can't believe the amazing friendships that I've made and the fun times that we have had together!  Even if it was just studying together (which is what most of our time was spent doing), I have loved every minute of this year.

So many memories, good and bad (mostly good though :-)).  Orientation, and our pre-orientation gatherings where we all met for the first time.  Grey's and fro-yo nights.  Late night and weekend studying in the anatomy lab.  Late night studying delirium in general.  Oh yeah, and some more studying.  Halloween party.  Disneyland.  Equine dental wet-lab.  Equine Medicine Club rounds (my favorite part of vet school!).  Kobe's death :( .  Getting Levi.  Thanks friends and family for helping me survive all of this.


And now...SUMMER-TIME!!!!!

I can't wait to relax in the pool, take Levi for adventures, and ride Cisco and Gypsy.