Well, I guess we can change the name of the blog now...I got home Saturday just in time to go to the MSU vs. Arkansas game, and luckily for the Bulldogs, I brought home some good luck!
The end of my stay was pretty uneventful...I got to watch a Puerto Rican Parrot necropsy and 2 Texas Horned Lizard necropsies on my last day, and Kevin, the boss/teacher took me to lunch at Cali and Tito's.
So, after finally getting everything stuffed into the Ford Contour, I made it home! I'm currently still trying to get everything out of the Ford Contour and into its proper place in the apartment, but it doesn't all seem to fit.
The next couple of weeks = cram time for boards, so the only interesting things to be aware of will likely revolve around the possibility of Raleigh!?
Thanks for reading!
Monday, November 24, 2008
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
The big news from yesterday...
Not a bad week to be at SCWDS!!! See article below:
Hunter Kills Cougar in Georgia
posted November 18, 2008
Hunters around Georgia's West Point Lake might be led to believe that Georgia has a new predator roaming the woods - the cougar.
A Sunday kill of a male cougar on U.S. Army Corps of Engineer land at West Point Lake, south of Hwy. 109 seemed to verify that thought. However, according to the Georgia Department of Natural Resources Wildlife Resources Division, this simply is a one-time experience.
"Though cougar and panther sightings persist in Georgia, there are no known native populations of these animals roaming the woods," advises Wildlife Resources Division Region Supervisor Kevin Kramer. "There is no reason to believe that there are any more cougars out there. This likely is a unique experience and while exciting, is not something for which we should be concerned."
The cougar, taken near the Abbottsford community west of LaGrange, was a male, 88 inches in length measured from the nose to the tip of the tail and weighed approximately 140 pounds. The hunter who took the animal was legally hunting deer from his tree stand at the time the cougar approached.
Initial examination by Wildlife Resources Division biologists found no tattoos, tags or collars, and the cougar had not been declawed.
Further examination by The Southeastern Cooperative Wildlife Disease Study in Athens Monday afternoon confirmed the cougar to be healthy and well fed. Researchers determined the cougar had a very low parasite level and that the pads on all four feet were scuffed. According to SCWDS staff, these findings are consistent with a captive reared cougar, not a wild specimen.
Due to the fact that there are no known native populations of cougars in Georgia, no permitted cougars in this area and that the closest Alabama facilities permitted to house cougars (in Elmore and Macon Counties) have accounted for all permitted cougars, the animal taken Sunday likely escaped or was released from a non-permitted individual.
There currently are no leads as to who may have most recently held the animal, but the Division will continue to look into all possibilities.
Hunter Kills Cougar in Georgia
posted November 18, 2008
Hunters around Georgia's West Point Lake might be led to believe that Georgia has a new predator roaming the woods - the cougar.
A Sunday kill of a male cougar on U.S. Army Corps of Engineer land at West Point Lake, south of Hwy. 109 seemed to verify that thought. However, according to the Georgia Department of Natural Resources Wildlife Resources Division, this simply is a one-time experience.
"Though cougar and panther sightings persist in Georgia, there are no known native populations of these animals roaming the woods," advises Wildlife Resources Division Region Supervisor Kevin Kramer. "There is no reason to believe that there are any more cougars out there. This likely is a unique experience and while exciting, is not something for which we should be concerned."
The cougar, taken near the Abbottsford community west of LaGrange, was a male, 88 inches in length measured from the nose to the tip of the tail and weighed approximately 140 pounds. The hunter who took the animal was legally hunting deer from his tree stand at the time the cougar approached.
Initial examination by Wildlife Resources Division biologists found no tattoos, tags or collars, and the cougar had not been declawed.
Further examination by The Southeastern Cooperative Wildlife Disease Study in Athens Monday afternoon confirmed the cougar to be healthy and well fed. Researchers determined the cougar had a very low parasite level and that the pads on all four feet were scuffed. According to SCWDS staff, these findings are consistent with a captive reared cougar, not a wild specimen.
Due to the fact that there are no known native populations of cougars in Georgia, no permitted cougars in this area and that the closest Alabama facilities permitted to house cougars (in Elmore and Macon Counties) have accounted for all permitted cougars, the animal taken Sunday likely escaped or was released from a non-permitted individual.
There currently are no leads as to who may have most recently held the animal, but the Division will continue to look into all possibilities.
Sunday, November 16, 2008
I LOVE FALL!!!
It was a beautiful Sunday for a road trip! After church today, I came home and changed quickly to head to Tallulah Gorge in "North Georgia." I am disappointed that I didn't find out more information about this place before the fam came to visit, because I think we all would have enjoyed the scenery.
Tallulah Gorge is about an hour and a half north of Athens and consists of a number of water falls below a Georgia Power dam that was built in the early 20th century.
I got to the Interpretive Center around 2 pm, and one of the rangers got me a map of the gorge and explained where I needed to go. I told him I wanted the full Tallulah Gorge experience, so I got my permit to hike the gorge bottom (it was free, but it was a little scary to have to give emergency contact info and my car description). They give 100 permits per day to people that want to hike the bottom of the gorge- I think it keeps the liability down, and cuts down on the commercialism of it all.
So, with multiple layers of clothes, my water bottle, Chacos attached to my Mountainsmith, a flashlight (just in case!), and a banana, I headed off to Outlook #1. The following pictures and descriptions chart my journey:
This is one view overlooking the gorge from the north side- the leaves were beautiful!
This is the first waterfall that you see from the outlooks.
Uh oh! Get ready for 370 steps down to the...
suspension bridge (sorry I didn't turn it right-side-up)!
Here is a view looking back up the stairs. Now, another 225 stairs down to...
the base of Hurricane Falls. To proceed onward from here, you have to have your official permit (though no one is there to check it), and the trip through the bottom of the gorge starts by jumping rocks across the river:
Thankfully, a large group of girls was coming back across and one helped me across the log perfectly balanced like a see-saw. The following 2 pictures prove that I made it across the river, and I'm looking back towards the wooden overlook where I had my portrait made in front of Hurricane Falls:
This shows the group of girls headed back across. If you ever go to Tallulah Gorge, I'd recommend taking a buddy. With my short legs, I definately would have ended up in the water on the way across, though the way back wasn't as difficult.
A beautiful view of a pool of water at the top of Oceana Falls.
A view from the end of the gorge hike at Bridal Veil Falls. This would be a perfect spot for a picnic lunch! Now it is time to re-trace my steps back to the rock crossing.
One of the many self-portraits I took along the way to document my trek.
Soo...back across the rocks (I did get one foot a little soggy along the way), up the 225 stairs to the level of the suspension bridge...and347 more steps to the top of the south rim. This is one of the pictures I took along the way up the stairs...I mainly stopped to take pictures here so I wouldn't look like I was about to collapse, which was actually the case.
So...I followed the South Rim upstream, crossed the dam, and headed back towards the Interpretive Center, stopping to take a photo of the dam on the way:
.
So, a 2 hour, 4 mile jaunt down the Tallulah Gorge was a perfect way to spend a Sunday afternoon- I'd highly recommend it, and I can't wait to go back with Joel one day.
A few pictures from the drive back to Athens:
A view leaving the mountains looking southward. There were some incredible views on the way north, but I couldn't stop to take pictures because I was scared all of the permits would be gone!
The huge sign at the outlet mall in Commerce, GA sucked me in. I didn't actually shop, but I couldn't resist driving through the parking lot since they advertised so strongly.
A random shot of one of the many "Pandemic Flu. Be Prepared." billboards around Athens. I'm not quite sure what action they're calling the citizens to, but it makes a good photo op!
Tallulah Gorge is about an hour and a half north of Athens and consists of a number of water falls below a Georgia Power dam that was built in the early 20th century.
I got to the Interpretive Center around 2 pm, and one of the rangers got me a map of the gorge and explained where I needed to go. I told him I wanted the full Tallulah Gorge experience, so I got my permit to hike the gorge bottom (it was free, but it was a little scary to have to give emergency contact info and my car description). They give 100 permits per day to people that want to hike the bottom of the gorge- I think it keeps the liability down, and cuts down on the commercialism of it all.
So, with multiple layers of clothes, my water bottle, Chacos attached to my Mountainsmith, a flashlight (just in case!), and a banana, I headed off to Outlook #1. The following pictures and descriptions chart my journey:
This is one view overlooking the gorge from the north side- the leaves were beautiful!
This is the first waterfall that you see from the outlooks.
Uh oh! Get ready for 370 steps down to the...
suspension bridge (sorry I didn't turn it right-side-up)!
Here is a view looking back up the stairs. Now, another 225 stairs down to...
the base of Hurricane Falls. To proceed onward from here, you have to have your official permit (though no one is there to check it), and the trip through the bottom of the gorge starts by jumping rocks across the river:
Thankfully, a large group of girls was coming back across and one helped me across the log perfectly balanced like a see-saw. The following 2 pictures prove that I made it across the river, and I'm looking back towards the wooden overlook where I had my portrait made in front of Hurricane Falls:
This shows the group of girls headed back across. If you ever go to Tallulah Gorge, I'd recommend taking a buddy. With my short legs, I definately would have ended up in the water on the way across, though the way back wasn't as difficult.
A beautiful view of a pool of water at the top of Oceana Falls.
A view from the end of the gorge hike at Bridal Veil Falls. This would be a perfect spot for a picnic lunch! Now it is time to re-trace my steps back to the rock crossing.
One of the many self-portraits I took along the way to document my trek.Soo...back across the rocks (I did get one foot a little soggy along the way), up the 225 stairs to the level of the suspension bridge...and347 more steps to the top of the south rim. This is one of the pictures I took along the way up the stairs...I mainly stopped to take pictures here so I wouldn't look like I was about to collapse, which was actually the case.
So...I followed the South Rim upstream, crossed the dam, and headed back towards the Interpretive Center, stopping to take a photo of the dam on the way:
.So, a 2 hour, 4 mile jaunt down the Tallulah Gorge was a perfect way to spend a Sunday afternoon- I'd highly recommend it, and I can't wait to go back with Joel one day.
A few pictures from the drive back to Athens:
A view leaving the mountains looking southward. There were some incredible views on the way north, but I couldn't stop to take pictures because I was scared all of the permits would be gone!
The huge sign at the outlet mall in Commerce, GA sucked me in. I didn't actually shop, but I couldn't resist driving through the parking lot since they advertised so strongly.
A random shot of one of the many "Pandemic Flu. Be Prepared." billboards around Athens. I'm not quite sure what action they're calling the citizens to, but it makes a good photo op!
Friday, November 14, 2008
TGIF
A pretty uneventful day at SCWDS. I mainly read some disease articles and looked at slides of the tissues that I "cut-in" last week of the rabid bobcat and fox with distemper. One of the veterinary diagnosticians that graduated from Cornell's vet school last year said he'd go over the slides with me on Monday so I'll actually know what I'm looking at!
I also got to sit in on the CWD (Chronic Wasting Disease...the deer form of Mad Cow Disease) meeting this afternoon, but it turns out it isn't as official and exciting of a meeting as it sounds. Most states in the Southeast send in lymph nodes to be tested for CWD surveillence (that is what I helped the folks with the other day), and the meeting just served to see how many samples they had coming, etc.
The Key Deer didn't come in today...I'm really hoping that they decided not to send it, instead of it sitting on a UPS truck over the weekend- yikes! A little bit about the Key Deer: this is a subspecies of the white-tailed deer that lives in the Florida Keys. They're a good bit smaller than white-tailed deer:
Dr. Keel (my teacher/boss/mentor/supervisor) will be gone to the American College of Veterinary Pathologists convention until the end of next week, but he sent me some information on two seminars to be held on campus next week. One will be about polar bears, and the other is about turtles- they both sound pretty interesting, and it will be nice to visit some other departments on campus.
Tonight, I went to Cracker Barrel for some blueberry pancakes, and then shopped around Kohl's for awhile, ending up with just some salt and pepper shakers!
I'm starting to plan my next 8 days in my head so that I can have the fullest Athens experience possible!
I also got to sit in on the CWD (Chronic Wasting Disease...the deer form of Mad Cow Disease) meeting this afternoon, but it turns out it isn't as official and exciting of a meeting as it sounds. Most states in the Southeast send in lymph nodes to be tested for CWD surveillence (that is what I helped the folks with the other day), and the meeting just served to see how many samples they had coming, etc.
The Key Deer didn't come in today...I'm really hoping that they decided not to send it, instead of it sitting on a UPS truck over the weekend- yikes! A little bit about the Key Deer: this is a subspecies of the white-tailed deer that lives in the Florida Keys. They're a good bit smaller than white-tailed deer:
Dr. Keel (my teacher/boss/mentor/supervisor) will be gone to the American College of Veterinary Pathologists convention until the end of next week, but he sent me some information on two seminars to be held on campus next week. One will be about polar bears, and the other is about turtles- they both sound pretty interesting, and it will be nice to visit some other departments on campus.
Tonight, I went to Cracker Barrel for some blueberry pancakes, and then shopped around Kohl's for awhile, ending up with just some salt and pepper shakers!
I'm starting to plan my next 8 days in my head so that I can have the fullest Athens experience possible!
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Almost the end of another week...
Week 3 of 4 is coming to a close...this week has been quite slow as far as animals coming in for the Diagnostic Service, but yesterday I got to watch a dolphin necropsy! This was a dolphin that washed up on the Georgia coast awhile back, and they saved the necropsy for a time when students would benefit. It was very interesting, and something I'd be unlikely to see if I hadn't been here. Also, it turned out that the pathologist performing the necropsy used to work at the MSU Experiment Station in Stoneville; it was nice to have a quasi-Mississippian in the same room.
During the day yesterday, I spent most of my time helping 3 other people put little pieces of lymph node in little vials to be tested for Chronic Wasting Disease. It wasn't exciting work, but it was a good chance to get to talk to a few other folks that work at SCWDS.
Today, we did have a few necropsies: 2 baby squirrels and a Common Grackle (picture...
).
and a buck head came in with a brain abscess, which is quite a common cause of death in male deer. We're still anticipating a Key Deer from Florida, and I hope for the UPS man's sake that it gets here tomorrow!
I looked at my list of "Places to Eat in Athens" and realized I better get to eatin' if I'm going to get through my list before I leave, so after school/work, I went downtown to eat at Five Star Day Cafe. I hadn't been downtown all week, so it was nice to walk around for a minute, and see the Athens local panhandlers that I've grown to know and love (not really...but you definately see the same ones every time). There is one old man that looks sorta like a grungy Santa Claus and he plays a flute. The night I stood in line forever to get my free scoop of Ben & Jerry's, he was sitting next to the line serenading all of us with his little flute pipe instrument. I've seen him at least 3 times since and he's been playing the same "song" on the same block."
During the day yesterday, I spent most of my time helping 3 other people put little pieces of lymph node in little vials to be tested for Chronic Wasting Disease. It wasn't exciting work, but it was a good chance to get to talk to a few other folks that work at SCWDS.
Today, we did have a few necropsies: 2 baby squirrels and a Common Grackle (picture...
).and a buck head came in with a brain abscess, which is quite a common cause of death in male deer. We're still anticipating a Key Deer from Florida, and I hope for the UPS man's sake that it gets here tomorrow!
I looked at my list of "Places to Eat in Athens" and realized I better get to eatin' if I'm going to get through my list before I leave, so after school/work, I went downtown to eat at Five Star Day Cafe. I hadn't been downtown all week, so it was nice to walk around for a minute, and see the Athens local panhandlers that I've grown to know and love (not really...but you definately see the same ones every time). There is one old man that looks sorta like a grungy Santa Claus and he plays a flute. The night I stood in line forever to get my free scoop of Ben & Jerry's, he was sitting next to the line serenading all of us with his little flute pipe instrument. I've seen him at least 3 times since and he's been playing the same "song" on the same block."
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
I really feel like a local! A man with his high school-aged daughter asked me for directions for today when I was walking around campus during lunch! Don't worry, I did tell them that I'm not from around here, but I was able to point them towards downtown. I was pretty proud of that!
Not much has gone on so far this week. The family left yesterday morning when I left for work/school, and they probably had a more exciting Monday than I did, especially considering ValleyCrest called Joel on the way home and they're flying him out next week for another interview in Raleigh!
I did learn how to "cut-in" tissues yesterday afternoon...I'll save the gory details, but you're basically taking organs you get during the necropsy and cutting them into pieces so that the histology lab can make them into microscope slides. Wikipedia has more details if you'd like: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Histology
So...I learned that yesterday afternoon, and then "cut-in" tissues for 3 parrots, a bobcat, and a gray fox today. We were supposed to have a Key Deer come in for a necropsy, but I guess it got held up between Florida and Georgia...maybe tomorrow!
Other than that, I've been researching vaccine regulations and studying for boards!
Not much has gone on so far this week. The family left yesterday morning when I left for work/school, and they probably had a more exciting Monday than I did, especially considering ValleyCrest called Joel on the way home and they're flying him out next week for another interview in Raleigh!
I did learn how to "cut-in" tissues yesterday afternoon...I'll save the gory details, but you're basically taking organs you get during the necropsy and cutting them into pieces so that the histology lab can make them into microscope slides. Wikipedia has more details if you'd like: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Histology
So...I learned that yesterday afternoon, and then "cut-in" tissues for 3 parrots, a bobcat, and a gray fox today. We were supposed to have a Key Deer come in for a necropsy, but I guess it got held up between Florida and Georgia...maybe tomorrow!
Other than that, I've been researching vaccine regulations and studying for boards!
Monday, November 10, 2008
A social event I forgot to mention, and a summary of the end of family vacation
I forgot to mention that Joel and I went to the Melting Point Thursday night! After we ate at the Last Resort Grill with my parents, Joel and I got to hear Patrick's band "Colour Revolt" at the Melting Point. It was a really neat venue- very small with really good acoustics (at least that is what people who know acoustics say)...so it was really fun to see some familiar faces playing music in Athens!
Yesterday, we all went to Redeemer Pres and then to brunch at Big City Bread. It was another beautiful day and we got to eat outside. I then took the fam on a driving tour of campus and a few places in Athens they hadn't yet visited (it was sorta funny that I gave the big tour on their last day in town). Below are pictures from the day:
Joel enjoying his caramel latte at Big City Bread
Momma and Daddy with hot chocolate at Big City Bread
The Tree That Owns Itself...high point of the trip for sure!
Family photo in front of the UGA Sanford Stadium
One of the black bears at the Bear Creek Wildlife Trail. Don't worry, they're fenced in, though the park is in the middle of a neighborhood!
Yesterday, we all went to Redeemer Pres and then to brunch at Big City Bread. It was another beautiful day and we got to eat outside. I then took the fam on a driving tour of campus and a few places in Athens they hadn't yet visited (it was sorta funny that I gave the big tour on their last day in town). Below are pictures from the day:
Joel enjoying his caramel latte at Big City Bread
Momma and Daddy with hot chocolate at Big City Bread
The Tree That Owns Itself...high point of the trip for sure!
Family photo in front of the UGA Sanford Stadium
One of the black bears at the Bear Creek Wildlife Trail. Don't worry, they're fenced in, though the park is in the middle of a neighborhood!
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