Paws-Cation

My love for animals has been within me, as long as I can remember. As a child, whenever I could not be found, you could bet I was with animals if I saw them around. The dogs that could not be bothered, to the cats that ran away, I was ready to give them all my love. As a child, I wanted to be a veterinarian growing up, til I understood, that as a veterinarian I would have to make many hard decisio

ns towards animal care, specifically providing end of life care, once the time has come. That did not deter my love for animals, but it did deter me from what I wanted to do 'once I grow up.' With time, I became enlightened towards the many different fields of animal care there was/is, and determined that I would like to become a veterinary technician, where I could assist the veterinarian and work closely with animals, but not have to make those hard decisions. Thankfully, while completing my biology degree in Bergen Community College, I found out that there was a veterinary technician certificate program in Bergen Community College, and went for it. I started the prerequisite classes in January 2017, taking the entrance exam in summer 2017, wrote a self biography, applying for the program, and had the blessing of being one of 30 accepted into the program. January 2018 started full swing into the program, all the way through to August 2019, classes in animal dentistry, animal pharmacology, animal radiology, animal surgery and aftercare, animal clinical work, and much more. My favorite class, throughout the program was most definitely large animal nursing, as we were allowed to go to SUNY Oneonta, to learn about and work with cows, horses, chickens, pigs, goats, sheep, llamas, and other farm animals. Having family from the farmlands in Poland, I felt like I was spending a summer vacation back in my family roots. Since graduating the program, I volunteered in a very small animal practice, until the pandemic, then I have continued on using my love and additional education about animals, towards pet sitting. My proudest accomplishment, having gone through the veterinary technician program, is having caught a small mass growing in my dog's mouth when she was 10 years old. It seemed innocuous, but following my rule of thumb (being "better safe than sorry"), I took her to the veterinarian, had surgery done on October 2018 to remove as much as possible (which was complicated, given that the mass was in a tight spot in her mouth), had it biopsied, and within a months time, come to find it was cancer. Once doing my research and speaking to Suzie's veterinarian, prognosis was expectancy up to a year. After coming to terms with it, knowing chemo would have not done much, I did everything I could to keep Suzie happy, and live her best life. That one year, ended up being 3, and she crossed the rainbow bridge on November 8th, 2021 at home, in one of her favorite places, in peace. Throughout my life, I had the pleasure of caring for an assortment of fish, parakeets, cockatiels, rabbits, and a dog that were my own. For others, starting watch when I was about 10 years old, I have watched many different dogs (large and small), cats, chinchillas, lizards, a snake, and fish. From starting watch in my home, once having a driver's license, I have started to watch animals in the comfort of their home, as it is less stressful for the animals, to stay in their environment and convenient, rather than a change to my environment.