Salmon, etc.

I guess I wrote a whole entry on how we had to give Salmon away, but I didn't really discuss what happened next. We grudgingly dropped him off at the vet and said our goodbyes. The plan was for the vet to drive to the lady's house in Inala (yucky, trashy suburb of Brisbane) because this lady claimed that she didn't drive and had no way to get to the vet. So our lovely vet (on her day off, when her fiance was visiting from overseas) took the cat to Inala. She took the cat to Inala in a cardboard crate, one of the generic ones that they use at her clinic. The cat...peed...and it soaked through. So the vet now has a pee soaked and very smelly car. When she arrived at the lady's house, she didn't take the cat out of the car. First, she wanted to make sure to get the money we were owed. The lady sent her big, cranky boyfriend to deal with the vet - basically, they didn't have the money and they thought they would get the cat by threatening and insulting her. The vet is a very small blond young woman but she yelled right back and refused to give them the cat. It also came out that the lady's boyfriend drove a taxi - so clearly they could have driven to the clinic but were just being douchey. So they told the vet they were going to sue her/us and that was that. I went and picked up the cat from the clinic the next day. The vet says she will not give her our details and she will refuse to speak to the lady on the phone and will only speak to her in person if legal representation is arranged because of the threats to sue. We decided we had done our best to do the right thing, but at this point we believe the cat is much better off with us. Soooo...from all of that, Salmon has been lazing around our house for the last while and he's not going anywhere!! He's very cute and purrs when you pick him up. I like him. He looks pretty innocent for a cat that has caused so much trouble! Oh - and when we picked him up and were taking him home, he pooped in his crate. Nice welcome back present!! Jeez.

Snippets

- Shane is here. He leaves for Bali tomorrow morning. He was supposed to stay with us for a few nights, but tonight ended up being the only night. He met up with us Saturday for my friend Jody's birthday, which was fun. We had dinner and then went to see Jody's friend's band play at a bar. Oldies (aka me, Jeremy & Lisa) called it a night after that but the party continued and Shane opted to stay with the others and head to the casino. He was supposed to come to my house the next morning but he didn't...and didn't call...or e-mail...and has no phone himself. Luckily I could get in contact with my friend who let me know that she had seen him and he was okay. So he was MIA till today when I received an e-mail telling me he'd be here when I got home from work. Jeremy is currently preparing him a going away dinner. So one night and then he heads off for his next adventure. I'll be back to being the only O'Byrne (Nichol) in Australia! (or at least the only one related to...myself?)

- Lisa moved to Hervey Bay but was back last week for some training. She stayed with us for the weekend and we had a super awesome time!! I miss Lisa. We saw Mary Poppins, had late night dumplings, went to Jody's birthday, and caught up on all our Grey's Anatomy and Gossip Girl! She was supposed to leave Sunday afternoon, but the main highway up to where she lives was flooded and closed to cars (SERIOUSLY....WHAT DROUGHT????????????) so she had to stay an extra night.

- We have had a roommate for the last 5 weeks (who probably doesn't appreciate all the people staying over lately!!). He's an American med student in the same year of uni as Jeremy who was all set to do a bunch of rotations in the US and then at the last minute (after taking all the massive/expensive tests to be allowed to apply for jobs in the States) he realized he wasn't happy there and would much prefer to come back to Australia. He was in a bit of a bind with a place to stay since it was such a sudden decision, but we were happy to rent out our spare room. He's with us for one more week and then leaves for a place closer to the hospital that most of his rotations are at.

- I am getting through term 1 at my job.

I thought it might be time for an update. Today we gave Salmon back to the vet. Sad.

It seems my family is taking over Australia. Shane is lost deep in the bowels of NSW (and believe me, I think bowels is an accurate description). Cousin Daniel and his fiancee Corina are moving here at the end of March since they were finding it difficult to get teaching jobs in Canada/Ontario. They'll be heading to Melbourne, which makes me pretty darn jealous!!!

Jeremy is prepped and raring to go for his 4th and FINAL UQ Med Sports Day this Friday (pics to come). Only 4th years can wear pink, and WEAR PINK THEY WILL! Jess organized a mass purchase of bright pink scrubs for over 100 people, so J will definitely be fully decked out in pink. I won't give away the details of his costume, but he just came in and posed and is VERY excited. Being a working girl, I sadly cannot join in for this event but I'm sure I'll see the ugly aftermath! Hahahahaha.

Work is...well. Actually, let's leave that for another time.

I arrived home today to lovely flowers and we're going to our most favourite local restaurant (The Olive) for a Valentine's Day dinner. Certain points of the last three years have been challenging for us, but I think we're both in a good place now and I'm very happy to be spending Valentine's Day with someone I love! xox

Well, I'm halfway through my third week of being a 'professional'. Heh. I got paid yesterday - that was the best part! Week three, I can finally say that I've finally gotten the chance to do some actual therapy with actual kids! I hope I'm developing good rapport/relationships with the schools and contact people. I kind of feel like term 1 is about tying up loose ends and making sure things run smoothly the rest of the year, while also trying to show schools that I can provide a useful service. The annoying thing is, I've had to take over these schools from other people and I don't really have time to go through and arrange the files the way I'd like...I'm also kinda working on their goals, from whatever assessments they've done, because I don't want to over assess. Near the end of term 1, I'll meet with the schools to give feedback into prioritising for term 2, and I think that is when I will feel things clicking into place and like I have a little bit of control.

We have been having some weird cat drama. As I mentioned before, our lovely friend Tuna is not around anymore. We decided we really like having a little feline pal around the house so went on the search for another cat. I found a lady who does cat rescues and went to her house. She had a little guy available, so I thanked her and left with him. One problem - he was really cute, but not de-sexed. Took him to the vet and ended up spending a few dollars getting him all fixed up. All is well and we're now besties and have become attached to the little guy. He's comfortable in our house and we've even started letting him roam around outside. He likes us and we like him. Yesterday, I had a message from the vet. When I called her back, she said: "This is extremely weird and we've never had this happen before...but the lady who you adopted the cat from got in touch with us and apparently she made a mistake. She has boarding cats and stray cats and she accidentally gave you one of the boarding cats. Now the owner is back, wants her cat, and is threatening to sue her." WHAAAAAAT?!? So obviously we can't keep this cat if it is legitimately someone else's (the vet was completely on our side - she said he's registered, microchipped, and de-sexed in my name, she knows how much money I've spent, etc) which means the situation now is that we've offered to give him back but ONLY if we're reimbursed for all vet bills and for a month of care. At the same time, he's a great cat and we're really sad about it...but it would be horrible for us not to give the cat back to his original owner. Now we're just waiting to see if the lady can come up with the money. All exchanges are through the vet, who refused to give this lady our contact info (thankfully!). Katherine, the vet, is even going to bring Salmon back to the lady's house and collect the money. Baaaargh. I don't want him to go though, and neither does Jeremy :(

Alright, 9:40 pm - better start getting ready for bed. I really need to get used to this working full time! A decent amount of sleep is definitely necessary...I miss those uni days when all I had to worry about was going to a couple of classes! Hehehehe. PhD........?? JUST KIDDING!! Well, kinda :P Need to work for a good few years to pay off my last couple of degrees...and then we'll see.........