Mini Schnauzers Foxfire's Radiant Challenger and puppy

by Barbara Bobinski
(California)

Radon plays tug of war with a 12 week old puppy

I got my first Miniature Schnauzer in 1986 in Colorado, and quickly fell madly in love with the breed. The intelligence and personality have to be experienced to fully understand. The breeder became my mentor for the next 2 years, starting me on my addiction to schnauzers and breeding, grooming, and showing dogs. I would regularly receive the “marginal” puppies from her to try to save them (up at night in 4 hour shifts for tube feeding every 2 hours) because she had 30 dogs at home (all debarked) and could not possibly care for them all. (This is really not that unusual for dog breeders.) So I was able to save some, cried over losing others- too tiny to survive. And it was a gorgeous show quality 12 week old boy I purchased from her I was so in love with, who started showing the symptoms of a congenital heart defect (pulmonic stenosis, the narrowing of the pulmonary artery from the heart to the lungs) 4 weeks later. He stopped growing and would faint- that fueled my fascination with medicine and I started reading everything I could about his disorder. (He lived to be 4 ½ years old-3 years longer than the books said.)......

But by the time I moved down here, my education was now considered to be too “old”, so I could not challenge the Registered Veterinary Technician Test here in California. Sigh. So I had the knowledge but not the letters after my name. By the time they finally allowed people of my ilk to challenge the test, I had already been promoted to Manager of Outpatient Services, was Head In-Room Nurse, and making more money than the RVTs. And now at 57, I get beat up too easily from the RODEO that the restraining of flailing, biting animals is, so I cannot do that anymore. Today, I insist on restraining my own dogs for procedures and will sign a waiver, but again I am trained and my dogs totally trust me. And restraint is the biggest part of the Tech job, so I am restricted to Reception or writing this book.
(EXCERPT FROM MY NEW BOOK, available at lulu.com & amazon.com)
True Confessions of a Veterinary Nurse: What Every Pet Owner Needs to Know- the Good, the Bad, and the Rather Ugly" copyright 2010 by Barbara Bobinski

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