This past week, I have been privileged to participate in the 12th annual Veterinary Leadership Experience through the Veterinary Leadership Institute.  This week has been phenomenal.  The goal of the program is to allow veterinarians and veterinary students the opportunity to take a step back from everyday life to do some self reflection and to learn about leadership styles that may differ from their own.  The result is an transformative experience that allows you to step off the busy treadmill of life and look inside yourself, redefine who you are, and return back to your daily life with a new outlook and a new set of skills to revolutionize the world around you.

VLE takes place at Ross Point Baptist Camp in beautiful Post Falls, Idaho.  The scenery is absolutely beautiful and serves as the perfect backdrop for the transformations that take place within us as we reflect on ourselves and our leadership styles.  Led by John and Fay Batchelder, this great facility and staff work hard to provide an environment for growth, fun, and learning.  If you're considering a team-building experience or camp, you should definitely check out Ross Point.

It has been so incredible to be with a group of professionals and students who are committed to looking within themselves to see what they can do better to be a leader.  Everyone here was simply fantastic and I have made some friends that I will have for life.  We were divided into groups and I was fortunate to be placed in the wonderful Group 7 - Team Septapus.  With our wonderful facilitators, Glennon Mays and Fay Batchelder, we were unstoppable.  We even adopted Glennon's mustache as our team mascot and all the guys shaved their beards to be Stachetastic.  I learned so much from this group of people and I know I've got some lifelong friends here.


This experience has been incredible and has really changed the way I think about interacting with people. We spent a lot of time talking about our Meyer's Briggs preferences.  The MBTI is a test that assesses your preferences in situations and places you in a category of people with similar preferences.  And while some studies have shown that the boxes the test places you in aren't necessarily accurate, there is real power in understanding where you fall on each spectrum and how you can be more accomadating to people whose preferences differ from your own.  If you haven't taken the test you can take a version of it HERE.  People really do have different ways of viewing the world and this is just one way to be self-aware in your interactions with others.  As we talked about this in our small group, it was clear that these preferences really do matter to people and that we should take everybody's preferences into account when working in a group setting.

Every morning we'd meet to discuss important aspects of leadership - from understanding our MBTI preferences, to conflict resolution, self-assessment, and effective communication and listening, we covered just about every aspect in effective leadership.  It was amazing.  Dr. Betsy Charles showed us so many wonderful videos and took us through some amazing activities and I just wanted to share some of them.

One of my favorites is the concept of Lollipop Moments - profound moments of leadership we may not even be aware are going on.  Every single one of us has the potential to change the world for somebody else - we just have to be willing to try.  To learn more about what I'm talking about check out this TED Talk:

The Bid Team

It was such an incredible honor to serve in the Student American Veterinary Medical Association's House of Delegates this past weekend.  There is no other group of dedicated students quite like it.  I sat in awe at everything we accomplished - from amending the bylaws of this great organization to creating two new task forces to address representation of satellite campuses and to investigate the wellness and mental health of veterinary students everywhere.

My favorite part of the weekend had to be Friday.  Elections for the SAVMA Executive Board were competitive and inspiring.  I ran for President-Elect and felt honored that I had the attention of the room as I discussed the importance of mental health and wellness in veterinary schools and our need to improve it.  But I felt incredibly enlightened as I listened to other candidates speak.  Here were these amazing four candidates running for the same office.  And EVERY SINGLE ONE of them was inspiring.  Each came to the table with their own unique message and vision for the office and each of them was worth electing.  The House ended up selecting Mr. Matt Holland from the University of Illinois and I couldn't be more proud of SAVMA's future.  Matt is an incredible individual who will lead with strength and humor and I am excited to get behind him as we press on in this great organization.

I am passionate about improving the mental health of veterinary students so I was still honored to move to create a mental health task force. This new task force will survey the current status of students across the country and assess what assistance is available to students and recent graduates facing issues of depression.  It was touching how many people came up to me afterwards, eager to help with the task force, wanting to truly make a difference for veterinary students.  SAVMA is full of great people, y'all.

The elections for the elect offices of International Exchange Officer, Veterinary Economics Officer, and Global Health Officer were equally competitive and equally inspiring.  This new Executive Board Elect will be leading SAVMA to great places, I have no doubt about that.

Now on to the Bid.  Caitlin Conner and I have worked for a year on our Bid to host SAVMA Symposium in 2017.  And I mean worked hard.  I can't tell you how many hours we have spent in front of our computers designing our PowerPoint and our written proposal or how many people we have contacted to make sure this can all happen.  We practiced our presentation several times just during the Symposium so that when it came time to present for the House of Delegates, we would be ready.  And it DID!  The presentation went flawlessly.  It was honestly the best we had ever done and I am so grateful for the prayers on our behalf and the endless support we received from our administration and our classmates.

We are incredibly pleased to announce that Texas A&M will in fact be hosting in 2017!!!  The support and kind comments we received from our colleagues in the House were so uplifting after all the work we had done.  The University of Pennsylvania also put in an incredible bid to host in Philadelphia and we hope they bid again because a Symposium in Philly really would be so awesome.

I am so proud of the fact that Texas A&M regularly has four generations of Delegates represented in SAVMA.  I'm proud of everything Ricci has accomplished as president and I can't wait to throw my support in for #Karkula2025.  Stephen has been a regular support and source of humor as Caitlin and I have worked for this Bid.  Caitlin is seriously the best little anybody could ever hope to have.  And Dr. Rogers has been like a rock for Caitlin and I.  I can't tell you how many times this incredible woman has inspired us, encouraged us, and hugged us as we worked on this project.  She is wonderful.

If any of you have any doubts about the future of veterinary medicine, all you need to do is sit in on a few hours of the SAVMA House of Delegates meetings and you will be convinced that the future is in good hands.  Because when we SAVMA, we SAVMA HARD!

Texas A&M SAVMA Representation

This was an incredible trip.  I was lucky enough to go with my awesome friend Brittni East and we got to do so much fun stuff together!

The AAZV conference was held at Disney's Animal Kingdom this year, so Brittni and I went early the weekend before it started so we could hit up the rides!  We got to go to every park and there were barely any lines.

People thought we were engaged and it was funny

 Brittni and I also helped each other out at the Student Reception.  We got to talk to a wide range of zoos and aquariums with externships and we both secured positions for the summer.  Brittni is going to be working at White Oak Conservation Center in Florida and I am going to be working with the Fort Worth Zoo and the Summer Research Program!  This is how we felt about it:


The last day we were at the conference was the Zoo day.  So we got to go to the one park we hadn't visited yet:  Animal Kingdom.  We got a behind the scenes tour of the animal care and veterinary facilities and got to have a ton of fun in the park.  AAZV rented out the park for us to use that night, so we got to ride the rides over and over with no lines whatsoever.  They also fed us this delicious dinner and there was face painting, and a fun auction to close out the night.

I was honored to be elected to serve as the Junior SAVMA Delegate for Texas A&M back in November and since then I have been privileged to attend both the SAVMA Symposium in Fort Collins and the AVMA Convention in Denver representing my school.


Just so we can clear up any confusion with these acronyms - AVMA is the American Veterinary Medical Association and SAVMA is the Student AVMA.

I have got to tell you that there are no better people than those in the SAVMA House of Delegates. They are all incredible and I love working with these people.  It's fun being able to help the schools and students out through our various scholarships and grants and being able to bring real issues affecting students to the attention of the AVMA.


I was also fortunate to be trusted to chair SAVMA's Educational and Professional Development Committee and my committee is the best.  I can't wait to work with these guys and helps students out all over the country!

SAVMA Symposium is also a ton of fun.  The Delegates have a blast and all the students do too! The evening events are great and the educational and networking opportunities Symposium provides can't be obtained anywhere else!



The best part though?  It has to be roll call.  Take a look to see what I mean.

It was finally our turn to work on the coolest animals out there.  We were ecstatic!


Our very first immobilization was on four Cape Buffalo bulls.  Cape Buffalo in South Africa harbor many of the diseases that could cripple domestic cattle production like foot and mouth disease, brucellosis, tuberculosis, and theileria. Our plan was to get them down and then to get the testing done as soon as possible.  But the buffalo had other plans.  Two of them fell into the watering hole while the drugs took effect.  That meant we had to run in and hold their heads up so they wouldn't drown.  Unfortunately, that also meant I slipped and fell into an acacia tree and got covered in thorns. Somehow with everything going on, we still managed to get the testing done and wake them up in a decent amount of time.  The thorn story is a pretty funny one and I actually won best submission to the Student American Veterinary Medical Association's publication The Vet Gazette for it so you should go read it and laugh by clicking here.



Our next immobilization was on with zebras.  We needed to relocate two female zebras from Amakhala to a nearby game ranch.  So we set out looking for them and found a herd with some red hardebeest.  It didn't take long for us to dart the first one.  But when we got to her, it turned out she was lactating.  We didn't see a foal with her when we darted her so we did a quick preg check.  Turns out she had a baby somewhere out there so we woke her up and went back to lookin.  We finally got our two ladies down and loaded into the truck for them to head to their new homes.  We definitely learned a few things with these immobilizations - tracking a zebra running through a herd of stripes is difficult and even though Mike is big he can't be the only person on one side of the stretcher to lift the zebra into the truck.




Our next immobilization was with Cape Buffalo again, but this time with seven cows and a young calf.  These girls had already had their testing done, so they were on their way to their new home. We split up into several groups so we could get it done quickly.  And just like the zebras, we had to move them manually and in case you are wondering, yes, Cape Buffalo are very heavy.




Our next immobilization was a bitter-sweet one.  We set out to capture six nyala bulls for translocation.  But when we went to move the animals to one side of the boma (this one was ginormous), one of the females spooked and jumped into the fence and cut herself pretty good.  After getting the males loaded (which was so cool - these animals are awesome), we found the female and darted her so we could get a look at her wounds.  They were pretty extensive so Dr. Brothers and Dr. Blue got to work suturing her up.  Unfortunately she was under just a bit too long, and didn't come out of the anesthesia.  Nyala are very sensitive animals and we just weren't fast enough.  But it was amazing seeing Dr. Brothers do all he could to resuscitate her.



Our next immobilization was with Black Rhinos!  Everything we had been doing was leading up to this moment.  Black Rhinos are extremely endangered, and the preserve we worked on is the source of approximately a third of the total population of these amazing animals.  Our goal was to immobilize two mothers and their calves to notch the calves ears so they could be easily identified by rangers on their anti-poaching rounds.  We also placed microchips in the horns and the nuchal humps of the animals.  If any of those animals were to be poached, their horns could be traced to the poaching incident so the poachers could be charged with poaching and not just possession of a horn.

The rhinos were huge.  One of the babies went down in an acacia tree (of course) and we had to lift him out.  At just a year old he felt nearly as heavy as some of the cape buffalo cows.  The rhinos were also much softer than the White Rhinos at Hogle Zoo but they're skin was just as tough.  You had to full on whack that needle in there to give them their injections.


When we woke them up, one of the mothers charged us.  Her name is Julia and apparently she doesn't like cars so everybody who works there wasn't surprised but we sure were!
After we finished working on these amazing rhinos, there was such a feeling of gratitude.  Here we were working on one of the most endangered and protected animals in Africa.  It was wonderful to know that our course fees funded the great work we did there that day.

But the day wasn't over yet!  We went and helped examine a Cape Buffalo cow who had recently aborted and now had a uterine infection.  And then...we practiced darting again.  But this time we were in helicopters and our target was Dr. Brothers' truck!  Best day EVER!



Our next immobilization was on a black wildebeest.  We needed to get two caught up for translocation.  That is easier said then done.  In order to dart an animal, you need to get within 30 meters of that animal so wind won't blow your dart off course.  But every time we would get within 35 meter, the herd would run off.  It took us a couple hours to get one, and we didn't get the second before the sun set.  But these animals are cool.  They've got these weird frilly nose tufts, a mane and a tail like a horse, and some cool looking horns.  They're definitely way cooler looking than the blue wildebeest that are much more common.



Our last immobilization was with giraffe.  And as far as the way it is done, this one definitely is the coolest.  We needed a bull and two cows to be relocated to another park.  We would get close to the giraffes, Dr. Brothers would dart them, and then if they took too long to go down, they would need to be tripped.  Giraffes are extremely sensitive to the anesthetics we use and if they are not reversed fast enough, they can die from them.  So it is important to get them on the ground and restrained as fast as possible to reverse them.

Once they are down, a group of five or so lie on the giraffe's neck, a blindfold and harness are put on, and cotton is stuffed in the giraffes ears.  Then the animal is reversed.  After that, you place ropes around the giraffe's legs.  Once those are in place, everyone jumps back and the giraffe gets to its feet.  From there you use the ropes around its legs to push and guide it into the trailer.  It was the coolest thing ever and the perfect end to the perfect trip.

This was the experience of a lifetime!  I was fortunate enough to spend a month in the amazing country of South Africa on a Conservation Medicine Study Abroad.

Elephant on Patrol

We spent a day in London on our way over and it was incredible.  We got a behind the scenes tour of the London Zoo by one of the veterinarians.  We got to see the hospital and feed some adorable baby meerkats who were staying there.  The Zoological Society of London seems like an awesome organization to work for.  They have three different areas veterinarians can work in - the London Zoo, the Whipsnade Zoo, and in their Conservation Department doing cool field work.

Then we got to go around the zoo and just enjoy ourselves.  The London Zoo was the first zoo to abbreviate zoological gardens to the now common 'zoo' and it was so fun to see modern exhibits in old historical buildings.  Plus we got to see where the Harry Potter snake scene was filmed so that was awesome!
We also got to spend some time going around London before having to leave the next night for Africa.  London was beautiful.  It was so amazing to see the place I have studied in so many history classes.  Again the juxtaposition of modern with historical structures was just incredible.  The London Eye and our tour on top of a double deck bus were definitely my favorite parts.  It also happened to be the Opening of Parliament so we got to see the Queen drive by in her carriage and snap a few photos of her.  It felt very touristy but it was great.
We finally arrived in Africa and you could feel the excitement in the air.  This is what we had come for.  Dr. Peter Brothers from Brothers Safari's came to pick us up with my man Winston. He took us to stay at the beautiful Safari Lodge on the Amakhala Game Reserve.  The story behind Amakhala is pretty cool.  The land originally belonged to seven ranching families who decided that instead of cattle ranching, they would combine their land and work together to help preserve South Africa's beautiful game species.  For each 50 hectares a family contributed, they would be allowed to put one bed in their lodge so that each family's potential for tourists would correspond to what they gave.  The reserve is beautiful and it is staffed by some incredible people.

We spent the first few days going on game drives and studying.  The game drives were incredible. There are no words for seeing your favorite animals out in the wild.  It's breathtaking.  And our studies were also incredible.  We were taught primarily by Dr. Brothers but we were also fortunate enough to have Dr. Peter Buss from Kruger National Park come down to teach us Immobilization Pharmacology.  We even got to practice darting! These men are my heroes and I hope to be like them someday.
We also got the chance to go on a game drive on the beautiful Addo Elephant National Park.  The history behind this park is also pretty cool.  The area around Addo is full of citrus trees, so naturally Elephants would help themselves to their fruit.  But in the 1930's, people were not too fond of that. So they organized a hunt and killed all the elephants in the area except for 24.  Thankfully at that point, they stopped the slaughter and protected the area that would become Addo.  Because of the inbreeding that occurred there, the female elephants of Addo stopped growing tusks.  To combat this, SAN Parks brought in some big bulls from Kruger to reintroduce lost genes and now half the cows are sporting tusks.  This place was beautiful and it was so much fun to see so many elephants in one place.
After Addo we also visited the Born Free Foundation at the Shamwari Game Reserve.  The goal of Born Free is to rescue animals from bad zoos and circuses and release them back to the wild.  Some of these animals are not releasable so they stay at the facilities Born Free manages.  It was cool to see the animals, but I felt that in some of the cases with bad medical conditions, money spent on the conservation of their wild cousins would probably have a better effect.  But it was still cool for sure.
One of my favorite excursions was to Port Elizabeth where we got to go out on Algoa Bay with a group of scientists studying the endangered African Penguin.  Two of them were going to be staying on St. Croix Island for two weeks to study the largest rookery of these penguins and the effects the fishing industry on their breeding.  The ride over was magnificent.  We saw whales and dolphins and all sorts of cool birds.  St. Croix was beautiful. Pods of dolphins swam in its breaking waves and so many penguins hopped all around its rocks.  Getting the gear off the boat was a little tricky with the waves and the sharp rocks, but our captain managed to accomplish it.  When we drove off, it was impressive to me just how dedicated scientists are.  Those two were left on an island with only what they brought, planning on living in the little hut the team built years ago.
After a week or so learning to identify the various game species, learning about their biology, and learning about the pharmacology and techniques it takes to immobilize them, we were ready for our first immobilization, but you'll have to stay tuned for that!

The Crew at The Perot Museum of Science and Nature

The next section contained a few skeletons and skulls.  I didn't take too many pictures since they were domestic species I see all the time in lab but probably should have.  Their was also a human skeleton and we came to the conclusion that people have weird scapulas.  
I was most impressed with the preparation of the circulatory systems.  We asked one of the docents and she told us they inject the vasculature with a plastic, let it set and then digest the rest of the body away with enzymes.  It's amazing to me that they were able to fill the really small vessels too.  Every detail of these animals can be seen via their blood supply.    We spent most of our time on the musculoskeletal preparations. The camel was really cool. They sectioned the head twice to show three different views of the skull.  The foal and the reindeer were pretty awesome too.  We spent a while identifying muscles and gearing ourselves up for the semester of large animal anatomy ahead. The giraffe was my favorite. That thing was HUGE.  I can't imagine doing that dissection - it would take forever.   
This was an awesome experience and I recommend it to anybody.  They are about to leave Dallas but you should see if they're coming to an area near you.  You'll love it.

ZEW stands for Zoo, Exotics, & Wildlife - it's one of the clubs I'm a part of here at vet school.  If you know me at all, you'll know it's basically everything I could ever want in a club and I absolutely love it.  I've had some incredible opportunities to work with knowledgeable veterinarians who are willing to take time to teach us some pretty cool stuff.

So what is an exotics club like at a veterinary school?  Let me tell you.

A couple weeks ago, I got to attend ZEW's deantlering wetlab.  A&M has a Wildlife Center that allows us to get a chance at learning the management and medicine of non-domestic species.  It's pretty neat.  There is a herd of white-tail deer does and a few males separated from them for population control.  Every year as the bucks finish growing their antlers and shedding their velvet, the ZEW students get to help with deanterling.  Male deer use their antlers to fight each other and normally in the wild they can run away if those fights get intense.  That's not so much an option here at the wildlife center, so we remove their antlers every year to keep them from hurting each other.

We started out bringing one of the bucks named Buck (creative I know) into the restraint center which has these amazing catwalks to give you access above the stalls.  Dr. Blue darted him to get him his anesthesia and soon the procedure was underway.

Buck Before the Deantlering

In Physiology, we had just been learning about the muscarinic acetocholine receptors of the parasympathetic nervous system (the rest and digest one as opposed to the fight or flight one).  As Buck went deeper into anesthesia, his heart rate was slowing down (which is typical) so to keep his heart rate up where it needs to be we gave him some atropine - a muscarinic receptor blocker.  It was so cool to actually see the importance of what we had just learned a week before in class.  The parasympathetic system then couldn't further depress the heart rate and we were able to keep him stable and get the job done.  It was awesome.

And After.  He's still sleeping on the floor in this pic.

But the coolness doesn't end there.  I'm also a part of the Exotic Cat Team.  How cool does that sound? Taylor and I signed up to help take care of the two servals at the wildlife center.  SERVALS.  It's awesome. Their names are Morpheus and Camilla.

An African Serval Cat Who's Pretty Chill Like Morpheus

Morph tends to be pretty chill.  He mews a lot and likes to spray his enclosure basically all the time but he's definitely my favorite.  Camilla likes to remind us that Servals are not domestic kitties.  All the time. She likes to remind Morpheus of that too, but he just seems to ignore her.

Another Serval with a More Camilla-like Demeanor

Every morning and evening during the weeks we are on, Taylor and I meet up at the Wildlife Center to get them their food and to do some brief cleaning.  There are a series of doors we open and close to shift them around the enclosure so we can make sure they get their food separately (Cami will steal Morphs food if she gets the chance) and to make sure the whole enclosure is cleaned and that we are never in there with them. It totally reminds me of the back area of Asian Highlands at Utah's Hogle Zoo and gives me a little glimpse into how awesome being a cat keeper must be.

Yesterday was another of ZEW's awesome wetlabs.  After tending to Morpheus and Camilla at 7 a.m., I went straight over to school where I participated in some of the coolest labs and lectures.

From 8-10, I learned all about avian reproductive anatomy and how to perform a spay from Dr. Steve Fronefield from ABC - Animal & Bird Clinic.  Did you know that the Kiwi has the largest egg to body size ratio?  Well it does!  Check out this crazy image to give you a clue just what I mean.

Looks Uncomfortable to Me

Isn't that crazy?  They don't eat a few days before laying because they just can't!

After learning all about the anatomy, we got to go into the anatomy lab to practice our new surgery skills on some chickens after performing a brief necropsy.  It was really cool.  The yolk starts out on the ovary with the oocyte and then when the follicle ruptures, it travels down the uterine tube slowing forming the shell as it goes along (mostly around the shell gland right before the cloaca).

Crazy, Huh?

Then from 10-noon, I got to sit in on an awesome lecture on fish anesthesia.  I definitely had a leg up because of working at the Aquarium of the Pacific and in Dr. Johnson's Lab at BYU.

Mandarin Goby

Alison Wilkes, one of the PhD students at TAMU taught us all about it.  She also talked about a bunch of cool procedures that she is doing for her research.  She studies the role of iodine on thyroid tissue in fish by using high resolution PET/CT scans on fish injected with radioactive iodine to obtain 3D images of fish anatomy and iodine uptake.  It's pretty cool stuff.  Here's one of the pictures she took.



After a yummy lunch, I then got to attend a lecture on wildlife medicine and rehabilitation from Dr. Melissa Hill and John Karger from Last Chance Forever - a raptor rehabilitation facility located in San Antonio.  We learned all about donating our time and passion towards helping wildlife.  Whether it be a Barn Owl...


...or a Bobcat..


...or a Bald Eagle, they had something to teach us about that species' medical needs and rehabilitation.  It was incredible.


It really impressed upon me that no matter where I end up as a veterinarian that I will always have the opportunity and privilege to help with conservation efforts if I am willing to donate my time and resources to helping wildlife.  It also made falconry seem crazy awesome.

Then from 3-5 I was learning about sea turtles and their anatomy and conservation needs from the good doctors at the Texas Sea Life Center.  Do you know why the Green Sea Turtle is called the Green Sea Turtle?


It's actually because their fat is green.  The adults have a herbivorous diet that gives their adipose tissue a green color.  After learning all about chelonian anatomy, we got to go into the anatomy lab again to do necropsies on four young green sea turtles.  It was so cool.  Because of their shell, they don't need lots of muscles around their body wall.  So once you get inside it's basically really huge pecs and some glutes.  And that's about it for muscles.  Their lungs sit at the back of their carapaces and, like land turtles and tortoises, they breathe by moving.  As they do so, their muscles move around to expand the areas for the lung to fill.  It was really cool to see.

After that, we got to have a meet and greet with all the cool doctors (there were other classes going on besides the ones I took) and to do some networking.  Then it was back to taking care of Morph and Cami.

ZEW is awesome.  Vet school is one big adventure.  I love me some zoo medicine and I can't wait to play a bigger part in it!

Being in vet school can be extremely challenging at times.  From Monday September 23rd to Monday September 30th I took five tests.  Yes, you did read that right.  Five.  Three one-hour histology tests, a four-hour anatomy test, and a physiology test.

Those days it all seems too much.  You wonder if you're even going to make it through.  Then you get your grades back and it's almost as stressful as when you were studying for and taking those tests.  We're veterinary students.  We all want to excel.  And when you get a grade you aren't completely pleased with, it's hard not to get upset with yourself.  Those crazy days studying and those days you wished you had studied more can really get to ya.

But thankfully there are other days where you sit in histology and are amazed at the beautiful complexity of the equine hoof.  Check out the picture above.  That is a cross section of the microscopic anatomy of the hoof wall.  It's beautiful.  It's wonderfully adapted to a life born on four toes.  And it's easy to see how a slight mess up could cause some real problems.

Today was one of those days where I just sat back and thought, "I'm in vet school.  I DID it.  I'm leaving the dream."

My day started out taking care of TJ, one of A&M's blood donor horses, for my clinical correlates class. He was a little spirited as we took him out to his paddock this morning cause he just wanted some grass. Classes started out with learning about how cool the equine hoof is in histology lecture.  In physiology we learned how to interpret electrocardiograms.  In anatomy we dissected the abdominal cavity and I finally could clearly see the different ligaments of the uterus.  Then in histology we looked at the microscopic anatomy of hooves and claws.  It was awesome.

By the time I was back out there to bring TJ in for the night, I had a whole new appreciation for his feet. Who knew that there was so much awesome in his toes?

Life is full of awesome opportunities.  The trick is to give them our all in our pursuit of them and to enjoy it while we're at it.

All right guys.  I know that was a while.  But a whole lot went down since I last wrote last year.  That whole getting unengaged thing can be kind of a bummer.  So naturally I didn't really feel like writing and as a result, this place has been LAME.  Sorry about that.  Thankfully, lots of REALLY COOL EXCITING things have happened to me since then.  And I'm just going to have to catch you guys up on that as we go along.  So get ready. Here it comes.

First off, I graduated from BYU with Honors in Biology.  That was a long time comin, but I loved my time there and made some really great friends that will stick with me for a long time.

Secondly, this past summer I was hired as one of this year's Eco-Explorers at Utah's Hogle Zoo!  And I LOVED it!  There's something amazing about standing next to an adult African elephant or looking into the burning eyes of an Amur tiger that just gets your juices flowing.  As an Eco-Explorer, I had some amazing experiences with some of the coolest animals in the world.  And what was even cooler is that I got to share them with people and help them to see why these animals are important and what we can all do to help save them.  It was pretty awesome.  But since each of these experiences deserve their own post, they're gonna be coming interspersed with other posts from the other awesome life event that has happened since then - VET SCHOOL!

That's right.  I'm a first year veterinary student at the one and only Texas A&M University's College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences.  It's incredible.  Now that I'm here, living the dream, I can tell you that all those classes I took at BYU to fulfill every prerequisite of every veterinary school in the United States have been well worth it - and that they have truly pointed me towards my calling in life.  I love animals.  I love medicine.  This place is perfect.

I also got into North Carolina State University, University of Wisconsin, and the University of Illinois.  But when I came here for my interview, I felt this is where I was supposed to go.  And now that I'm here, I can safely say that it pays to listen to the Spirit when He's prompting you!  God knows what He's doing and I'm grateful for my time here, what I've learned so far, and the friends that I've made.

So stay tuned.  It only gets better from here.

I know I've been spectacularly awful at keeping this thing up to date.  Life happens sometimes.  And I also discovered it's significantly harder to write when I'm not being assigned to do it.  But I've been thinking about this post for a little bit and so I decided it's time to write it.


I love water.  I always have.  When I was born the doctors told my parents that those were football shoulders.  Yeah I tried that, but it was not for me.  Shoulders this big give you wings and that's exactly how I used them.  I tried all sorts of sports and I was decently good at some of them.  But what I really loved was swimming lessons.  When I found out that you could swim competitively, I was in heaven.  From that moment on it was hard to get me out of the pool.  And though I'm not on a team right now and only swim sporadically, it's hard to get the pool out of me.

The United State Olympic Swimming Trials were last week.  And they were on NBC.  Not NBC Sports.  NBC.  My favorite sport has been on regular TV a lot the last couple years.  We're getting more limelight than just at the Olympics.  I loved it.  People I had met were swimming in that meet and people I hadn't were too.  But no matter who they were, I was proud of them.  I cheered and screamed and laughed and cried and fist-pumped with all of them.  This is the pinnacle of our sport - the best swimmers in the world vying to make the best Olympic Team in the world.  It's incredible.


I'll be cheering my heart out come this July.  But while I am looking forward to the Olympics and I'm trying to get back into the sport via triathlons or masters swimming, my love of water goes even deeper.

My parents took me to SeaWorld when I was five.  Since then it has been one of my favorite places to go in this world.  I've been there just by myself taking in everything I could.

When I was twelve or so, my family went on a cruise in the Caribbean.  I swam with sting-rays and snorkeled with some of the most brightly colored fish I had ever seen.  My ability to hold my breath and swim underwater for long periods of time took me far beyond the boats making the captain and my parents nervous.  But there was so much to see and feel and experience.  It was beautiful under there.


My favorite Christmas present was a 45 gallon marine aquarium. I fell in love with it.  I got this big Marine Aquaria book and I must have read it like a hundred times.  I worked and loved that aquarium.  And it was pretty dang good.  As soon as I have the means to do it, I am resurrecting that tank.

When I got back from my mission, I was hired at BYU's Evolutionary Ecology Laboratory taking care of hundreds of freshwater fish.  I was given the opportunity to travel to Panama and Costa Rica and play in the beautiful streams of tropical rainforests bringing hundreds of small Poeciliids back to our lab.  I've worked on research projects and even have one of my own.


I took a Scuba Diving Class and reveled in the freedom from the surface it brought me.

I've volunteered at The Living Planet Aquarium and landed the most wonderful internship ever at Aquarium of the Pacific.  There my love of veterinary medicine met my love of the watery world we live in.

You may be thinking, who really cares?  What's so cool about water or the things that live in it anyway?  I'll tell you.


Water has a way of moving things.  Its power to carve canyons and tumble down cliffs is breathtaking.  But it is full of lessons as well.  When water moves it is full of life.  Raging rivers and roaring seas are some of the most abundant ecosystems on earth.  Life came from those waters.  But water also pools.  It fills and stagnates.  Oxygen depletes and life struggles to survive.

Our lives aren't much different.  At times we are tossed about in the rapids, fearing that one wrong move might send us overboard and land us in treacherous water we know we can't handle.  Other times our lives get comfortable.  We stagnate.  We stop growing.  Life chokes and almost dies.

I think that life is a delicate balance.  We need the cool tumbling waters full of life and choice and growth.  We seek those waters.  When we are in the rapids of our lives we pray we'll find the gentle flowing streams and scream thanksgiving when we reach them.  When we land in the eddies we long for a way out and do our best to paddle and struggle to our freedom and breathe a sigh of relief when again life flows along its way.

I love water.  And I don't think I'll ever stop loving it.  Swimming is still the only workout I absolutely love.  Whales, dolphins, seals, sea lions, sharks, fish, and penguins are still my favorite animals.  Aquatic veterinary medicine is a growing and exciting field that I can't wait to get into.

Water is beautiful.  It's full of life and meaning. And I think that is exactly why the Savior taught that He and His Gospel are the living waters that bring us that life and meaning.  It's such a perfect symbol.  And as far as symbols go, I really love this one.

So today I was just hanging out with my brother Mark when I noticed I got a message on my phone.  It turned out to be a Facebook message from someone I've never met before.  But it reminded me just how small this world really is and how wonderful people can be.  You see if you search "Mike Veterinarian" on www.mormon.org, you are going to come up with two people: Mike Gamble and Me. 

Apparently Mike searched just that and took to reading my profile because I talk about returning from the Singapore Mission.  He had too.  One of his Mission Presidents was President Boone - my MTC President. He served as a Young Men's President to two of the Elders I served my mission with. And he has just graduated from Kansas State with his DVM. 

It can't get much smaller than that.

He sent me a nice message thanking me for my service as a missionary and for having my mormon.org profile up and encouraged me in my quest on becoming a veterinarian.  There are a lot of great people in this world and they deserve encouragement and thanks.

So who knows, the next stranger you meet may be more connected to you than you realize.  Treat them nicely, there's no telling what kind of a difference it will make.

You know, being a Pre-Veterinary Student, I get asked a lot of veterinary questions.  I'm even treated like I'm a vet already by some of my friends.  In the last month, I've answered questions about two cats Oats and Hazel and a young dog named Milo.  And though I don't have anywhere near the knowledge I would need to make a real diagnosis, it's still kind of fun having people ask me for my opinion.

This past week has had several triumphs in the making of the future vet me.

On Monday in the Preceptorship with Dr. Roeder I successfully removed a retained deciduous canine from a dog.  That's right - me.  I did it.  Deciduous or baby teeth sometimes don't fall out like they should and cause problems with the adult teeth when they come in.  Dr. Roeder took out the first one and then showed me how to do it and I did it!  Maybe dentists really do love what they do...

Example of a Retained Deciduous Canine

I also took my quiz to be a husbandry intern at The Living Planet Aquarium and although I don't know my score, it was pretty easy and I'm sure I'll be starting as a Husbandry Intern in not too long.  I also found out that the aquarium is going to be acquiring River Otters and got to look at their new enclosure and that was pretty exciting.  But even better, I got to meet the Veterinarian who takes care of all the animals at LPA and I might get to do an externship with her next semester!  It's gonna be awesome!

Aaaaaw.  The River Otters are Cute Too!