A few of my pets and my first foster Greyhound, Hammer

I am the Guide to Veterinary Medicine on About.com where I have written about veterinary medicine, pets and vet news since 1999.

This site has been a few years in the making.  I kept going back-and-forth, since I didn’t want to duplicate my about.com site content and my time is always short. (And honestly, sometimes writing ideas are precious and few.)

Since joining Twitter though, I have met so many fascinating people and learned so many new things that I wanted to have a place where I could write a little more than 140 characters now and then. I also want to be able to spotlight friends, web sites and business that I enjoy.

You can read my about.com bio here and follow me on Twitter here.

A Little About Me
I am happily married and the mom of two fab kids – a son and a daughter. We live out in the rolling wheat fields on a little farm, but aren’t farmers. Just like living out here.

Animals
I have them. I love them. The animals in the header graphic are all of my pets – past and present intermingled. Baxter, the Collie, was my heart dog. I adopted him from WSU when I was in vet school. The cat in the sidebar is Herman Roosevelt Quinn. Sweet memories. And, as many of you know, I heart chickens! I love them in real life and I love making chicken beads. I have several photos of my pets – dogs, cats, chickens and geese on my TwitPic photo page.

Glass Barred Rock Rooster Bead

Art Life
I have a life-long love and fascination (some would say obsession) with glass and beads. Now that I am a grownup, I have my own flaming propane-oxygen torch to melt glass rods and make my own beads. I love it. Making beads is mesmerizing for me. You can view samples of my work and learn more about the bead making process (called lampworking or flameworking) on my glass bead site.

In February 2010, I learned to knit, thanks to a friend in NYC who said “just go on YouTube – you can learn to knit!” So I did. And now I finally get what is so addicting about yarns. The colors, the textures, how they feel when you knit with them. Oh. My. Goodness.

Now I need to find a way to integrate the bead life with the knitting life. So far, I have made a sweater for Argos and a Cat Mat for Greta.

Race for the Cure

Race for a Cure
In 2008, I reconnected with one of the best friends of my life, Cindy, my lab partner in vet school, from a bazillion years ago. Although now she is Cindy Zikes DVM DACVIM, and soon to be DACVS! Her story, and the meaning of all of those letters, is here: Interview with a Super Vet

Anyway, the joy at reconnecting was quickly stunned by the news that she had just had surgery and chemo for a devastating disease – breast cancer. Needless to say, I was shocked. Shock turned to action though, as we got together a team and did the Komen Race for a Cure in Portland Oregon. Our team was the #2 fundraiser out of 1,196 teams, and raised over $14,000.  I got in shape for the race but sadly have fallen back out of shape again. :-/ Will work on that.

Here is our story: Femme Fus Race for a Cure team.

Mr. Blanca - best rooster ever. RIP