Earthquake

We just had an earthquake! I'm sitting here typing a report for school and my bed started shaking. I thought the dog was itching herself or rubbing on the bed so I hopped off the bed and realized the dog was still outside (I have the door open).

Then I looked and my door was shaking, so I walked out to my living room and my whole bookshelf-tv-stand thing was waving back and forth! THEN I started to get nervous (I do live at the foot of a volcano) and searched for my glasses. By the time I finally found them, the earthquake was way over.

Phones are currently down and I hear there is mass panic island wide (according to the girl that lives upstairs who just got home). The volcano is not currently spewing magma, but if it does, I'm going to high-tail it!

Yet another fun and exciting day in the life of Karla. Remember about this time last semester right before finals there was a hurricane. This might be too much nature for me to handle!

UPDATE from school: Here is some info from the United States Geological Survey regarding the earthquake today at 3:00pm. It was a 7.4 magnitude quake, and the closest island was Martinique. It looks like it happened out in the water. Details here.

Thanksgiving Weekend

Rudder is happily curled up next to me... shedding.

We had class on Wed, Thurs, and Fri. Went to a fancy restaurant downtown (Ballahoo) for a spur of the moment thanksgiving dinner. $25US/plate for one tiny slice of turkey, a quarter size of stuffing, and literally a handful of vegetables. Should have known better than to trust the British with Thanksgiving, but had good company.

I cut my hair earlier while watching tv. I'd been meaning to since the ends were so damaged that I couldn't get a brush thru the ends. I just started snipping with scissors and hope I did a good job. Sure swept up a lot of blonde knots.

Yesterday A&M beat the hell outta t.u. It's always a good season when we beat t.u.

Salty is in love with Rudder. He's twice her size with his belly the same height as her back. They are the black and tan duo... my pretend Rottweiler with my pretend Doberman. He's way smarter than her though; he follows my toe when I point to food I've dropped.

The malaria and dengue carrying mosquitoes are after me tonight. I put on plenty of OFF, but they are buzzing in mass around me. Well, to bed now.

Baby Goat

Found a baby goat... sorta.

I wanted a color change Del Sol bag that they were supposed to be handing out at the beach. I offered the guy in my physio class that lives up the road (Michael) to carpool with me (he got a coupon for a free bag too). He walks to my house and knock on my door to tell me there is a little white baby goat running around bleating. I say super.

We drive past the road where the goat was because I was told we needed to be at the beach at 6pm and it's getting late (sunset is at 6pm sharp). So I need to mention that this guy is from NYC and had not touched a pig or a cow... until he met me. I tell him the goat is fine, let's go. He guilts me into turning around, so we look at the goat. It's a baby goat alright. Still lively, let's leave it! I'm sure someone owns it and it's nanny goat is around the corner somewhere.

We go to beach. No color change bags. We stay for a while to make sure there are really no bags. We leave. I drop him off at his apt then pass by the goat on the way back to mine. I feel really bad for the goat since it's now like 10pm. The goat was starting to fade and cease to be alert so I scooped him up and walked over to the locals that cook on Friday nights.

"Is this you're goat?" I say, "No." they reply. Then I ask, "Know who he belongs to?" They say "No, but if you don't take him home he'll get eaten by dogs tonight." Way to make me feel bad! So I took him home.

I can't believe Salty didn't eat him! He tried to nurse off her too! He would not drink from a bottle, but only weighed 5kg or 11lbs. I ran a Mod McMasters on the goat feces and saw ~3100 epg coccidia and ~2250 epg Strongyloides papillosus (Threadworm). My parasit prof differentiated the Strongyloides L1 in egg from a developing Strongyle L1 in egg based on egg size and shell thickness. (You should have seen the little worm wiggling in the egg!!!) Even more exciting, goat had a pure Strongyloides infection with coccidial protozoa. Usually there are Strongyloides and Strongyles so a pure infection in a kid on the island is new information. Ah, at least I'm learning something.

I had Michael deworm the goat the 0.9mg ivermectin IM since he guilted me into keeping it in the first place. This was the first shot he'd ever given to an animal and I think they both squirmed! The goat started eating grass and forbs, which is good cuz it got him out of my bath tub. He looked healthy so I let him go with some other goats and he's roaming the hills somewhere. I had him for about a week.

Funny, Michael said his mother wouldn't even let them have a parakeet in the house (it was kept in their NY garage). He was utterly shocked that I didn't think twice about bringing a pooping, wormy, baby goat into my apt... and feeding it grass/hay inside too. I think when I grow up, the barn might as well be attached to the house so I can keep an eye on everything.

Car rolled off a cliff at school

Funny story. So I'm driving to school and I pick up this guy in my class that I see walking to school. We finish driving to school and I go to the parking lot, to park, duh.

He gives me flack for parking on a hill, about how the car could roll off a cliff or something, and what not. I'm like "oh come on, that would never happen!" Ross-mobiles, riiight.

So we go to school like normal, THEN (few hours later) whispers go around in class that someone's car rolled off the cliff at school... let me say that again: ROLLED OFF THE CLIFF AT SCHOOL. THE 50 FOOT CLIFF INTO THE OCEAN. Super.

Anyway, one car (not mine thank god), with a defective parking brake, decided to roll off the cliff. Seriously. It rolled out of it's parking spot, over the cliff, to the ocean. Crashed on the rocks below.

Good thing this is Ross and we're prepared for events like these. (Yet we're somehow not prepared for other things?) Apparently we have a car-picker-out-of-ocean machine that was able to pull the car back up the cliff, back into the parking lot.

The car still works too. Amazing.

These picts are courtesy of Midge in my class. They're so great! Capturing the beauty of the Caribbean and the jungle on the car. (Click to enlarge picts, 1st pict especially!!!)

Rolled off a cliff. Could that even happen at another vet school? Colorado perhaps? Oh, I think they drive real cars there. Cliff, hmmm. Only on St. Kitts. At least the weather is nice.

Break-in on Wed night

I have some distressing news.

Some guy broke into the upstairs apartment Wed ~11:30pm. The student's mom was home asleep with the dog in the back bedroom. Neither woke up. The guy stole some money and a cell phone then hid behind the porch and waited for the girl to come home. He demanded money and she said 'no' so he hit her and fled.

What's worse is that I was sitting outside watering the plants the entire time and didn't hear a thing! Salty barked, but I thought she was barking at another gigantic land crab that wandered into the yard.

We're all on high alert but we think it coincided with our landlord moving off island. He left Wed afternoon.

Glad I have Salty. She strikes fear in all the locals.

Here's a pict of my new (super expensive) dress. I saw it back in Aug before break and decided I needed it. It would have been nice to have my head in this pict, but I was talking and had my eyes shut, so not knowing when I'd wear it again, here it is. NO boob comments or I'll remove the pict.

Also this is the pony that is usually tethered out by my house, although I have not seen him lately.