Tegula Fenebralis

Dissection #1
Tegula Funebralis aka The Black Turban Snail

These were EVERYWHERE when we went out to the tide pools last week

I am absolutely not patient enough to sit in a lab for four hours looking through a microscope making impossible cuts and drawing and describing what I see.

We made six drawings and boy am I not an artist!

Live Snail (Drawing #1)

De-shelled anesthetized snail right side up

(Drawing #3)

Green gonad means it is a female

 

Microscope and light set up

Inside the mantle cavity (Drawing #4)

It was so hard to look through a microscope and cut through a layer of tissue with a teeny tiny blade!

After the cut was done, I sat there and drew what I saw. Then repeated the process. 

It took FOREVER!

Definitely need to work on having more patience. 

Somehow I survived. I absolutely felt like I left a part of me behind as I was leaving. I was exhausted and I was so hungry that my stomach was practically eating itself. I was so incredible grumpy and grinding my teeth as I was walking back to my apartment. Let me tell you, I as much as almost started crying when I saw my roommate had made me dinner and it was waiting to be heated up when I got back.
I think I'll keep her. :)

Power Assessment

Today was the much anticipated "Run you into the ground until you pass out" lab. Wasn't sure if I was going to make it but I did! No puking and, for the most part, I stayed conscious.

It was a set of sprints with very minimal rest in between. The purpose of this was to deplete the ATP stores in my muscles, and observe the decline in power emitted and determine when and which energy store was used.

Yes, it was awful.

Yes, I did almost yak.

Yes, I did feel lightheaded.

Yes, I was incredibly sore after.

My conclusion: I am incredibly out of shape.

After this, we filmed ourselves doing an activity of our choice. Later we will view the footage in slow motion and with the help of a program, we will break down joint and muscle movement. and examine the flow of energy during our activity. 

Many people threw a ball or frisbee. Someone batted. Someone did a flip. One guy even did a chest bump. 

I kicked a soccer ball. 

I wanted to do a nice easy kick that allowed the ball to arc in the air but I think my nerves got to me and what was supposed to be a nice lofted kick turned into a powerful shot. 

I can't wait to see what it looks like in slow motion!

Next week in lab, we will be assessing oxygen consumption and carbon dioxide output during different intensities of exercise. I will try to remember to take pictures next week!

Chocolate Festival

Over the weekend, I went with a group of friends to the Santa Cruz Chocolate Festival. It was located in a ballroom above the Santa Cruz beach boardwalk. Our tickets included six tastings but I definitely ate more than just six bits of chocolate. I had a great time and by the end, I was happily feeling sick and couldn't even think about eating another sweet item.

Pomegranate Honey by Blossom Trail

The most delicious honey I have ever had!

Silent Auction

Goose's goodies: Homemade toffee

By far my favorite out of everything I tried that day!

Tide Pools!

This week, instead of sitting in lab dissecting something  for 4 hours, we got to head down to the beach during low tide and do some hands on learning. Despite it being windy and cold and even raining for a short bit, I had an incredible time. It was so fun to poke around and apply some of what I have learned in school to what I was seeing.

The journey begins

Walking down to the beach

Low tide

There were so many muscles, it was impossible not to step on them

It is so fun to play with the anemones! They grab your fingers

Spent some time bothering a hermit crab

And it started raining...

Post Rain Double Rainbow!!

To say the least, it was a very enjoyable outing. 

Unfortunately I now have to identify and write about everything I saw. School can be such a tease sometimes. 

Fat Folds

Today in my exercise lab we measured each other's fat folds.

Yes it was absolutely as gloriously awkward as it sounds. Nothing like starting off the day by lifting my shirt and allowing a perfect stranger to grab and measure my belly fat thickness. This along with taking body density and length measurements has allowed me to determine more information about myself than I think necessary to know.

57.9% of my body is water
6.4% of my weight is bone mass
20.6% of my body is fat

All normal, healthy measurements.

Next week's lab is titled "Maximum Anaerobic Power Assessment" and there are specific instructions to not eat a big meal. Fingers crossed I don't throw up!

Something Squishy #1

Clown fish are sequential hermaphrodites. This means that they start out life as one sex and then switch to the other sex later. Determining what they start out as and when they switch usually depends on factors that will give them the most reproductive success. So, say females only want to mate with large males, it is more successful to start out as a female and then switch to male once you have achieved an optimum size.

 Do know what the first thing is that should have happened to Nemo after his mom died?

His dad would have become his mom. 

Image from: true-wildlife.blogspot.com

Exercise Physiology

In my exercise physiology class, I am learning all about the science of exercising the human body. I will be learning about proper fuels, effects of training, body compositions, mechanical responses, and psychological effects. So far this class has been nothing less than fascinating. Even though I am an athlete myself, I have never put very much thought into how all of these different processes come together to effect performance.

While the class so far has been very interesting, the lab that accompanies it is going to be nothing less than a nightmare.
In lab, we will be testing the human body's response to stress and what better subjects to test this on than ourselves!

For example: One week, we have to sprint to the point that we almost pass out or puke just so that my fellow lab members can test how each individual deals with the depletion of ATP from our muscles. Another week, we get to jump into the ice cold ocean and track our body's response to the temperature change as it goes into survival mode.

Introducing Sophie

Because I go to a UC, I am on the quarter system rather than the semester system. This means that I go through 3 sets of classes over the course a typical year (Fall, Winter, and spring). I am majoring in Ecology and Evolution.

Over the next 10 weeks I will be taking Exercise Physiology + lab, Invertebrate Zoology + lab, and The Peregrine Falcon's Return.

Peregrine Falcon's return is a class that is all about peregrine falcons, no surprise there. Not only will I learn everything there is to know about these birds but this class is also an exploration of the successful case study that led to their return to adequate numbers and saved them from disappearing from the west coast.

During our first day in class, we were introduced to my professor's falcon named Sophie. He raised her from a hatchling right on his dining room table and the bond they have is really outstanding. When she was about 5 years old, she began to view him as a mate.
And these are words taken right out of his mouth:

 "You all can go home tonight and tell all of your friends that my professor has sex with his bird!" 

Every year, the two go through a whole courtship ritual and he inseminates her with samples collected from other males. She raises her babies every spring and they go on to help in peregrine falcon conservation efforts.

Not only is being in this class really interesting but I get to simultaneously hang out with a raptor.

A New Beginning

Out of respect for Guide Dogs for the Blind's privacy, I have decided that I will no longer be writing posts or putting up pictures that have to do with their organization.

I am so thankful to have been able to share a small part of my story and show just what being a CWT is all about. I really don't know how all of you raisers do it! These dog's come into the kennels as a member of your family with big plans for the future and immediately steal everyone's heart. I am in awe with everything you sacrifice and I am honored to be one small part of such an amazing organization. I can't wait until I am back with the dogs in June!

I have decided to turn this into a more personal blog. Feel free to stop following (I will not take it personally) or you are welcome to join me in my sightly less exciting school adventures.

Back to School I Go!

Classes started today so this means that I am now back in sunny 

Santa Cruz!

I am so glad to be back but I am certainly not ready to start school again. Being back in Santa Cruz means that I will not be back at Guide Dogs for a couple months. I know, Sad! This also leaves me with quite the reduction in blogging material! I think I can probably squeeze a few more GDB posts out but after that, I'm not Sure what I am going to do.

I have hundreds of pictures from the last three years there, But I don't know how interesting me writing about dogs who were CC'd or finished training a year ago is. And I'm sure people aren't going to care too much about my life at school.

I wanted to share how great this blogging thing has been. I can pretty much talk anyone's ear off about the guide dog program and I think most of my friends and family are a bit sick of hearing about it. It has been great to have people to share my stories with who seem to actually care to hear them.

Thank you for reading, following, or comenting and hopefully there will be much more to come!!

Hanging With the Dogs

This is Weston!

I am such a sucker for the handsome male yellow labs! I think he is adorable and I love this one paw up thing that he is doing in the picture. He is currently in for breeder evals and so far has been passing all of his tests!

This is Sake!

She is a very small little sweet golden. This picture is of her first day in the kennel so she was still a little unsure about the place. I believe she was CC'd out of the puppy raising home.

This is Leigh!

She is still going through her breeder evals. Her sister Lana was spayed last week and after she has recovered, she will enter the next string of training.

This is Oprah!
She is still a young puppy who was CC'd out of the puppy home. The CWT's have been working with her daily to have better manners and teaching her a few tricks for fun. After she learned what the clicker was for, she was taught how to play dead. Point at her and say bang and she falls right over. We have also been doing a lot of recall work with her and to up the challenge, we added a dog distraction. An intact male named Newport came in for breeder evals and he was absolutely perfect with the puppy. We let them play together in the community run area and worked on her recall. He played extremely appropriately with her and when a CWT called for Opera to come, he stopped what he was doing and it sure didn't take long for her to learn what was expected of her. Unfortunately Newport  will not become a breeder because he didn't pass his eye exam due to cataracts. He sure would have made some amazing guide pups. He was CC'd and his raisers came to pick him up. He is going to live out the rest of his life as a beloved pet. 

Naughty or Bored?

CC'd: SUMMIT

Drop reason: Too powerful for the GDB program

(Thought this was hilarious!)

We took Summit for a workout on the treadmill. This is another structured exercise activity used for both career changes and dogs in training. He was very excited to go and it was a great way to get out some of his energy. He is a very strong and smart dog with endless energy. I have very high hopes that if he doesn't make it into the search and rescue program, that he will find the perfect home with someone who will give him a job to do. I think he would make a fantastic sporting dog. He just needs a structured activity.

Almost the real thing!

I mentioned a dog named phoenix a few posts ago. He is still in for breeder evals.

Last week I was out walking him and someone came and found me to let me know that phoenix was needed in the breeding department. Apparently, they needed a "sample". As we were switching off leases, she was talking up a storm to Phoenix. Telling him about how its almost going to be just like doing the real thing, there will be a girl and everything! Phoenix did seem a little down that morning, which was an extra reason why I took him out for a walk but boy was he in a good mood for the rest of the day!

I few days later, I was doing his health check and grooming and I asked him for a down and he proceeded to do this:

He held this position long enough for me to take some pictures and for a few CWTs to giggle at him. I asked him for a down again and he proceeded to do everything perfectly. 

I also found that he enjoys chewing on his bones in a similar fashion:

He sure does put a smile on my face!

Dirty Dogs

Working with dogs means you do tend to get a bit dirty... between the shedding, slobber, and dirt I try to not wear clothes that are too nice.

A perfect paw print on my coworker's jeans.