Hi Seclusiasis family! Let me just start off by saying how excited I am to be a part of this! Seeing how this is my first post, I’ll say a couple of words to introduce myself and explain what’s happening here. My name is Polina, I live in Boston and when I am not throwing electronic music parties or otherwise working in the industry, I earn my paychecks at a local animal hospital. I’ve been a vet tech for about 11 years now, and other than various scrapes, scratch marks and bruises I collect pictures of the adorable animals I get to play with at work. I usually post these pics online as I get them, but when the idea for this column came about, I’ve decided to save them all up for one giant pile of cuteness in monthly doses. I am going to try to tell a couple of stories as I go along. You tell me what you’d like to see or hear more of.
Meet Fergus – my boss’s dog. When he is bad (and he is bad A LOT) we call him Fungus. Don’t be mislead by the eyes, there is definitely a touch of “the beast” in this one so he gets to wear the headphones and be dubbed as Street Beast Patient Zero. 
Fergus is a very active participant in the hospital life. Lunch time is his favorite.
“Every meal you make, every bite you take, I’ll be watching you”
So yeah… Puppies are a big hit obviously. The thing I like most about my job is that when it comes to puppies, I get to play with them, pet their little bellies, give them hugs and kisses, and then they go home with their owners and pee on someone else’s floor, and eat someone else’s shoes, and wake someone else up in the middle of the night.
They are pretty adorable though regardless of breeds and sizes.
Don’t get me wrong though, adult dogs are completely adorable too. In many ways more so than the puppies because their personalities are more developed and some of them are such characters.
I feel like “Polina with animal” selfies are becoming my specialty
aint’s no pillow like a newfie pillow
The next beast belongs to one of the doctors in the practice. Her name is Jessie and she is one of the best behaved doggies I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting. The other day she and I were going for a walk and stumbled upon a random basket on the curb which Jessie gladly posed in.
Obey my commands for I am the captain of this vessel
Jessie’s mom Dr. Amanda is the central character in this month’s amusing story. I am sure you’ve all had these super-busy days at work when at the end of the day you start to take everything very literally and your brain kinda goes into the mode of only performing the basic tasks in front of you. Amanda was having one of these days recently. During the exam she tells the owner of a wonderful doggie she is about to give a vaccine to “I am going to have a vet tech hold her and you can feed her cookies while I give her a shot.” “Great!” says the owner “Which end should I be on?” (meaning obviously which end of the exam table will the dog be facing) “Ummmm, the mouth end” replies Dr. Amanda. Gee, thanks doc… and here we had our doubts…
By the way, you may be wondering why all the pics so far are of dogs and not cats. Well, the reason is cats are usually very displeased at having been dragged out of their comfy homes so almost every cat looks either completely annoyed or completely miserable in the pics I take. Here is an example.
Pretty sure this cat is contemplating a thousand ways to kill a human at this precise moment.
Cats and dogs are our primary patients but we do get an occasional beast of a non feline/canine persuasion as well. They often come in very different sizes.
Moar bunny!!!
less bunny!
So yeah… I am not gonna lie – my day job ain’t that bad. I am of a firm belief that everyone’s life would be much improved if they got a little cuddle time with a some sort of a street beastie once a day. To wrap this up, I’d like to tell the story of one of my favorite patients – a pup called Rescue. Rescue is a therapy dog. He belongs to a young couple who are both victims of the Boston Marathon bombing. According the the couple Rescue has been a tremendous help in lifting their spirits and helping them put their lives back together after having been permanently injured in the attack. Anyone who doesn’t believe in animal therapy should have a conversation with Rescue’s family. Here is a little video video of Rescue
VIDEO
Well, this wraps it up for me for this month. Hope you enjoyed it and I’ll be back in a few weeks with more Street Beasts!
……so I’ve been playing around with it for a few days, and thought I’d give you a quick rundown of my initial reactions.
