The Train Station...(aka The Bridal Diaries)...I Shouldn't quit my day job.

What brought me to the bridal shop was not a desire to work in one.  Having grown weary of being an RN for 20 years, I had decided to look into pursuing my childhood dream of working with animals.  

Ever since I can remember, my family always had some kind of pet.  My sister had a parakeet named Kazoo.  My brother had a gerbil, chameleons, an iguana, various tropical fish, love birds and a parrot.  I always had the furry cute pets like guinea pigs, rabbits, mice and rats.  We always had a dog.

Me, Mouse and our dog Jack @ 1974

Having a dad on active military duty meant that my mom was busy running the house and raising three kids by herself.  My brother and sister were older so they had the priviledge of going off with friends.  I got to stay home and entertain myself, all the while staying out out my mother's hair.  I think it's safe to say that my nanny was the family dog.

I played with barbies and dolls as well as with other kids, but you could often find me in my room, wearing my mom's red cross uniform, playing vet.  I'd read, announce and then check off the name of one of my animals (real or stuffed) and then perform a thorough exam on them.  The stuffed animals always made the best patients, but my guinea pigs, rabbit and dog didn't give me too much of a hard time.  They were used to be  "girl"-handled.  I was a natural with animals and was going to have a happy career as a vet when I grew up.

  



Me, Pig, and Jack @ 1974

How I ended up a nurse and not a vet amazes me.  It was a money issue.  Vet school is very expensive.  I don't regret my decision and have enjoyed being a nurse to people for most of my career; however, I just got to a point where I didn't want to be a nurse any more.  I wanted a change.

A career with animals was the most likely new step in my life...and I was going to prove it when I got the chance to horse sit for my neighbors last summer.  Last fall I had already shown them great potential when two of their horses got loose from their pen and I wrangled them back up to the barn all by myself using a lead as a leash.  I thought if Cesar Millan could handle a pit bull with a $.35 leash, I could do the same with a 2000 lb. animal.  I just had to never let the horses see me sweat.  I showed those horses who was boss and I was prepared to do it again.

That's why I was devastated when all seven of the horses had gotten loose overnight (while I was suppose to be watching them) when their owners went away for a weekend last June.  I had just finished working 11-7 and was on my way home.  I checked my cell phone and was stunned to hear a message from my (very groggy) neighbor stating that he got a call from the horse vet (from down the road) who noticed a group of horses at the elementary school across from her and wondered if they were his horses.

Holy crap.  By the time I got to the barn, the owner's brother had all the horses back in the pen.  He assured me that everything was OK and the horses were fine.  Fine?  I'm left in charge for one night and the horses escape, gallop through growing crops and then wind up on the school's playground, swinging on the swings and messing up the sandbox.

And lets not forget the mounds of manure they left everywhere.  Seven horses, gallivanting around for hours, make a lot of poop.  You should have seen the barn.  Hay bales and bags of grain ripped open and thrown everywhere.  Bins of food tipped over.  Horses aren't supposed to have a lot of grain.  They could get blocked up and die.  And mounds and mounds of poop, everywhere.  All for me to clean up.  And me without my inhaler or sleep for 24 hours. 

Four hours later, the barn was swept and cleaned and all the horses were back in their stalls.  By the way, we did get a Christmas gift from our neighbors last year, but the horse incident was never mentioned nor was the possibility of me caring for the horses again.

A month after my failed horsesitting stint, I had the opportunity to dog sit for our other neighbors for a couple of days.  The challenge for me was to manage three beagles; a mom, a dad, one of their grown puppies and eight beagle puppies from a new litter.  This job consisted of feeding and walking the three older dogs, cleaning out their pens, and then feeding the puppies and cleaning up after them. 

I ran into trouble the very first day.  As I was latching the leash onto the older male, he got a whiff of something and took right off, the younger male following right after him.  I just stood there with my mouth open, watching as they disappeared into the field of wild grass beyond the property.  Did I mention that they were trained hunting beagles?

They both came back eventually.  When I finally got the nerve to tell the owner about the mishap, he laughed and said that they always come back because they were trained that way.  Well, that would have been nice to know, before I spent an hour traipsing through high dewy grass, yelling my lungs out for them.

I think if I had been younger last summer, I would have chalked up the horse and hound mishaps to rustiness and just been happy for the experience.  Rather, I suddenly found my desire for a career with animals dwindling.

I had been working at the bridal shop for a couple of months already when I decided to play pet nanny for my neighbors.  I was beginning to accept that maybe the bridal shop job was just enough of an escape from my RN duties so that I wouldn't have to leave nursing completely.   

For some reason, I'm meant to be at the bridal shop and not working with animals right now. Perhaps, I'm meant to still be an RN; I do love my job and the people with which I work.  I think that the job at the bridal shop helps me to better like being a nurse when I have to be one. 

What ever the case may be, it is obvious that I'm not suppose to quit my day job.