Anticipation

For the past six weeks, I haven’t been completely sure that I’d be going to National K-9 School for Dog Trainers in September. I adopted Sampson from a breeder specifically for the class, but he tested positive for an intestinal parasite called giardia when I brought him to the vet for a routine exam. The treatment takes at least six weeks to be effective; I only had eight before the start of the course.

Giardia is commonly found in puppies from breeders or dogs in kennel situations, and it’s pretty contagious. I believe Sampson came into contact while living with his first owner, sometime between last November and January. He actually tested positive before being neutered back in January and was sent home from his surgery with dewormer. His owner never had him retested.

I gave Sam the dewormer and antibiotics as instructed. Then I waited until last Saturday for the test results. Anxiety made me pretty cranky when I found out that the vet who I’d been working with and who was supposed to call me with the results, wasn’t in on Saturday. We’d chosen that day specifically because she would be at the hospital. So I went back and forth with a couple of vet techs for a few hours before I finally got the result.

Sampson was negative.

Being over-the-moon lasted all of five minutes. Maybe ten. I’d held off on making any arrangements for heading out to Ohio in case he’d been positive, so I needed to get my butt in gear. Hotel rooms have almost all been booked, flights have been arranged, and the list of things Sam and I will need is getting checked off item by item.

But these things aren’t taking up all of my time. I still have the opportunity to look at the calendar and count the days until I’ll pack up the car to head west. None of this seems real. My brain doesn’t want to process that a 13 hour drive and six weeks of intense schoolwork are only a few days from beginning.

Maybe that’s because I already experienced four years of college, packing up my life twice a year to head for Virginia or to come home to Massachusetts. Nothing there caused earthquakes in my life. I do have a few more friends and a piece of paper that says I have a Bachelor of Arts degree, but I have a hard time seeing the difference in my world.

I’ll come home from Ohio with marketable skills. I’ve already seen a need for dog trainers pretty much at my doorstep. And there’ll be plenty of potential clients across the country. The opportunity is there; I just need to take advantage of it.