2 Weeks Done!

Week 2 of school has come and gone, wow, I can hardly believe it!  The week was pretty uneventful.  The only thing out of the ordinary was my Thursday night duty.  I am taking a class (an elective) called Bereavement Issues in which we learn how to talk and deal with clients who are upset over having to euthanize a pet.  Well, one of the assignments for that class is to cover a 2 hour shift on the pet loss hotline that our school has.  The hotline is for pet owners who are having a hard time dealing with the loss of their pet and who want to talk to somebody for emotional support.  So, guess who was sitting at the hotline desk on Thursday night from 7-9pm?  Yup, me, the pet loss hotline expert!  I had two calls, one from a lady who was pretty upset over losing her cat, and one from another lady who was feeling guilty about having their dog put down, thinking that she should have brought it somewhere else to see if it could be healed.  It was a challenge for me, luckily I had a packet of tips and things to say so that helped me out when I talked to them.  I have to say though, it is easy for me to chuckle when I hear of somebody who is taking the loss of their pet so hard, however, working the hotline just for those two hours definitely helped open my eyes to how some pet owners really are super attached to their animals, and treat the animal death just about like they would treat a human death.  It really was a good experience for me and I think it enabled me to understand a little better the emotions that come from a pet owner like that, thus better enabling me to say the right things to them.  It was definitely me stepping out of my comfort zone, definitely going outside my box, but in the end, I am glad I did it.

Now, I'm going to be heading off to Eureka for a wedding tomorrow. Hope everyone is having a great weekend!