Magical Moleculars

I had a mad crazy last week. I had a job interview at a natural vet clinic in the mountains, got the job, and started at 7 the next day. I was really excited because it seemed like I was going to learn a lot and get quite a bit of responsibility as well (doing dentals, helping in surgery, etc). Also the lady who hired me told me she thought I was a "beautiful person" and was so excited to work with me, which was such a delightful contrast from my last piece of shit, condescending, completely incompetent boss. yippee i thought.

So I come in at 6:30 after my hour commute, bright and happy, well-caffeinated and energetic. I jumped in to help with the morning cleaning, and this is when I began to have misgivings. For starters, the place has four resident cats, one of which is severely handicapped - admittedly a very nice gesture of animal rescuing. On the other hand, four cats in a high stress and very busy clinic is a rather unsanitary scheme, involving, it turns out, a minimum of four kitty craps and three vomit piles distributed outside the litter boxes and around the clinic on a daily basis. I originally assumed the early morning fecal odor permeating the clinic was a unique occurrence, perhaps involving an ill patient, but was informed by a unfazed staff member that this charming smell was characteristic of the morning routine. Ack.

Furthermore, the place is covered in carpet. An animal HOSPITAL. CARPET. BAD. The carpet is vacuumed every morning. Which of course makes it sterile. Luckily the carpet is a nice dark color with a mottled pattern, so the many layers of blood, vomit, diarrhea, and death stains become indistinguishable from the brownish/greenish glory of the carpet itself.

Sinks. At least one in every exam room - that's gotta be in a health code somewhere, am I right? Aspen Park Vet Hospital has one sink. Three exam rooms, a surgery, two labs, a pharmacy, the lobby, and an office. One sink. It's small, it's skanky, and it has no surrounding counter space. Fill your cup-o-soup? Clean the blood off your rib spreader? Scrub out the ghiardia kitten's litter box? Uno. Seems inconvenient if nothing else, which perhaps explains why the vet and his staff never wash hands between patients, or ever for that matter (no gloves to be found either). To be fair, there is another sink in one of the bathrooms (the other bathroom is a toilet in the laundry closet, and with all that clean laundry around who needs a sink anyway?). Holy Jesus, thought I.

More later, I must go apply for a new job!!!