adriane, the bunny trainer...
i'll admit it, when i started working at my current job, i did not think that social work would cross with animals. yes, there is evidence that pet therapy is a good thing, etc., etc., but me, being allergic to any animal with hair, found animals in the workplace less than a perfect situation. don't get me wrong, i love animals. first came the bunny, ringo. she's black and white and SOOOO soft, which makes a person fall in love with her. next came iggy, the iguana. no, i'm not allergic to him, but he is quite unnerving, especially after you see my boss' arms with scratches all over them. however, the way he reacts to a gentle bath with a squirt bottle allows him to squeeze into a special iguana place in a person's heart. most recently, we added bear to our zoo....office. he's a little hamster that fondly reminds me of my first real pets fuzzy and gumdrop. i love the little guy. these animals get SPOILED! this is where my latest title "bunny [personal] trainer" comes in. because ringo is so spoiled and in too small of a cage (she's lazy anyway, so i don't think a bigger cage would help), she is now obese. seriously obese. she eats healthy, veggies, apple cores, whole wheat bread butts, however, i think the caloric intake is much too high for a lazy animal. today, a coworker and i decided she needed to do some running up and down the hall during our staffing. she ran to the other end, and sat there the rest of the time. after staffing, my boss told me to make her run by stomping behind her (no animals were physically harmed in this push for exercise). i tried that, but ringo like my feet. so i had to scoot cardboard behind her. we got a good 15 feet of running and 6 stair climbs in before she almost pooped on me. i feel sorry for the poor gal, she has a quadruple chin and fat rolls under her armpits. i'll admit it, i called her a lardbutt, but it was a term of endearment. this wrapped up an exciting day of work.