How My Weekend Actually Turned Out: Wild But Not What I Planned

So, my weekend did not go according to my plans. Flexibility is a wonderful thing. Balance and flexibility are what I strive to achieve these days, though I do not think it was a balanced weekend in any way unfortunately...

Friday I was supposed to go to San Francisco but I didn't. The person I was meeting up with bailed on me with no explanation and I had a last minute opportunity to go to a coyote release. Let's see-- art exhibit and concert vs seeing the release of six orphaned coyotes my friend C raised from pups? Not a very difficult decision.

I am in awe of C. She can handle wild animals better than anyone I know. Much, much better. Even so, catching six coyotes in a large enclosure had her in a sweat. (Does anyone else know of someone who can catch a half dozen coyotes or a half dozen foxes-- which can climb-- in less than fifteen minutes? I doubt it). Sadly, she'll probably never get the recognition or respect that she deserves because coyotes (and other predators) are not that popular, but she has my deepest admiration. Nevermind raising them from all of a pound to full grown without habituating them to humans. She's the expert-- from San Luis Obispo to San Francisco, she's the one that other rehabilitators send their coyotes to because she knows best. Mad props to you, C.

A coyote release is not the best place to get a picture of a coyote, so here is a gratuitous shot of a goodlooking coyote I saw in Point Reyes awhile back, followed by some shots of the area we released the coyotes in on Friday and the actual release (the coyotes are just blurry streaks).

We drove a long way to get the coyotes out of the city, where they are less likely to have problematic interactions with humans:


Looking out on the big, scary world before taking the plunge into new territory:


And here they are, heading for the hills:



After the coyote release I went for a long swim outdoors in the dark, studied a little and went to bed.

Saturday I got up early to go to Marin on a birding trip with my birding instructor and a group of her students. It was a beautiful day to be outside. The very first bird I saw was likely a golden eagle, perched on a fence by the side of the road as we were passing Palo Alto. We saw lots of other raptors and shorebirds but not that many passerines for reasons we don't entirely understand.

This is Bolinas Lagoon. In the bottom photo there are harbor seals in the foreground and brown pelicans behind them:



We ended the day at Hawk Hill, looking out over San Francisco. Beautiful, huh?

You'll never guess what I did Saturday night-- I went to work. It wasn't my plan, but I owed my friend Muscles a favor and he called it in, so I covered his shift for him. It's been a hard month for Muscles and he needed a break. I care about my co-workers and friends so very much, and so even though it wasn't my idea of the most fun way to spend my Saturday night (for example, in bed sleeping would have been much better), I did it for him.

I got off work around 3 am, and was up before 8 am, wide awake, so I did some studying, went to the farmer's market and then headed to Los Altos for a Wildlife Conservation Network fund raiser. Work was short several nurses due to illness so I got a call begging me to come in for the Sunday night shift. I had a pair of scrubs in the car, so I drove straight to work despite being tired and just wanting to do some studying and go to bed. I didn't have to go, but I don't like it when my co-workers are overwhelmed and it's not good for the patients either when we are short staffed.

So where was I at midnight last night? In surgery, sweating. I was off at midnight but at 11:15 Dr. Chief-of-Staff needed to take a cat with a foreign body GI obstruction to surgery and there was no one else signed off on anesthesia. It feels really good and flattering to be qualified to do the anesthesia and have the doctors' trust. On the other hand, I hadn't slept much the night before, am not familiar with all the new equipment in that hospital and hadn't done an anesthesia in five months so I felt a little trepidation about it (also I knew I had to be up early for school the next day...). Initially, it was a smooth anesthesia but then my monitors failed (no blood pressure readings, ack) and I had to move the patient partway through so the doctor had a better angle and it was a wee bit stressful. OK, I panicked and got Slow Feet to come in and help for a few minutes when she came on for her graveyard shift. But in the end it was fine and my patient had a smooth recovery, so I call that a success.

Two nights of five hours sleep in a row. It's time to go back to a more sustainable lifestyle.

I didn't do as much fun, new stuff as I wanted this weekend-- a Friday night with a long swim and going to work both Saturday and Sunday night is not breaking up my routine. But I did get to see my two mentors, C and my birding instructor, and any weekend where I get to spend time with two strong, independent women who are passionate about wildlife and their jobs is a good weekend in my book.