posted 11-24-2003 09:32 AM         

People have told me I would make a good vet, but it's not true. I don't have a natural rapport with animals or children like my sister does. All animals and all kids automatically love her. I love the animals but they know I am a bumbling idiot and have no idea how to handle them, despite all my research. I can tell others what to do, but I can't do it myself. I know we all are different and we have to use what was given to us, but why would I be given a love of animals and no rapport with them? That's just stupid.

Maybe that's why I like cats and small lapdogs. They sit in your lap and purr (or pant) and tell you by their relaxed little bodies and happy little faces that you are the best person in the whole world, just by sitting there.

I think there is something wrong with me. I empathise with everyone and yet rarely am I successful in trying to "help." For gosh's sakes, I am medicating a mouse twice daily because....well because she is sick and that's what you do. My husband thinks I am nuts. It is not prohibitively expensive and the alternatives are to let her suffer or put her to sleep, and even though it is just a mouse I can't bring myself to put an animal down just because I don't feel like giving it medicine.

I am definitely going crazy. Tell Santa I want one of those little white jackets with the sleeves tied together.