A sloth mom's version of career day...

April 11, 2011

Saturday, Mark took Sawyer, Sander and my niece Emily to Aggieland for their open house -- they show off their veterinary school once a year, free, to anyone who wants to come. 

For those of you not from the South, Texas A&M University is known far and wide for its fabulous veterinary school, great programs in agriculture and farming, a town that includes The Dixie Chicken as one of the more upscale bars, Aggie jokes and an unstoppable rivalry with the University of Texas in Austin.

I lived in College Station, home of A&M, and was the chief copy editor of the newspaper there a million years ago. People might make fun of Aggies, but no one questions their expertise with animals.

Sander has wanted to be an animal worker since he was born. He’s not sure whether he’s going to be a biologist or a veterinarian or work with exotic zoo animals, but he’s going to work with animals.

So, we’ve been to every zoo within 1,000 miles of Austin. We’ve done whale watches, explored nature centers, done behind the scenes tours, taken classes, read books, and he’s still hungry for more.

So off they went, each with a stuffed animal with an ailment that needed fixing.

The top draw was the fistulated cow. Really.

It’s a cow with a healed hole in its side, and you can reach in and pull digested grass out of its stomach. Or, as Sander likes to say, you can also put grass in and “feed the cow.”

He’s been laughing at that for three days.

Then, off to surgery. Emily’s bear had a broken arm that the surgeons helped her set. Both Sander and Sawyer wanted a pregnant bear, so the surgeons cut open the bears along the belly and inserted a button in each, and then sewed it up.

I’m not sure what message that teaches, at all, about genetics or anatomy, but since they’re going back next year to have the button removed via c-section turned into cubs, we can answer more questions then...

All three kids had fun. All three kids learned a great deal. And they all had the opportunity to ask questions, learn about the career and find out if this was something they were willing to work for.

All in all, a cool thing for A&M to do, and a good day for everyone.