Hi all! I stumbled across this forum the other night and it really seems like a great place.
Born and raised in Ohio (GO BUCKS!), moved to Louisiana 3 and a half year ago for work. I'm a veterinarian, and although I learned about all sorts of species in vet school, now I work primarily with racehorses. Let me tell you about my three "kids":
I adopted my first kitty, Sprinkles, during my senior year of vet school (I made it a whole three years before I succumbed to the plethora of homeless animals surrounding a vet school!). She was the first cat that I spayed, and I fell in love with her sweet personality. She was living at a shelter, and was still available at the end of my rotation, so I adopted her. She ended up living with me in a dorm room on campus for 10 months (shhh, don't tell!) before graduation. She made the 1000 mile move with ease, and readily settled into her new life down south.
After moving to Louisiana, I wanted to go to the local animal control shelter, "just to look." I went on a Saturday and the shelter was closed. On a Saturday! Anyway, as I was standing in front of the locked door, this little tiny scraggly yellow kitten came running and mewing towards me from lord-knows-where (the ditch, the bushes, I have no idea -- I just saw him running). Of course I started to cry and knew I couldn't leave him there. He was full of every parasite and problem a homeless kitten could have, but I nursed him back to health (he really liked his ringworm baths and haircuts!) and he's now a happy healthy handsome young man.
Next is Abbey. She was one of two kittens living in a barn at the racetrack. One morning she was found with her right arm and right side of her head/face swollen and painful. There were no other signs of trauma (cuts, bleeding, etc.) so the best we could figure was that a horse either stepped or lied down on her (ouch!). I gave her some pain medicine and took some x-rays. Luckily nothing was broken and she responded well to rest and time. It was decided that she might not make a very good barn cat, so I adopted her. She still has a funny way of going, I'm pretty sure the muscles and ligaments that attach her right arm to her body wall were stretched and torn, but she doesn't seem to have any nerve damage, and of course being a kitten she has bounced back just fine!