Hooray for spring!

I'm so happy that spring is finally upon us! The last push of classwork ended this week, and I'm VERY excited about finishing the website and updating my etsy shops with new products!

I did well in school this semester and my research focus is tightening a little bit. For the scientifically-minded, I'm going to run an ELISA next week and look for mammalian cytokine homologues in our oyster model. Very fun!

I have adopted a new dog, although his tenure at my home may be temporary. He's a black lab, 90 pounds, and so far he gets along well with my dog with the exception of some food and toy aggression. I have solved that by reinforcing my dog's role as the pack leader and by feeding them separately. What is more pressing is that he is hell bent on chasing my cats when they turn their backs on him. For instance, if I let him in the house, he will run at them until he hits the wall at the back of the house, hitting it with a smack. He's way too rough when playing with them. He has sniffed noses a few times with them and I've been reinforcing any behavior on his part when he is calm around them. I know that prey drive isn't necessarily something you can train out of an older dog, so I'm going to try it a little bit longer and see what happens. If it's obvious that he can't be housed with them, his previous owners are going to send him to a Labrador rescue. While this would make me sad, I know that they will be very strict on whom they give him to and he will find a good home where there are no cats to aggravate him.

Well I have to run but I'll blog some more later about everything that's going on!