It’s not long since the July issue of the DierenAmbulance Nederrijn magazine was published, and here we are already preparing for the next issue due out in November! That means I’ve already done a full year in the team. Well done me!
Warm Welcome
I missed my shift last week when I was on holiday, but I got the best welcome when I turned up on site. OK, second best. The best would be a dog running up to me because he missed me so much for being away. In this case I made do with a human who said the same (more or less…probably less!). Thankfully she didn’t slobber all over me!
Time Ahead
This is going to be a very exciting year ahead for me because I’ll be starting my paraveterinary training. It’s not much time in the classroom, but it’s a lot of time on internships. And I’m conscious that as a mature wise student I might need extra time to prepare for / post-process my class notes. All this next to my animal ambulance shift which I’d love to keep going. And possibly a side-job to bring in a couple of euros. In short – how much time will I have to research and write articles for the magazine?
With this in mind, I let the team know I’d look for some interesting rescues to write about, but limit myself to just one article. They understood.
Planning
There were already several ideas for articles, so it was a simple matter of volunteering for them and putting our names alongside the titles on the planning sheet.
I volunteered to write about preparing animals for noisy and flashing fireworks. (The Netherlands has introduced a consumer firework ban effective from just over a week ago. One of the reasons for this is to reduce loud explosions which terrify pets. How effective this ban will be through the new year’s celebrations (a period during which the magazine will be read) isn’t known yet – bearing in mind that another reason for the ban is to reduce idiots (my words) deliberately setting fireworks off aimed towards paramedics and other emergency workers.
Team Support
In my enthusiasm I also volunteered for some other interesting articles (and added a couple more suggestions), but I was nudged. “You’re only doing 1 article, Paul!”
“If you want something done, ask a busy person to do it.” – a few people (but it was my Dad who told me!)
Or ask them not to! 😉
I’m really glad my team mates are looking out for me! So I won’t be writing much – though I will be looking into what rescues I can write about. The slight catch is that their format needs to be short and news-like. Whilst I think that’s rather dry and dull, it’s the preferred manner, and besides, I’ll be able to submit more of them!
Looking Ahead
By the time this issue is finalised and published, I’ll have been in training for a couple of months and have a better handle on how much time I’ll have to write. Maybe I’ll write about something I’ve learned!
