working working working

So I've gotten to the point where I'm working so much that I'm not being very productive.  But deadlines and live animals do not wait!  I have one week to finish revising my paper that was accepted for publication.  I have my fish to take care of daily...this is a constant stress as I worry my fish will all be belly up before the end of my experiment.  And I will be helping with a field ecology course in the Catlins the first week on Feb.  During which I will leaving my fish in the hands of a couple of labmates...scary!  Robert has promised me we can drive everyday to find cell phone reception so I can check in on my fishes.   After so many weeks, the chances of a disease hitting my tanks increases...a constant worry!  I can't wait until it is over!  Then maybe I can take some weekends off this summer!

Kitty kitty kitty

So here's the kitty living under our house.

I think she's been there for a couple of months.  She is extremely skittish and would run on any encounter with a human.  I started feeding her earlier this week.   She warmed up to me quickly!  I came home early yesterday to meet the guy putting a new window in.  I scared her when I walked into the garden but then she realized who I was and came back to watch me.  I went and got her some food and she let me pet her (I didn't see any fleas) and even let me pick her up!  She laid by the back door when I was in the house.  Her hair has been cut with a scissors in the past so she's obviously belonged to someone in the past...I'm guessing a student let her go at the end of the school year in Nov.  Anson says he'll more than likely be allergic since it's a long-haired cat.  I'm going to try to find it a home else I guess I could try to keep it as an outside cat but I think it will need a warmer place to sleep in the winter.  Maybe I can come up with some sort of outdoor cat box.  I don't know.

My officemates

Rebecca, Anson, me and Robert on our new couch

Tagging fish

Common bully in anaesthetic

Fish in my home-made fish-holding device

Now I'm injecting a tag...which is soft when I inject it but then hardens into a plastic-like line of color.  The color and location of the tag determines the fish number.

Then they get a day to recover and I infect them with my parasite.