My Sister, the Veterinarian

My oldest sister loved animals when she was growing up. She had her own horse, which she rode in horse shows and my mother was very permissive in letting her keep a whole menagerie of animals at our house – bunnies, cats, dogs, guinea pigs, hamsters, fish, and parakeets. She decided she wanted to be a veterinarian, and she used to tell me regularly her favourite statistic that 90% of persons who know what they want to be before they go to a university will achieve their career goals. This was in stark contrast to me at the time, because I had no idea what I wanted to be.

However, my sister’s love of all things veterinarian came to a standstill when she learned that veterinarians have to do very well in math and science, 2 subjects at which my sister was very weak. So, instead she got a degree in business. After working in human resources for some years, my sister divorced her husband and married a man who made quite a bit more money than her ex-husband did. This allowed her to live the life of a stay-at-home mom. Or rather, I should say a stay-at-home mom who breeds cats. As it turned out, my sister actually prefers the activities of a cat-breeder to a veterinarian. She has kittens in her house almost all year long, and she doesn’t have to cut open any animals or stick her hand up to her elbow inside a cow. She has to deal with the occasion still-birth, or sick kitten, but those occasions are rare. I often think that this is the animal-related life she really wanted all those years ago, when she said she wanted to be vet.

My sister reminds me a lot of April Patterson in For Better or For Worse. She also likes riding horses, and she has had dogs and bunnies as pets. Moreover, April Patterson has seen the veterinary life including the animal surgeries and still wants to do it. Well, she thinks so. Not totally. Stuff could change. But we’ll see. It’s what she’s interested in. She is sort of leaning in that direction. OK. My sister was a lot more certain than April Patterson. April Patterson’s success will obviously depend on the idea that a Patterson can do whatever they want, without actually going the same steps everyone else does (see Mike’s book submission, Mike and Liz’s job-hunting, etc. for examples).

April says she has checked out what she needs to do to be a veterinarian; but this is Lynn Johnston really doing the writing, so we know she really hasn’t. A quick internet search showed me this information from the University of Winnipeg Pre-Veterinary School:

In addition to meeting The University of Winnipeg’s general admission requirements, you must have Chemistry 40S and either Pre-Calculus Mathematics 40S or Applied Mathematics 40S in order to take the required courses for admission to veterinary medicine. Physics 40S and Pre-Calculus Mathematics 40S may also be required, depending on the courses you select.

If I were April, I would take all 4 courses, just to be sure all my bases were covered. If I were Lynn Johnston, I would have a little chat with my former sister-in-law Beth Cruikshank, the veterinarian, and ask the question about what a kid in high school would really need to do to prepare for a pre-vet school application. If I were the guys on the field in today’s For Better or For Worse strip, I would tell April about the joys of crossing your legs or putting your knees together when you wear a short skirt, particularly in panel 3. It looks like she is wearing black panties to me.