u/CriticalEmployee02

Took the Cloud Institute course around last July, but had some personal stuff come up so I ended up rescheduling the exam a few times. I ran through a few online practice tests and used Copilot to help me study. The actual exam took me about 20 minutes, and then I spent another 20 minutes going back through my answers just to be safe.

I work in AWS every day, so none of it felt new. I’ve got A+ and Sec+. I work in Cybersecurity and pretty much wear every hat: IT Admin, Sysadmin, Helpdesk, ISSO, and DevSecOps.

Which exam should I take next?

On Tuesday, my wife was taking our pup outside and I was about to join them. Since the weather warmed up, all the critters have been out—and we’ve had a groundhog living under our porch. Well, our doge Lily decided it was a brilliant idea to run straight up to it and bite its neck. We freaked out. My wife and I fall asleep to boring YouTube videos, and one recently went into detail about how terrifying rabies is, so that didn’t help our nerves.

Since Lily was due for her vaccines anyway, my wife called the vet. They said we could bring her in the next morning. The groundhog didn’t bite her and she didn’t draw blood, so that was a relief. The next day we took her in, and even though she was an anxious mess, she handled her shots like a champ.

When we got home, we let her rest and went to pick up our groceries. Thank goodness it was curbside pickup and not a full shopping trip, because when we got back, Lily’s face was double its normal size. Instant panic. We rushed her 40 minutes to the emergency vet. They gave her Benadryl and a steroid, and she’s been on Benadryl every 8 hours since. The swelling is gone now.

This dog has given us plenty of heart attacks, but this one was the worst. Just wanted to share a little PSA: Shibas absolutely have a mind of their own, keep your doge vaccinated, and try to stay calm when things get scary.

I attached a pic of what she normally looks like and her face while we rushed her to the ER vet.