One of the reasons I love my job

Occasionally I am asked to speak with school kids about what it takes to become a vet. I ask these kids why they want to be a vet or work within the veterinary field, most frequent I get "I love animals".  Not really surprising.  What I try to impress upon these young people is that veterinary medicine is not just about the animal.  Important as the animal is to the career, equally and most likely one of the most important aspects of my job is the love for the people that come attached to the animal.  The critter doesn't walk in by itself off the street for care, each one of these pets are a beloved member of a family, and come in to my clinic attached to a human being.

I can give you hundreds of examples of how it is the people that walk through our door at the Animal Care Center that is the driving force for why I love my job.  But here is just one example that happened two days ago.

Wednesday, I visited a local hobby breeder of St. Bernard's.  The state requires that I visit the breeding facility (usually their home) at least annually.  This particular breeder not only raises quality and well socialized puppies, they also are active grandparents of some delightful young boys, and have been daycare providers for their grandsons since they were babies.  I often see these boys in my clinic when their grandmother brings puppies in for health checks before they are sold.  A six and three year old greeted me enthusiastically when I arrived in the drive-way.  They had lots to share with me.  Eli, the 6 year old, is quite the artist and always draws me pictures to take home with me.  This day he was carrying with him a small box that contained about two dozen green immature walnuts that he had picked from a low lying branch of a walnut tree that is near an outside pen for one of the dogs.  He was telling me of his intent to collect the walnuts and sell them.  It reminded me of when my brothers and I thought we were going to get rich off just the same venture when we were kids.  I shared this memory with him and told him that he was going to have to pick a lot of walnuts!  Anyway...as I was getting ready to leave and heading to my truck, Eli ran after me and asked if I would buy his walnuts for $5.00.  He was quite the salesman because he was telling me all the things that you could make with walnuts; I shared a few extra ones with him like putting walnuts in fudge and brownies. I asked to see his walnuts again; they were pretty puny looking.  I looked in my wallet and happened to have two one dollar bills.  I asked him if he would take $2.00 for them.  He was elated!  A bargain was struck, he gave me the box, thanked me and took the money and ran!

A professional service that normally would have only taken me about 30 minutes to perform took me an hour, because I just had to take the time the visit and build a memory of my own with these boys.  It was a great way to end my day!

P.S.  When I got back to town, I went by the grocery store, bought two brownie mixes and a package of walnuts (the ones Eli sold me were not ripe enough to use) and that night I made up a big batch of walnut filled brownies.  I took them to work with me Thursday and am currently waiting for Eli to come in with grandma (she is going to use our fax machine) so that I can give him the finished product for his walnut picking enterprise.  I also hung up on our bulletin board two pen drawn pictures of trucks personally autographed by Eli!

OOHH!!  AAAHH!!

Just down the road from my house are two fireworks stands.  I personally know the people hosting these stands and know that they are dog lovers,  and certainly I wish for them a bumper year in fireworks sales.  However much we humans enjoy the glory and beauty of the holiday, our four legged family members do not always agree that it is a treat.

Hannah, my Jack Russell Terrier, thinks that those fireworks that jump around on the ground are the coolest neon colored critters in the world, and her vermin killing instincts kick in and she races to catch the noisy little bugs and kill them dead!  So needless to say, when we fire off the works, she is either tied up or kenneled up in the house so that she cannot quickly chase down and scoop up a burning firecracker in her mouth.

Meade, our service dog puppy in training, last year only watched the colors through the sky with passive interest, ignoring all the bangs and pops.  It will be interesting to see what she thinks this year.  

We had a Rat Terrier, Cookie, that didn't like the noise and would hide under our lawn chairs, shivering and really preferred being safe and quiet in his kennel in the house.

My point is that not all pets think that the Fourth of July is a wonderful time to be a part of your family fun.  Every year I get phone calls and visits from parents of these pets for sedatives so their pets won't be trying to dig a hole in the floor to hide from the noise.  So I encourage those of you that have these fretful  critters to provide your pet with a quiet place to chill out while you enjoy the celebration.  Play some Mozart on the stereo (music can be calming)and turn it up loud, spend some time playing and exercising with your dog before the nightly event (tires them out and relaxes them...they may be ready for a nap),  and if your dog is kennel/crate trained, confine them in their special bedroom.

Working to keep you entertained and informed

For quite some time I have given thought to starting a blog with the purpose of helping my clients keep abreast of good veterinary medicine and care for their pets and offer a venue for clients to express their thoughts and ideas.  Like a lot of different projects of mine (thinking of a quilt that I have been working on for 10 years!) practicing medicine and other distractions have gotten in the way and I just haven’t got it done.  In fact, this is probably my millionth time starting.  Like veterinary medicine, the digital world is constantly changing, and I attempting to teach myself how to be more computer literate and ask all of you to bear with me.  Any feedback on content and design will be greatly appreciated. 

With that being said, I first want to express my thanks to all of you that visit the Animal Care Center’s website and facebook page.  The girls at the clinic and I certainly hope that these venues help you in making good decisions about your pets.  We also would like to ask you to recommend these sites to your friends.  The input that we receive from these sites help us to learn how we can better serve you.