One of Those Days

Ya'll ever get one of those days when you know from the start it's gonna be a long one?

This morning I woke up relatively rested and still grinning to myself as I thought about the Simpson's episode last night that featured the music of my all time favorite singer Josh Groban (more on my chance to meet him and talk 'vet' on another day). Things started to go downhill after that.

I was recently gifted with one of those Keurig single-cup coffee makers that uses those little k-cups to make a yummy coffee in funky flavors like vanilla-caramel-nut in mere moments. I can be a bear without my coffee in the morning, so this machine is my guilty little extravagance. Unfortunately, I overestimated the capacity of my also new guaranteed-not-to-spill travel mug (you can see where this is going) causing a flood, albeit a deliciously fragrant flood, on my table. Luckily my nice, please-don't-put-me-in-the-washing-machine tablecloth soaked most of it up for me. One thing about the coffee coming out of these machines...it's HOT. Thus the trip I took to the sink with the overflowing mug resulted in a lot of 'son-of-a-#$$#$'s' and 'hot! hot! hot! hot!'s) (i'm in the mood to hyphen today). After dumping out some of the steaming contents and fitting the leak proof lid, I prepared Bubba, my 13 year old Argentine Horned Frog for his trip to the daycare centre. Some of my zoo earns their living spending time in various classrooms, giving the kids something to ooh and aww over and hopefully teaching them about responsible pet ownership.

As I was carrying Bubba's enclosure up the stairs, I heard a 'thunk' in the kitchen..never a good sound. Timber, my Samoyed you met before in the 'how-to-destroy-a-house' post (and whose mug is in this year's Christmas photo above) had been counter surfing, smelling the piece of polish sausage that was in my bag and slated for my lunch. His nose had managed to scoot my travel mug off of the counter and onto my favorite chicken-themed throw rug. Off came the lid. So much for no-spill. The chickens were wading in a growing sea of coffee. This was, of course, my own fault for leaving something tasty so close to the edge of the counter! Regardless, I was now running out of time, so the rug would have to wait until I got home and I still hadn't had my caffeine fix.

After dropping off Bubba, I walked into the clinic only to be told that one of my favorite patients (ok, so I have a lot of favorite patients) had died over the weekend. Now I was bummed. Things were ok for a little while as my first couple of appointments were some adorable bunnies in for routine care. Then a name went up on the board that made me groan. (All the appointments are listed on a dry erase board in the pharmacy area so we have an idea of how the day will go) It's a psychotic little chihuahua who apparently ticked off her larger spaniel house mate one too many times. That's called BDLD (big dog little dog syndrome to the uninitiated). 'Thor' (these little guys inevitably have names which reflect their personality vs their physical size) is one of those chihuahuas that rules the roost. They tend to be aggressive towards their owners and other dogs. Also typically, once you get them away from their owners and they clue in that you're not willing to put up with same shenanigans their mommy does, they're quite good to work with. It's frustrating though, because often the owners will think it's hilarious when the dog tries to attack you in the exam room and can't believe that, or aren't willing to accept that, both the dog and those it has to interact with would be much happier if the human and not the dog was the leader of their family pack. (Don't get me started..I'll get off of my soap-box now). Luckily for Thor, he had escaped with only a couple tiny puncture marks which I clipped up and cleaned. Evidently thankful for my care, he bared his teeth and tried to bite me the minute I handed him back to his owner. Sigh.

Next up was a Shih Tzu that was ADR (Ain't Doin' Right...you're learning so many new things today!). One of the most important parts of any physical exam is the patient history. I asked the owner when she had first noticed the problem. "Oh, it started when he boarded here at the hospital. He just hasn't been the same since." Hmm...the last time this dog stayed with us was 2 YEARS AGO! Okaaaaaaaaay.... I couldn't find anything wrong on his physical exam, but owners know their pets the best, so perhaps there was some systemic problem that wasn't jumping out at me. I suggested we run some bloodwork to give us some info on how the internal bits were doing. That's when the owner decided that, "You know, he really seems to have been doing better the last few days..." I smiled and nodded while mentally banging my head on the exam room table.

My next patient was an extremely wiggly cat that I see routinely for nail trims. The owner is never happy about something: the clipper's aren't sharp enough, I'm not cutting the nails short enough. Personally I'm happy to get the job done at all as the owner insists on holding the cat himself, but not too tight mind you. Today the cat was having none of it and, just to keep up the theme of the day, I clipped a nail too short and had to apply some styptic powder to stop the bleeding. The owner, who keeps up a running commentary through these visits, informed me that I wasn't doing a very good job today. I'm getting really tired of smiling and nodding. My left eyelid started to twitch..a sure sign I'm stressed.

Around 4 pm, after skipping lunch trying to get caught up on everything from the weekend, I realized I was getting tired..and cranky, and I was booked solid from 4:30 to 7 pm. I sat at my desk for a few minutes and tried to channel some positive energy. Caesar Milan would have been proud..

For whatever reason, things went a bit better in the evening. I saw one family whose 9 year old, pony-tailed daughter rocked back and forth on her heels while she shyly asked how old she had to be to volunteer because she really wanted to be a vet when she grew up. She looked at me worshipfully and it made me stop and think. When I was her age, I'd wanted to be a vet too. I can't honestly remember ever wanting to be anything else. And here I am today, having fulfilled that dream and, even aside from the bad bits, loving every day at work. I'd lost sight of that this morning. When I offered to let her come watch a surgery, her eyes widened and she thought that yes, she might like that....when she's a little older!

Another family arrived with their pet rat in tow. They were kind and concerned and the whole family was involved in their furry friend's care. They were grateful they had managed to find someone willing to see their rodent. Even the kids thanked me as they left. OK...so things were definitely looking up.

On the way home in the dark, after the last files had finally been written on, I drove by an accident on the small highway that takes me from the clinic to the peace of my country home. There were flashing red lights and ambulances everywhere. A snow machine had t-boned a car while crossing the road and I worried for whomever had been driving the snowmobile..it was destroyed. It was a sobering scene and made me realize that, no matter how bad my day may ever get, someone, somewhere is likely having a far worse day than me.

Thanks for listening...