Pet talk

One day on a particularly slow day in private practice, I was sitting at my desk when my receptionist came in and asked me to speak to a very upset caller.  The man on the phone sounded more angry than upset to me as he explained that his dog had died.  He went on to say that he suspected his neighbor of poisioning his dog because they had been at odds for the past several years.  Things between them had escalated until, he said, the neighbor just killed the poor animal.  Being not quite sure of his diagnosis, he asked me if I could examine the dog and determine the cause of death.  “Finally something interesting to do for the afternoon–and all that toxicology would finally come in handy,” I thought!  I had always wanted to solve a mystery just like those guys on TV.  Not thinking my little fantasy through, I gladly accepted the challange and told the man to bring the body in.

The afternoon slipped by pretty quickly after getting in a dog that had been hit by a car so I forgot about the man and his dead dog.  I thought about him that evening though and wondered why a man who was so angry and wanted answers had decided not to bring his dog in?

The next day was much more busy.  We had a full schedule of surgeries to do that morning and I barely finished up before the afternoon appointments began filling up the waiting room.  While in an exam room vaccinating a dog with his yearly shots, my receptionist peeked in the room.  She had the most bewildered look on her face and that alone was enough to tell me that something was wrong.  I quickly finished up the exam and followed her to the exam room in the back.  That was another red flag that told me something wasn’t quite right.  The back exam room was saved for those animals that were either too loud, too agressive, or too smelly, (an encounter with a skunk was the usual cause).  If the animal was in this room, it was going to be unpleasant that’s for sure.

There in the exam room was the man I had spoken to on the phone.  In his hands he held a dirty, open cardboard box.  After introducing myself, I peered into the box expecting to see the dead body of a small dog.  What I found was something totally unexpected: A box of dirty dog parts!  I must have had an estonished look on my face because the man began to explain why he was so late in bringing the body in. 

“First”, he explained, “I forgot exactly where we burried him.”  “Then”, he went on to say, “after we dug him up we couldn’t find all the pieces!”  After some time I found 3 legs and a spine minus the head.  And even those parts were in rough shape as I found out that the dog had been burried for three years!  The man smiled at me and asked when I could have his diagnosis ready?

Of course I explained that I thought the dog had just recently passed away and that not even those guys on TV could determine the cause of death with so little to work with.  He left disappointed.  I learned more about people that day and to always get MUCH more information before accepting a challenge.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 2nd, 2007 at 1:03 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.