Pet To The Vet
A friend of mine from work recently took his dog to the vet to have a tumor removed. It required that he take some time off of work. The dog is a 10 year old lab and this was the second time around for tumor removal surgery. When they got her prepped for the surgery, they found several other tumors and it was agreed that those would also be removed. Now my friend is married and does not have any children. His dogs are the surrogate children of the house. It strikes me as unusual that someone would devote that much time, attention, and money to an animal. My background does not provide such a nurturing environment for pets.
Growing up, we always had dogs around. At one time we had 20 dogs at our house. It was two litters of puppies along with the adults my father was training. He used fox terriers to hunt squirrel and beagles to hunt rabbits and was always training one or the other in their selected professions. He was his own vet and also provided that service to the neighbors on request. If a dog was sick, he treated it. If it did not get better, he did not take it to a professional and spend money on it. That was for humans and doctors. These were not pets. They were animals and you did not spend needlessly on or miss work for them. That has always been the perception in the back of my mind.
Of course I have grown into a different perspective. I love and enjoy my dogs and make sure that they have good medical care. I am not sure how far I would go down the line for surgery. I guess it would be a matter of what it was for and the quality of life afterward. We had our first dog put down (she was 14 years old) after she continued to fall off of the back steps when she went outside to use the bathroom. Her quality of life was poor as she was almost blind and totally deaf. It was still hard to put her down but you have to ask if that is how you would want to live. In the end, we made the right decision. Our two new additions to the family are an enjoyment to our daily lives. I guess that is what pets are, unconditional loving children. I wish the same could be said for the two legged ones.
Icool
Cobb
Growing up, we always had dogs around. At one time we had 20 dogs at our house. It was two litters of puppies along with the adults my father was training. He used fox terriers to hunt squirrel and beagles to hunt rabbits and was always training one or the other in their selected professions. He was his own vet and also provided that service to the neighbors on request. If a dog was sick, he treated it. If it did not get better, he did not take it to a professional and spend money on it. That was for humans and doctors. These were not pets. They were animals and you did not spend needlessly on or miss work for them. That has always been the perception in the back of my mind.
Of course I have grown into a different perspective. I love and enjoy my dogs and make sure that they have good medical care. I am not sure how far I would go down the line for surgery. I guess it would be a matter of what it was for and the quality of life afterward. We had our first dog put down (she was 14 years old) after she continued to fall off of the back steps when she went outside to use the bathroom. Her quality of life was poor as she was almost blind and totally deaf. It was still hard to put her down but you have to ask if that is how you would want to live. In the end, we made the right decision. Our two new additions to the family are an enjoyment to our daily lives. I guess that is what pets are, unconditional loving children. I wish the same could be said for the two legged ones.
Icool
Cobb
posted by Cobb at
6:29 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home