Looking for Mr. Goodbark

...has been on my mind lately.  To be clear, she doesn't specialize in female dogs.  She's just a bitch.

She's been on my mind because, well, although I have not yet found my pooch-mate, there is still plenty do to by way of prep work.  One of these things is finding a vet and while I ask around and do office drive-bys, I am remembering the bitch.

About 10 years ago, my beloved bloodhound Beatrice had reached her dotage and, as all large breeds do, was breaking down fast.  Her hips were a mess, she was covered with lypomas, and had suffered a siezure or two which rendered her incontinent.  After spending many thousands of dollars diagnosing that she was getting old, had hip dysplasia, was covered with non-malignant lypomas, and yeah, she had a seizure or two, I looked at the old girl one day and realized that not only had she lost interest in eating, she had indeed lived a long life and were we in the country would wander off to find a tree under which she'd schmooze herself into eternity.  And so I opted for the most painful moment in every dogowner's life: The putdown. 

I take her to the vet who tries to dissuade me saying things like...we haven't tried this...or there are doggie diapers..who knows what she was blabbering.  I was blubbering.  I had put down many dogs before Beatrice but never had I been assaulted with treatment plans at the deathbed like I had this time.  When I steadfastly but politely declined the veternarian's suggestions, she turned cold (when she should have been consoling me, quite frankly), administered the mercy and left the disposal options talk to her assistant. After I collected myself I paid the bill.  The vet passed me at the desk and said, "You know, this could have been avoided."  And I looked at her and said, "F### you."

Because, f### her, you know?  She hadn't lived with Beatrice all her life, loved her the way I did.  No one wanted for Beatrice to live longer than forever than I did...except, perhaps the bitch vet.  Lord knows she would have loved to sell me (and her other patients I'm sure) on some irrelevant, ridiculous therapy that benefitted only her.  I know there are vets out there like that who think nothing of tests and pills and injections that cost thousands which wind up doing nothing more but prolonging the end-stage.  And for every one of those vets, there are tens of us animal owners who take our responsibilities seriously and are realists about the duties of animal keeping.

Just the other day I ran into a friend who's doggie had a bout of diarrhea.  $700 and a couple of bowls of dry food later...all is fine.  If you ask a bunch of us, something's f###ed up about this very common scenario.