Vacation. Nothing to do but snorkel in pristine water with near-perfect visibility. Not a cloud in the sky. Explored vast beds of coral smothered in fish. Too many barracuda but, save that, nary a complaint was lodged. Boated back to our borrowed Key Largo bedroom and dined on fresh-caught Mahi-Mahi and home-made potato salad.

Ahhh. Life is good.

Got up early. Checked on my patients. Everybody’s doing okay. Time to get out of here.

Loaded up the boat and set off for Key Largo in smooth seas and cloudy skies.

Despite the weather, everything worked out perfectly. We even got to see some turtle porn: two sea turtles (Ridleys?) mating in the water. Now this was something I had never seen before.  I guess I never thought about how it was...

Today was supposed to be my day off. I was supposed to be cooking and packing and preparing for a three-day sojourn by boat to Key Largo. Unexpectedly, however, it turned into a nightmare day of talking clients down from their various ledges. I swear, some of these people could drown in a glass of milk.

So here I am, on my day off, mind you, making phone call after phone call trying to keep...

Thursday. It finally had to be done. One of my favorite patients had to be euthanized today. She was a cancer survivor. She had lived for eleven months with a tumor attached to her heart. She’d done amazingly well in spite of it. She’d had surgery once to remove the external lining of the heart (the pericardium) so that fluid accumulating here would not place undue pressure on it. The tumor...

Wednesday. Mushu is doing well. She needed antibiotics, pain relievers, a couple of stitches, and a whole lot of nursing care for the skin infection she’d been fighting for some time now.

In the past week I’ve seen three cases like Mushu's: all old, all feeble, all in need of fire-fighting for their miscellaneous ailments. One Doberman could hardly walk. A Golden had a severe bladder...

Tuesday. Midway through morning appointments someone yells, Emergency! I have an emergency! Please somebody help me!

Okay perhaps I’m exaggerating—but only a tad, really.

I run to the waiting room to triage the patient and there she is: a big, fat, elderly Shar-pei dog with a swollen face standing shakily on all fours.

This, in my opinion, is not a dire emergency. While Mushu will certainly be...

Monday. An orthopedically challenged, elderly gentleman brings in a very large, stumbling red Doberman. They clearly have a special bond between them. No—really. Foxy loves his master—no doubt about it. And the master, for his part, is nearly in tears over the condition he and his pup find themselves in.

Foxy has a neurological condition that makes it very difficult for him to walk without...

Saturday. And someone brought in the foulest smelling [live] cat on the planet. He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named is one of the most annoying, poorly-paying clients we’ve ever had. This is a difficult distinction to have earned where I work, I must assure you.

And now, this Someone wants us to provide life-saving care for this poor, dying creature (said creature having apparently run afoul of the...

Friday. Poor Rex. Rex is a huge Shiloh Shepherd with a skulking, wolf-like walk and an equally nervous disposition when around strangers.

Rex came in yesterday for a routine set of X-rays. He had started limping over the weekend and it had progressed over the course of the week. His knee seemed painful so I was pretty worried that he’d have a cruciate ligament problem (one of the most common...

A very rainy Tuesday. Miami’s hurricane-ravaged roofs (and their tell-tale blue tarps) are finding their way onto tile floors across the county. Life sucks sometimes.

Today I saw one of my longest-standing patients, Polar, with his new mom. Polar was in need of a new one after the original passed away a few months ago. Ever since his loss, Polar has been clingy and depressed. Last month he...