Today I saw a new client. A young couple arrived with a very sick eight-week-old puppy of indeterminate breed. The pup was clearly dying. The couple was tearful as they explained that this was not their dog. It was their neighbor’s. The neighbor was not taking care of a litter of unexpected puppies and most of them were sick and dying.

It was an excruciatingly sad story. The upshot: They...

Saturday. Waiting to get the day started and expecting Miss Brown’s potential new owner to arrive. This once-stray puppy has been with us three weeks now and she needs a permanent home. Sitting in a cage is doing nothing for her home training.

Miss Brown’s leg, two and a half weeks post-op, is now in great shape. To see this puppy run around comfortable, it’s scary to think what a few more...

Friday. My day off. Went to the hospital to check on my patients, take care of phone calls and pick up my check (let’s not forget that).

On finishing up with my patients, I noticed that one of yesterday’s patients was still in hospital when she should have gone home for the night. The file read: "client insecure about diagnosis; wants a second opinion from another doctor; keep overnight for...

A beautiful Thursday in Miami. A slow day. Lots of cute, fluffy pets with no problems.

Except…

…for the poor little ferret with a horrific eye tumor. It’s been a long time since I saw such a horrible thing. How sad—ferrets seem to get a disproportionate share of the cancers in this world. Perhaps they were never meant to live as long as they do. They get such great nutrition and enjoy such a...

A docile stray cat was "donated" to the hospital on Monday with a big, swollen belly and five, fully formed skeletons in her belly on X-ray.

She’s pregnant and the kittens were pretty well cooked. We didn’t have the heart to spay her that day and abort kittens that would likely be ready to breathe and suckle. I’ve been known to perform a great many abortions, but none so late in gestation. It...

Back in Miami but technically not back to work yet. I couldn’t help making my way over to the office for a check on the Miss Brown situation. And my sneaking suspicion was confirmed: Miss Brown, the sweet brown and white pup of last week’s drama (badly broken leg with a non-responsive pseudo-owner situation) was still there. Legally, this is known as "abandonment." Although convinced I could...

I’m off to the beautiful Arizona desert on a boondoggle sponsored by the good people at Pfizer Animal Health. They’ve been kind enough to have me along while my significant other attends his specialist-only seminar. I’m a lowly general practitioner so I’m typically not considered perk-worthy. Luckily I’m cute and helpful and I’m a good cruise director, so I get invited back in spite of my...

March 16th, 2006

A working Friday with a lot of work ahead. I have quite a few dental procedures today. It sometimes amazes me how much of my daily effort goes into dentistry. I’ve had to acquire a taste for it—I’ve had no choice, really. One of my colleagues at my hospital is a dentistry freak. He performs root canals, installs crowns, and chastises the other two of us whenever we fail to...

March 15th

It’s the Ides of March and I actually saw a pet named Brutus today. His owner was not unaware of the irony in naming his loyal dog after a notorious traitor. He was even amused when I pointed out the poetic quality in subjecting Brutus to a round of vaccines on this, of all days.

I’ve always been convinced that high school math teachers have unusual, sadistic impulses the rest of us...

Sweet Garth Martinez, named for, you guessed it, Mr. Brooks himself. Unfortunately, Garth is as old as his namesake’s first hit song. And Garth, an arthritic Golden Retriever, is currently incapable of moving easily outside of anything that may be considered a low place. He’s having some trouble getting up from a down position.

Rimadyl has helped him some but it seems Metacam does more for him...