Nice People

Toby, enjoying Dr. Bean's gift from a client 

Welcome back to the blog-

Summer is gone, and things are a little slower at the clinic. That leaves us more time to talk to you about the things that go on here (as well as digging up some ghosts from my past, on occasion). It feels good to be back.

I wanted to dedicate this installment of the blog to some folks who have been exceptionally generous to us lately. The things that they’ve done have brightened up some rough days. I don’t normally name names in the blog, but I’ll make an exception for this one. There are some folks in this world that make life better, and they never get any press. Nice people deserve some recognition.

A few weeks ago, Mr. Thomason came to the clinic with his dog, Freedom. Freedom is a beautiful blue merle Australian Shepherd. She came in with some GI upset that, in the end, turned out not to be life threatening- despite the fact that she did lose some blood. When she first came in, I was admiring her owner’s Thundercats t-shirt. Thundercats was one of my favorite cartoons as a kid. I even had the comic books. Well, a couple of weeks after Freedom’s troubles were over, Mr. Thomason showed up with a thank-you card and a Thundercats shirt for me.  It rocks.  I wear it when I pick up my kids at school, despite the fact that only the parents have any idea who the Thundercats are.

We’ve got a couple of clients who bring in a healthy dose of humor.  Mr. Woodrow usually snips out anything animal related and funny from the newspaper and shares it with us when he comes in.  We always enjoy circulating them among the staff.

Ms. Kenny, a clever woman with an artistic bent, came in to get one of her pets checked out the other day. When the appointment was over, she said  “Hey, I’ve got something for you.”  From under her chair, she pulled out a bright blue, doll-sized stool.

I was puzzled.

“I know it’s kind of small, not like a real stool… it’s more like a stool sample.” she said.

I had to laugh. You can see the "stool sample" above in the picture with Toby.

Food is always a big hit at Branchville Animal Hospital.

The Cole family has a pack of small, white Chihuahuas. It might be more appropriate to call them a herd. They’ve been coming in for years. In the Cole household, there are some very accomplished dessert chefs- their creations rival what you see on the Food Network. They’ve sent so much sugary goodness our way in the past few weeks that we’re starting to wonder if they bought stock in an insulin manufacturer.

We get a lot of fresh produce as well.  One day last week, I came back from lunch and found a bushel of peas, a dozen ears of corn, and a sack full of banana and jalapeno peppers in my office. I had no idea where it came from.  As it turns out, some of the clinic neighbors, the Wilsons, put a bug in the ear of one of their friends, Mr. Honeycutt.  They had told him how much I had enjoyed the Wilsons’ produce that Mr. Honeycutt decided to bring me some as well.  Mr. Honeycutt and his dog have been coming in for seven years now- their first visit was right at a month after we opened. I had no idea that he was an accomplished gardener until last week.

One last specific instance:

One day, we had had a particularly bad morning. We had been working with a couple of families saying goodbye to pets after long illnesses. We also had some first time clients angry with their neighbors over what could be a poisoning case.  The receptionists (the most difficult job in the clinic, by the way) had been dealing with this high-pressure environment- helping some grieve and helping to calm frayed nerves.

We finally got things slowed down when Mr. Pike came through the front door, laden with fresh tomatoes from Sand Mountain. The mood changed instantly. It was a miracle of timing. Later on that day, I was looking at the big brown box full of bright red tomatoes in the clinic break room and thinking: just when you start to lose faith in humanity, in walks Mr. Pike with a box of tomatoes.

Good people are everywhere. I feel lucky that so many of them choose to come see us.

-RAB