Kristi called with a question while I was away from the clinic. She needed help finding a Rabies tag number for a patient no longer in our computer system.
“Sure, that’s easy. What’s the tag number?” I said, and she gave me the number.
“Something’s not right,” I replied. “That’s only a four-digit number.”
“I’m looking at the tag and I can see all of the digits and there are four. It’s a 1995 tag,” Kristi offered.
“Oh,” I said, in disbelief. “We have to go into ancient history mode, then.”
It turned out that this little Pomeranian, named Susie, truly had not seen a veterinarian since 1995, was 15 years old and was wandering around the neighborhood unsupervised.
The nice lady who found her called and brought her in to have her scanned for a microchip.
Of course, there was none.
How very sad that someone initially took this pet into his home, promising to care for her, then let her be neglected for 14 years. How much sadder it would have been if her life had ended there in her own street.
Thanks for a Good Samaritan neighbor, that didn’t happen.
How we care for our pets and our children says a lot about us. When our children see that pets are disposable to us, they grow up feeling the same way about future pets they may have.
We can do better. We can teach our children that dogs and cats are living creatures with feelings, that they get sick if they’re not medically cared for, and that they need love and attention in addition to fresh food and clean water.
We can do better than what little Susie got.
See you Monday, Dr. Randolph
