My dear friends Gene and Joye came in with their kitty, Tiger Lilly today. Lilly was sneezing, but otherwise seemed fine.
We examined Lilly and she had no fever, no congestion and no abnormal heart sounds. Indeed, she seemed like a normal little kitty with some sneezing.
As a precaution, and because she hadn’t had any labwork in almost six years, we decided to draw blood.
But Lilly wasn’t on board for that. Lilly likes things her way. At which points she’s a little more “Tiger.”
So Lilly got a little sedative first, and the blood draw went fine.
To get the sedative in, Gene had to hold the back feet, Joye had to hold one front foot with a towel, my assistant Kristi held Lilly’s head and other front foot and I gave the injection intravenously.
After which, Joye announced, “Doc, in my next career I’m coming to work for you. But, I’m going to just do paperwork, I can’t take the animal-handling part.”
It’s just like people sometimes ask me, “How do you do it?”
The answer is simple, “Somebody has to. And I’m fortunate enough to be that ‘somebody’. Without me, “Fluffy” doesn’t have a chance. And the reward I get is seeing Fluffy happy and the people who love Fluffy happy. And, from that, I get to be happy, too. Some days I feel like I get the biggest reward of all.”
I agree! I sometimes find it hard to explain how I do some of the things I do and how I do my job in the hardest of times such as when “Fluffy” has lived a long joyous life that must be celebrated with nothing more than unconditional love and memories that make us smile yet we find our eyes watering and all I can say is “I don’t know..it just comes natural.” It takes special people to do what we do. It seems in times we have to keep our hearts yet set them aside and make hard calls on what’s best for each and every pet. We help people through their animals. There is no greater reward than that.
Your tech!
Kristi