So I was at the vet yesterday to get annual shots for the dogs. I normally take them in one at a time because their shots stagger a bit but I had them both because I wanted to make sure they were absolutely as up to date a they could be since we are going to be boarding them over the Thanksgiving holiday.
Our dogs have completely different reactions when they walk in the door of the vet. Kumo thinks that the vet is Dog Disneyland. Everybody takes the time to scratch your ears and your butt and there are treats and chicken baby food and it’s all about MEEEEEEEEE! He goes in tail wagging and smelling all the things and talking to anything that moves. Danica, who doesn’t really enjoy being loved on by people that aren’t Her People, thinks that the vet is highly over rated and it’s stupid people touching her and WHO ASKED YOU TO TOUCH ME JERK and NO I DON’T CARE IF YOU HAVE CHICKEN BABY FOOD STOP TOUCHING ME JERK.
I have no problem dealing with each of the dog’s individual personality quirks when I have them in there one at a time and had we been in the waiting room alone (which is the case 99.9% of the time I’m there) I think it would have been fine. Of course this time since I had both dogs it was also the .01% of the time that the waiting room was not empty. It was full of KIDS. OUT OF CONTROL KIDS.
From the second I walked in the door the kids were all over the place. Kumo LOVES IN ALL CAPS all kids. They are at his level so the perfect height to face lick and most kids love dogs and want to hug them and scratch them and throw things for them so they were pretty much the icing on top of the Vet Cake for him. Danica was like GREAT. KIDS. GET OFF MY LAWN. So Kumo was off the wall excited and Danica was tying to hide between my legs.
I was annoyed before I had even spoken to the receptionist to check them in. I had to wait longer than normal to be taken back, probably a total of 10 minute. In that time the mom had to tell the girl (4 or 5 years old) to share toys with her brother (around 2ish) about 10 times. The little boy took his shoes off at least 7 time which she’d scold. He was throwing the pencils and highlighter caps from the kid’s table which was getting Kumo all hyped up because CHASE ALL THE THINGS. They were both complaining about being hungry and she had nothing left for them to eat. Then at one point the boy went to throw something AT Kumo but I stopped him politely and she looked at me with a little bit of shame and a little bit of horror. As I was pulling my phone out to complain about these GOODDAMN KIDS to Facebook they called me back to the room. It never really dawned on me that they were in the waiting room with no dog.
Our visit with the vet was perfect. Both dogs are doing great and we were done in less than 10 minutes. On the way out the door the vet mentioned to the tech in the room that he needed to get back to the “dog that got into drugs”. I didn’t think much about it till I was at the counter paying a few minutes later and the vet went into the waiting room to talk to the lady with the kids and I could hear their conversation.
Her dog was the one that had gotten into drugs. The charcoal treatment seemed to be working but the dog must have eaten something that was causing a blockage and if it didn’t clear up soon they were going to have to operate to remove the obstruction. Is that what she wanted? It would be expensive. I could her her choke back tears as she told the vet to do whatever he needed to do to save the dog while I could just see her son’s shoe fly through the air over the front counter.
And I felt like a complete asshole.
I try to be good about not assuming why people are acting the way they are. The checker at the grocery store has a life outside of work, the old lady who won’t get out of your way might just be lonely, the waitress might be on her second job of the day with schoolwork still to do when she gets done with her 18 hour work day, and the mom in the waiting room of the vet’s office who can’t seem to control her kids might have a beloved pet dying in the next room.
I don’t know how her dog is. Maybe I’ll ask the next time I go in. As I left I walked out the front instead of the back which is the way you’re supposed to go. I let Kumo distract her son for a few minutes so she could finish talking to the vet then gave her an “I’m so sorry and I’m totally giving you a hug in my mind” smile. I hope she understood. I think she did.