The Fecal Check Was the Least Expensive Part of it.

 

Chandler will be thirteen sometime in April. My puppy is now an old man. He has an old man hacking cough, and an old man's gait. He also does not like to go outside much anymore. He will hold his pee for sixteen hours if he has to, just so he doesn't have to go down and up those stairs again. Same reason I wait until the garbage in the kitchen is overflowing. Yesterday I took him to the vet for his rabies shot that was due. This was the second time I've taken him to the vet since all this covid19 crap started, so I knew what the rules were. I am not allowed in. Instead, I have to open the glass door of the vestibule and leave Chandler in there. As soon as I walk away, the tech opens the inside door and retrieves Chandler. Chandler does not like it. I know it has to be done, but I don't like it either. Not being in there with him means that I don't know what the hell is going on. I just have to take their word for it. So I sit in the car waiting for them to call me on the phone and tell me that Chandler is ready. 

The phone rings and it is the vet. He wants to do blood work on Chandler. Fine, I tell him. A little later the phone rings again. It's the vet and he wants to trim Chandler's nails. Good idea. He pretty much skates around our hardwood floors on those things, so I say yes. Finally, it is all over. My phone rings and the girl in the office tells me that Chandler is in the vestibule, I can come and get him. She also tells me that the vet bill will be four hundred dollars. Once again, the bill is at least a hundred dollars more than I expect. I gasp, and then give her my debit card number. Of course I do.