We had an interesting experience at the vet yesterday. Took the new dog in for a checkup & shots. The clinic I went to is very cheap, but you wait forever to been seen, as its first come, first serve. Good news is they gave him a clean bill of health and verified he's neutered, which saves us about $100. I ended up getting some heart worm preventative medicine for him, which brought the grand total to about $50, well below what I was afraid I'd end up spending. So as long as he keeps up his sweet temperment and attitude, he has a home. He woke us up this morning about 5am when he started barking like a watch dog (sounded like 100+ lb. Rotweiler instead of a 58lb. Aussie at the front door, waking all of up. I ran into the living room, seeing nothing other than the paper delivery guy.) For those just tuning in, we took in a gorgeous 2-3 year old male red merle Australian Shepherd that one family threatened to shoot becasue they kept trying to get rid of the dog (little girl didn't want to take care of it) and it kept coming back, the second family that took it in couldn't keep due to allergies and (more likely) the upkeep and constant sweeping of his long hair. From what we've seen so far, this seems to be the perfect dog.
Is there another reason why I'm bringing this up as I'm sure you could care less about a vet visit? Of course! Part of the 2 hours I spent there were talking to other people about their pets, typical in a vet office. However, when a woman called Betty and 2 others that climbed out of the rusted out Olds came in, the fun began and the intelligence was sucked out of the room. In a thick backwoods draw, she asked me if that was an Australian Shapherd and I said yes. She asked his name, which for now is Chance. Oh that was a mistake. She went on in a single breath for the next 45 minutes to tell me about every cat and dog she has ever had, bred or rescued, ironically many of which were named Chance, including the one spelled "Chanse". I heard about the cat with a nervous twitch, the pup born without a rectum, the dog that quit breathing and she gave mouth to mouth to, the dog that after sitting on her lap for about 20 minutes bolted out the door, into the street and was hit by a car (probably heard the same story I did and decided to put an end to his misery). All of which I could have gone the rest off my life without knowing. She also had pictures of many of the afore mensioned animals in an album and on her camera cell phone (she has more pictures of her animals than we do of our human kids! She was a very sweet and sincere lady, don't get me wrong. They mean well. She and her 2 friends are the female equivilent to Larry, Darrell & Daryl.
Is there another reason why I'm bringing this up as I'm sure you could care less about a vet visit? Of course! Part of the 2 hours I spent there were talking to other people about their pets, typical in a vet office. However, when a woman called Betty and 2 others that climbed out of the rusted out Olds came in, the fun began and the intelligence was sucked out of the room. In a thick backwoods draw, she asked me if that was an Australian Shapherd and I said yes. She asked his name, which for now is Chance. Oh that was a mistake. She went on in a single breath for the next 45 minutes to tell me about every cat and dog she has ever had, bred or rescued, ironically many of which were named Chance, including the one spelled "Chanse". I heard about the cat with a nervous twitch, the pup born without a rectum, the dog that quit breathing and she gave mouth to mouth to, the dog that after sitting on her lap for about 20 minutes bolted out the door, into the street and was hit by a car (probably heard the same story I did and decided to put an end to his misery). All of which I could have gone the rest off my life without knowing. She also had pictures of many of the afore mensioned animals in an album and on her camera cell phone (she has more pictures of her animals than we do of our human kids! She was a very sweet and sincere lady, don't get me wrong. They mean well. She and her 2 friends are the female equivilent to Larry, Darrell & Daryl.
