My dog was old, but I was a good owner. I raised her steps away from a dog park, I trained her to walk off leash in San Francisco no less, I took her to dog parks all the time, didn't give her people food, and made sure she had lots of socialization and love. I know she had a goo life.
She was getting old, and it was getting hard for her to walk so our long runs soon became short stints around the block. I get it, older and all. Didn't mind in the least. Then this past Monday she came to me and collapsed on the floor, shaking. I was freaking out so we went to the hospital. Now remember, I have not had a job for nearly two years. My unemployment had been suspended for a mistake on my statement I made a year ago. Money was tight, but this was my love, so I did what I could.
Took a cab to the closest vet (I don't drive) and when I got there they saw her. I told the vet I had $100 but if you gave me time, a week or so I can get the rest. I really didn't know how, I guess I'd sell my computer or something.
Astonishingly the vet would not work with me. She wanted to do all this stuff; x rays blood work, etc. but each procedure was well over $100. I wanted blood work to just see where my dog was in life, but I couldn't afford that. So after haggling, they sent me out with a shot and some pills and I a paid $115 bill.
I called the same cab place that brought me there but they kept telling me, after me calling twice and speaking to two different people, that the address I was referencing was not real, and I need to go into the place I came from and get he real address. I told them I'm looking at the signs on 4 different buildings, and walked down the block giving 4 different places, and they could not find a 'real' building.
"The computer won't take the address , so its not real," the person said.
"Your cab dropped me off here. How can a whole street of addresses not be real?!"
I hung up after that and googled another cab company. Glad I did too because my phone was about to go dead.
I paid this cab who found the non existent address rather fine with the last $10 in my checking account and took my dog back up to our apartment. I wetted her feet with alcohol as the doctor said to do to cool her down, and gave her the pills every 12 hours. My dog seemed to be doing better. She was not as hot as she was, and she was eating and drinking. I was relieved.
I got a follow up call from the vet's office and I told them my dog was doing better. She was alert and stuff. I still wanted to go in for blood work later because she was getting old. I looked online to see what my computer would sell for. $150 if I was lucky. Great. I looked for cheaper vets but they were so far away.
A couple days later I go to my unemployment hearing and come home and that night take my dog out for her normal walk and poop. Then she crawled by my feet at the kitchen table, which she always did and I hear her convulsing. She jerks her head back and her legs get really stiff. She lets out this painful sounding weak whine, and just relaxes. I scramble down to the floor with her and she looks at me. I keep saying how sorry I was that I could not help her over and over as she too three last gasps of air and died.
I cried for about half an hour and having stumbled upon dead animal pickup via the humane society page, I call for an appointment. I called them at 7:30 am, when they open. My dog had died about 20 minutes earlier. They said someone would be out soon.
At 2pm, I called again. Then again at 4. No one had come and it was in the 80s that day. The woman on the phone, who seemed empathetic when I told her the dog was on my kitchen floor, said that they can't contact the pick up people but they are still out today and might be coming by soon.
That was when I got another follow up call from the vet herself. "How is she doing," she asked.
"She died." I said. The vet was silent. I was rock sleepy. She kept saying words like 'bizarre' and 'odd' and 'wow' and stuff. "Im sorry."
I wanted to say, "If I had been allowed to make payments on her bills perhaps something would have been found in her blood work." But I didn't. I just didn't. I hope the 'she died' took her aback. I hope the vet feels terrible and stupid and greedy. Probably not, but I hope.
So I wait. Then 24 hrs pass and nothing. I called again this morning and found out my ticket from yesterday had been closed! I've been sitting with this dead animal on my floor for nearly 30 hours now. Its supposed to get up to 90+ degrees today.
Luckily some friends have offered to help pay for her removal. I called the private place and they are on their way. Im kind of numb right now from the entire experience because everything that could have gone wrong did go wrong. I think I'm going to write to the vet. Just to tell her that I hope she now takes payments into consideration on a per patient basis. And to the people who run the sanitation stuff. Both instances were just nasty to go through. I would not wish them on anyone.
This whole week has just been ugly for me. Just ugly. But I do thank the friends online and the ones who have called. I really, deeply appreciate it.
