where the money's at

Over the last six months, I've realized that I made a huge mistake in my educational pursuits. I attained a BA in Sociology with a minor in psychology and then went on to get a Masters in Criminal Justice before the age of 24. Pretty sweet right? But is that where the money's at? Heck no! I've just returned from yet another visit with our darling vet and realized that the true money is in Animal medicine. Let's be real. People who have animals but not kids treat their animals like kids....meaning that they are willing to pour endless amounts of money into the well being of the animal.

Take Samson for example. He's at the ripe age of 10 years old now, graying fur and all. For the first nine years he was was the picture of health. Sure he had the occasional issue but what living being doesn't eventually have some kind of health problem? He was "fixed" because 1)it was the right thing to do and 2) there was a hypothesis that it would cut down on some of his more aggressive tendencies. Not so much on that one but whatever, at least we don't have to worry about a knock on the door and being yelled at cause Samson tried to spread his seed. However, the last year of his life has resulted in a ghastly amount of medical bills. When I returned in July from DC, I couldn't help but notice that samson was biting himself rather regularly and was whining. After a few weeks I took him in. They gave me an antibiotic. That didn't work, we tried a second, that appeared to work a lil. Then we left him at the kennel because my brother, nephew and sister-in-law were coming into town. When I picked him up the skin infection had blown up and was now on both sides of his abdomen. It occurs to me now that they never really knew what was going on, just experimenting. They did a biopsy and gave medication that they thought would work but it didn't. In the human world the word malpractice comes to mind. It is now June and he is still battling the infection he got while under their care. The same infection that they claim he must have had and gotten a cut and that's why it surfaced while being kenneled. I think that's bulls&*t to a royal degree, but what proof do I have? I don't regularly photograph his abdomen so it's our word against their's. Even better, because of his size (150) all medications cost an exhorbitant amount of money.

To top it all off, despite being on an antibiotic for six months, he somehow has managed to get a yeast infection in his ear and now an infection (immune to his current antibiotic obvi) in his....arse. He's also getting arthritic so we've had to put him on a vitamin supplement to prevent further damage and an arthritis medicine to improve the quality of his last years. Fourteen pills a day! There is a daily bag made of his pills as well as a color coded chart near his picture so that the parentals can give him the appropriate pills at the appropriate time even if i'm not home. Forget the fact that I don't even like the vet we go to but can't switch because the cost of running new tests at a different place is mind numbing. Since July, we've probably paid enough to cover the cost of college for the vet's kids. Why? Cause there was no such thing as pet health insurance 10 years ago and everything is out of pocket. Poor Sammy, the indignities of old age.....