8/22/05 An Interesting Day

Well, today was an interesting day for sure. It started off great (foreshadowing). The 3 Parvo puppies that I had in the hospital were all doing considerably better, eating a little chicken and rice (prepared by Master Chef Don), drinking, with no vomiting. During the morning, I saw a few clients and amputated a cat's infected, necrotic tail. Ron, the kennel attendant, was monitoring the cat's heart and respiratory rate.

The parvo puppies were all picked up by 1 pm by their respective owners so I was looking forward to a diarrhea free week!

Cathy, a volunteer who used to live on the island but moved last year, was visiting for a week. During the previous week, she had gone out into the community and found a family who loved their dogs but couldn't afford to get them sterilized. The dogs just kept having litters (surprise) and the owners couldn't handle any more dogs. Peggy and Cathy were going to get the dogs in the afternoon and convinced me that I didn't really want to go to the beach but would rather go collect the dogs with them.

So we got there and Peggy parked her car in a spot across the road from the house where the targeted dogs lived. The lady of this house said she could park in this spot but her husband was coming back in a while. Of course Peggy said she would move the car when the man arrived. We then started the long process of locating the owner's of all the dogs and puppies. During this time, the husband arrived and just parked several inches behind Peggy's truck effectively removing any hope of escape. I approached the guy and asked if we could get our car out of his spot. He then started yelling and ranting about it was "too late!" He then proceeded to go down the street to the rum shop. Apparently he needed a stiff drink to shake off the hard work of being a dick! I followed behind him for a bit asking him to move the car and asking why he was being so mean. I actually asked this guy why he was being "mean" because I didn't want to elevate the situation. Blah, blah, the wife tries calling the rum shop to get him back, blah, blah, we say we're going to have to get the police, he says he used to be the police, great! So Cathy and I drive in my car to get the police. As I'm coming back, I park down the street but as I'm parking I rub my left side passenger door against a bus (which are just red minivans). F***! I've never been in an accident and my timing for my first accident couldn't be better! By this time everyone who lives in a 10 mile radius is out in their yards watching the entire situation up the street so half of them saw me hit the bus. They start yelling for the bus driver to come out of the rum shop where the dick up the street had taken refuge earlier. Fortunately, this guy was cool and joked with me that he was going to make me work in his garden for 6 months to pay off the damage. But there was really no damage so that was the end of that situation. Cathy and I walk up the street to where the police were negtotiating with the crazy guy to move his vehicle. I had my camera and was thinking about taking some pictures of this asinine situation but my better judgment ruled against that idea!

Eventually, the guy finally moved his car and we were gone. I then went to the store to replenish our supply of paper towels and bleach (to kill parvovirus) that I had used over the last one and a half weeks. As I was driving down the road with the supplies, I hit a big pothole. Pothole dodging is something of a national sport around here as some of the main roads are in terrible disrepair. Unfortunately, I lost this time and hit the middle of the hole. I then started to look around wondering where this huge, loud truck was coming from. Turns out, it was me!! Part of the piping of the exhaust system had broken as I hit the pothole. The roar of the engine combined with the terrible usual squeaking of the brakes instantly turned the Mecca-mobile (Muslim by Nature - see my first post) into a Ghetto-mobile!

My saving grace for the day was that Cathy was staying at the University Club. This place is well known locally for having excellent food. However, I was equally looking forward to commandeering Cathy's bathroom for the hot shower! I'm not sure if I've mentioned in the previous posts but there is no hot water in my apartment. So this shower was absolutely sublime! Can you call a hot shower sublime? Well, I just did!