pet connection

I took the day off from writing yesterday to train dogs. Ive got two young working dogs here who have been giving me the stink eye for not working them much during the summer heat. Finally, it’s starting to feel a little like fall, so they got back to work.

I’m not an outdoorsy person, and I think of this whenever I’m in the training group, out on the training grounds, sitting in a camp chair with a bag of bumpers for throwing, a duck call for getting the dog’s attention  and a starter’s pistol standing in for the shotgun. (We all take turns helping each other train, so if someone’s running a dog, other people are out in the field throwing.)

McKenzie, who has been in and out of training as many times as I’ve co-authored books in her life (that would be eight), did splendidly. She loves the retrieving everything and anything, loves swimming and loves pleasing people. It’s a great combination.

But I came home too wind-burned, sun-burned and filthy dirty to do anything more yesterday afternoon than peel off the dirty clothes, take a long, hot shower, feed everyone and crash. (Update: I forgot to mention bug-bitten, which I’m now discovering. Yikes, must remember the DEET.)

So now I’m up at 5 a.m., dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s on this week’s syndicated feature, which is off to our darling editor Greg Melvin at Universal Press in about an hour. And then, off to the day job.

(The picture of McKenzie is from last spring, and here’s a hint why that’s kinda obvious: Green is NOT the color of late summer in California.)

Update, good reads elsewhere: I like Dr. K’s post on the top 10 reasons to break up with your vet. I love my vet, absolutely love him, and I don’t know what I’ll do when he retires. But I would fire his practice in a heartbeat. The place was purchased by a chain and remodeled into a super-hospital in a grand new location. It offers absolutely top medicine with all the bells and whistles, but the handling of clients leaves much to be desired (with the exception of the couple of staff members who pre-dated the buyout and are still wonderful). The front desk never seems to have a clue that I’m a regular client, even though I’m there all the time, and I have one helluva time getting through to my vet, since they’re trained to keep people away from the professional staff.

Once I get my vet, either in person or on the phone, everything snaps into place. But until then … It’s pretty clear that the chain ownership believes my entire reason for being is that I have a credit card. And that the staff’s entire reason for being is to extract money from my credit line without bothering the doctors.

The place has never given me the warm-and-fuzzies, to say the least.

Be sure to check the comments on Dr. K’s post.  The “grounds for divorce” added to by commenters are wonderful, as always.

Interestingly enough, I once split with my own doctor over this very thing. I felt as if I were a widget, not a person, and was treated like a piece of paperwork by the office staff of the multidoctor practice. Once I got in to see the doctor, she was great. But getting help or getting in … well, let’s just say I got very, very tired of listening to “The Girl from Ipanema” while an office staffer who couldn’t have cared less if I were dying on the other end of the line put me on hold and left me there, forever.

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Nancy Freedman-Smith blogs on the pet screen door that’s available from Orvis, Gardener’s Supply, etc., I second the endorsement. I’ve used this product for five years and love it.