RIP Weston

July was a really rough month at the Veterinary Office. Everyone who works there becomes really familiar and in a way, really close to a number of clients. Most clients come in about twice a year for vaccine updates and general check-ups. This is great! It means that their dogs are happy and healthy. The clients that we become close to are the ones whose dogs have something horribly wrong with them. These dogs have to frequently come in for blood tests, check-ups, emergency care, surgeries, and overnight observation stays.

Some of these clients…we hate. They are demanding, bitter, and a lot of them are actually the ones killing their dogs by overfeeding them or by not following the veterinarian’s recommendations. But there are a good number who we love, who we comfort in the waiting room, and they in turn bring us cookies at their next appointment. We become attached to their dogs as we get to know their personalities and begin to closely associate said personalities with the often lovely personalities of their owner’s.

Like I said, July was a rough month. A number of our favorite pets were put down. Cicero, Tiger, Jack, and Ben Ben to name a few. The most difficult loss of the summer has easily been Weston, a lovely Jack Russel Terrier who succumbed to renal disease. His owner’s are this feisty Iranian/Brazilian lesbian couple who have charming accents and finish one anothers’ sentences.  They would come in a couple of times a week, and the entire staff would bend over backwards to accommodate them. When they would call, we recognized their voices and when they had appointments they would bring us all Brazilian chocolates. While Weston was getting special injections in the back, the front desk staff would chat with them, and they became like family.

Their dog was like a child to them, and it was devastating to hear that he had been put to sleep. The main vet actually went to their apartment to put the dog down at home. This doctor NEVER does house-calls but for them it was a give in. After this, like so many things in life, the Iranian/Brazilian couple disappeared from our lives, finding it too painful to be in a vet office.

Yesterday, they popped by on a whim. Still in grief, they wanted to take whoever was available out for drinks at the Irish pub around the corner. Another receptionist, a tech, and I accompanied them for beers while we talked about Weston. They told us hilarious stories of him being studded out in Brazil, and we told them stories of the horrible clients we deal with and how much we really do miss them. It was an awesome night of remembering Weston and enjoying the company of clients who somehow have become friends.

A lot of days I find myself sitting at my desk wishing that I didn’t work in customer service, that I was doing something more with my life, that my degree wasn’t some useless piece of paper gathering dust in my parent’s house. But some days I love my job and feel genuinely happy with the work that me and the practice do. I could not be more grateful for that.