Friday, April 4, 2014

No, I won't lie for you

Mrs. Bully (the breed, not the social tyrant) brings in 2 dogs with recurrent, but manageable, condition. They've been able to keep the dogs comfortable at home, but it seems Mr. Bully is out of town and both dogs had a relapse.
No problem, I can take care of that for you. We'll fix them up today, and home tomorrow.
Well, now it's tomorrow and the repair from yesterday didn't hold. Sure, I can fix it again and be more aggressive this time in the repair.
Wait, hold on. Mrs. Bully just called and may want to put one of the dogs down. She is difficult to manage at home, won't easily let the owners fix the problem on their own and can not live with her defect left as-is. From a medical standpoint, I do agree this may be the best thing for the dog. Sad, but reality is what it is.
Mrs. Bully makes an appointment to be with her dog while we put her down.
Appointment time rolls around and paperwork is readied... Apparently during this conversation with my staff, Mrs. Bully confesses she's not telling Mr. Bully she's euthanizing his dog. She plans to tell him that she died under anesthesia.  
Um, excuse me, WHAT?!?!?!?!?! I don't think so!!!!!!!
So I'm faced with the marvelous task of 1) determining if this woman even has the legal right to request euthanasia on this dog and 2) informing her she may not blame me for killing her dog. Turns out, Mr. Bully isn't actually out of town. He's in jail. For another 2 months, and they're not allowed to communicate. Yes, please, tell this man I killed his dog while he was in jail. That sounds freaking fabulous!
Thankfully, she is actually a really nice woman, just didn't understand that there were paper trails for euthanasia, and under no uncertain terms would I be willing to lie for her. We did determine she was able to make these decisions, and humanely euthanized the dog.
But, wow, that could have ended badly.

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