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My mom says I'm a princess, so there!

ARGH!

Okay, I am totally frustrated with the Veterinary world right now.

In the human world, if there is an "emergency" and you go to the ER, they have to see you and treat you. If you don't have insurance or a way to pay, they cannot refuse treatment in the ER (they can refuse to admit you, and transfer you to an hospital that will treat "indigent" patients). And in human hospitals, you can make payments, you don't have to pay the entire thing up front. I should know. I worked insurance billing while going to nursing school!

But in the vet world, if you don't have any money no one will see your pet no matter what. They can refuse to see you in the emergency clinic if you can't pay right then and there.

Then there is pet health insurance. Fine, I looked it up and there are some pretty reasonable plans around. But I have called six vets in my area and NOT A SINGLE ONE bills the insurance company. I have to pay, then they give me the statement and I send it to the insurance company for reimbursement.

Ummm, if I had the freaking money right at this moment, I wouldn't need to bill the insurance.

One place has a "hold check" agreement, but I do not have a checking account. If you are a poor student, unless someone is putting money into the account for you, you avoid checking accounts. A recipe for disaster, hot checks flying everywhere and the poor college student is now in more debt than before! So, I don't have a checking account. I have a savings account, and a debit card for the savings account. No checking. So I can't leave a check. The person answering the phone at this clinic said that sometimes people "borrow" checks from someone for them to hold, while they make the payments. Anyone want to loan me a check??? I didn't think so.

So, my dog is in pain, she limps and favors her right forepaw. Either she has sprained it or she has cut her paw or gotten a foreign body in her webbing. I can't see anything. She is confined to her kennel and I can't get anyone to actually look at her that knows what the heck they are doing! I can do humans, but I don't do dogs. I mean, I can handle the basics, but this is beyond my ken.

I am not a deadbeat, I am not trying to get medical services for my dog for free. I am not going to run out on the bill. Oh well. Time to take her out on the leash and let her walk around a bit.

Extra Mommy Time!

My mom has been off this past week. No school, no work, so I have gotten lots of time with her.

She was really sad last week, and I got to be there to cheer her up. I just knew she was down, so I would just lay next to her and put my head in her lap. I don't know why, but apparently she didn't pass her final exam for nursing school (something humans do to help other humans) and didn't get to graduate. And there were other humans who came to visit last week, expecting to see her graduate. But they were really cool humans, they hugged her lots and petted me and threw the ball for me.

Since she has been home, I have gotten to have more time with her. This is really nice cuz in the morning she gets her coffee and goes in the backyard for "ball time." We aren't going to be moving to any apartments anytime soon, since she has to go back to school in the fall, repeat this last class or something so she can graduate and become an RN.

I got in big trouble a few weeks ago. I thought I was really in for it. I had found this new game - put the ball under the furniture and figure out how to get it out. At first it was okay, because the furniture I was playing with was high enough off the ground. But then I put my ball under some really important chair that didn't have very much room between it and the floor. And I was so intent on getting that ball out, I ended up chewing and digging at the chair, even got to stuffing in a few places and pulled out a couple of staples. Boy! Mom was really, really, really mad. First she put jalapeno juice on it, took my ball away and wouldn't let me have it, and then put some sour apple on the chair.

But now I have learned that if she says "No" when I am playing with the furniture, I know that I can't use that as a toy. There are some pieces that are okay, though, and I am figuring them out.

Last week, since we were expecting company, Mom took me over to get groomed. She decided to get me "Furminated." The people at the Dirty Dog were really nice, they had treats and my mom had brought treats. And my mom is really happy with it. She still combs me and stuff, but I am really not shedding very much at all. I even got a little "skinnier" and mom had to tighten my collar just a bit because they took so much off of my ruff I was able to get out of my collar. Scared my mom to death, she thinks I need to learn not to dash off and run into the middle of the street. I don't know why, those big things will just go around me, right?

Mom won't take me to the park and let me run until she knows I will come back. She is really worried that I will run out in front of a car or something. She wants to take me to training or something. We will see. She hopes she can get my CGC sometime too. If I can do those things, then I can go to bullcreek park and be completly off the leash! Woohoo!

You can run, but you can't hide...

I have found a really fun new game! My mom loves to watch me do it too, so it is entertainment for both of us.

I LOVE puzzles - not human puzzles, but other doggie puzzles, like hiding the ball and then spending time pushing it with my nose or pulling it out from the other side. My favorite place is under the sofa, which is just too much fun. All of my buds should try it.

You just nose your ball under the sofa and see how far it went. Then you run around to the other side, and try to burrow under the sofa for a few minutes. Then you run back to the front, and stick your paws in really far (or your nose). Then you push the ball and it rolls towards the other end of the sofa. Sometimes it hits a leg or something and rolls back to the other side, but that just makes it more fun.

But since I like puzzles, my mom has started hiding things for me to find on purpose. Right now she is loving my new purple ball. She takes it from me, gives me a treat (sneaky humans) and hides the ball while I am not looking. And guess what? I found it. Silly, she just put it on the sofa and put a pillow over it.

My "bubba," AKA the human son of my human, tries to throw the ball sometimes. But I really like to have my mom throw the ball. So I always bring it to her.

My mom says I am spoiled rotten. Well, I am a princess, and a princess should be spoiled, right? Of course, I can't tell her that if I am spoiled it is all her fault. I have her trained pretty well. Now I just pick up my ball and throw it at her until she picks it up and throws it.

My mom wants to take me to Bullcreek park, where I could run and splash in the water. But she still thinks I won't come back when she calls. I know when she says "come" and makes her special whistle, but sometimes chewing the ball/bone or sniffing around is too distracting. We are going to start obedience classes soon, but my mom is trying to find a Canine Good Citizen class.

Well, mom made me a treat, and I think it is time for her to get it out for me. I don't understand how it all works, but it is this thing called a "Kong" and my mom puts a treat inside, then some of the peanut butter filling, rolls it up and freezes it. Man, is it fun to lick all of that out and get to the crunchy center!