 Barked: Wed Aug 8, '12 10:19am PST |
 | |  | | I haven't been on Dogster for a while, but recently a situation came to my attention and I just really needed to vent about it. A good friend of mine had a chihuahua who had some fairly serious issues through out her life, both temperament and health. Examples include the dog biting new people, and her being sick with hemolytic anemia (spelling?) This dog was only eight years old, which is really young for a small breed. I don't know where she came from, other then that it was from some woman in the paper who had puppies for sale.
My friend didn't want to spay her, because they wanted her to have puppies (sigh) and left her in tact until the day they put her down.
Last weekend, the poor dog came down with pyometra, and the vet quoted her a price of about 1,500 to remove the dog's uterus. My friend refused, stating money concerns. The vet came back and said that he had an intern from a university who had never done a hysterectomy, and that he would cut the price down to 500 if she would let his intern do the surgery.
She refused that too, stating that it was still too much money and had the dog put down instead.
Now, she's talking about adopting another dog at the pound on that's a "mutt" because she thinks it will be more healthy then a purebred.
She got really angry at my reaction to her story, and maybe it was justifiable on her part. I know sometimes I can be judgmental when it comes to how other people treat their dogs, but if Harper had come down with pyo or anything else, I'd have coughed up the 1500 to save her in the first place, or at least have taken the vet up on his offer of 500. I'd do anything to save my dog.
And I told her that they had things like Care Credit at most vet offices. She said she didn't want another bill to pay. I don't understand that. To me, my dog's life is more important then having another bill...
All that and she's thinking of getting another dog at the pound. I told her that really 500.00 wasn't THAT much money to spend on a dog and that if she couldn't afford that, then she may want to reconsider getting a dog at all because they're going to have emergencies. It's just how life works. Horrible things happen to great dogs (and people). I also told her that just because a dog was a mixed pound dog was no guarantee it would be healthier. I mentioned that pet insurance was a good way to offset the cost of expensive vet bills, but she didn't want to pay for that, either.
I told her my dog (who is a purebred) has a grandmother in Holland who lived to be 17, and that the person who bred her dog may not have done health testing or known anything about the lines from which she was breeding.
My friend got really mad at me and told me that I was judging her unfairly. I feel like maybe she got upset with me because I hit a nerve. Maybe she knew that her behavior was rather foul and was upset that her need for sympathy was not met. I just find it hard to be sympathetic with someone who is so cavalier about dog ownership. |  |  | |  |
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i feel sorry for you.. 
