# You better hope your little ratdog pulls through. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [September 10, 2003, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-better-hope-your-little-ratdog-pulls-through/200777 "2003-09-10T15:49:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2003, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-better-hope-your-little-ratdog-pulls-through/200777/121 "2003-09-15T20:00:51Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by CrazyCatLady \* > \*\*What color is ignorant, anyway? Is it a sort of grayish taupe, or something a little more colorful? \*\* Looks like ordinary black to me. šŸ˜‰ ---
**Author:** ![CrazyCatLady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dfb087/32.png) [@CrazyCatLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CrazyCatLady)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2003, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-better-hope-your-little-ratdog-pulls-through/200777/122 "2003-09-15T20:35:50Z")
Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuckity fuck fuck fuck. I just got back from my recheck appointment, and they told me that sure I can go to work and work one-handedā€¦provided I didnā€™t touch any animals. I can do all the receptionist duties I can handle one-handed. Thatā€™s great, but we have a whole pool of receptionists, and Iā€™m not one of them. Iā€™m an emergency/icu tech, and touching the animals is a pretty damned integral part of my job. Damn. The ban on animal contact is gonna last four weeks or so, too, which is going to be a logistical nightmare for the clinic. It can be really hard to fill shifts if somebody goes on vacation, especially weekend shifts. I work Saturdays and Sundays, so trying to fill in my shifts for a freakinā€™ month is going to be really hard. Thank god the busiest part of the year is over. I canā€™t imagine what it would be like if this had happened in July. And what am I supposed to do for the next month? Sit around and go into ICU withdrawal? Spend time with my husband having nice dinners and seeing movies on the weekends instead of putting in catheters and monitoring anesthesia and picking maggots? This sucks. ---
**Author:** ![ENugent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/4af34b/32.png) [@ENugent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ENugent)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2003, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-better-hope-your-little-ratdog-pulls-through/200777/123 "2003-09-15T20:39:57Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by CrazyCatLady \* > \*\*What color is ignorant, anyway? Is it a sort of grayish taupe, or something a little more colorful? \*\* Pus green. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2003, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-better-hope-your-little-ratdog-pulls-through/200777/124 "2003-09-15T20:51:06Z")
Itā€™s black, I tell ya! Ignorace may be bliss but itā€™s also blue, while bliss itself is mauve. šŸ˜ƒ ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2003, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-better-hope-your-little-ratdog-pulls-through/200777/125 "2003-09-15T20:52:45Z")
ā€œIgnoranceā€ even. ---
**Author:** ![DoctorJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctorj/32/2904_2.png) [@DoctorJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DoctorJ)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2003, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-better-hope-your-little-ratdog-pulls-through/200777/126 "2003-09-15T21:24:08Z")
> [@](#): > > Spend time with my husband having nice dinners and seeing movies on the weekends instead of putting in catheters and monitoring anesthesia and picking maggots? Oh, the humanity! ---
**Author:** ![Beagle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/85f322/32.png) [@Beagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beagle)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2003, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-better-hope-your-little-ratdog-pulls-through/200777/127 "2003-09-15T22:46:04Z")
ā€¦saved my dadā€™s leg back around 1920. He had gangrene from a sled accident which he kept from his father, until it was seriously infected. There were two options: 1) amputaton, the standard practice, or, 2) experimental maggot therapy. He chose two and died with a good leg, albeit with a nasty scar where the sled hit it more than 70 years before. ---
**Author:** ![Beagle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/85f322/32.png) [@Beagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beagle)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2003, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-better-hope-your-little-ratdog-pulls-through/200777/128 "2003-09-15T23:03:28Z")
Iā€™d hate to leave you with maggots, so Iā€™ll be controversial. I think, ā€œItā€™s not the (animal), itā€™s the (person).ā€ is sometimes true. I think itā€™s often thrown around, on the other hand, to excuse aggressive animal behavior that is common, if not normal and natural in some cases. Animals want to be nice, the thinking goes, if we just didnā€™t screw them up. This is classic projection and wishful thinking. Animals in nature can be plenty aggressive in case someone hasnā€™t been keeping score. Sure, owners and others have an effect on pets. The effect of the partucular human or owner youā€™d think was the Third Law of Thermodynamics, based on how often Iā€™ve heard it. Ever see that really aggressive puppy that kicks ass? Guess what, that puppy will grow up much more aggressive than the puppies with kicked asses. Also, animals have personality types. Moreover, they have weird quirks and phobias. My shepherd is so shy itā€™s painful to watch. OTOH, lightning (which will make the average Dire Wolf cower or fear bite) has no effect on her. She likes to watch it. Throw in illness and pain, and who knows what the hell motivates a particular animal? Iā€™m with the crazy feline woman, if it attacks me out of the blue ā€“ ITā€™S NOT MY FAULT! ---
**Author:** ![Scarlett67](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scarlett67/32/7387_2.png) [@Scarlett67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scarlett67)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2003, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-better-hope-your-little-ratdog-pulls-through/200777/129 "2003-09-15T23:03:29Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by CrazyCatLady \* > **I just got back from my recheck appointment, and they told me that sure I can go to work and work one-handedā€¦provided I didnā€™t touch any animals. I can do all the receptionist duties I can handle one-handed. Thatā€™s great, but we have a whole pool of receptionists, and Iā€™m not one of them. Iā€™m an emergency/icu tech, and touching the animals is a pretty damned integral part of my job.** Possibly a dumb question . . . not even with gloves on? ---
**Author:** ![CrazyCatLady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dfb087/32.png) [@CrazyCatLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CrazyCatLady)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2003, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-better-hope-your-little-ratdog-pulls-through/200777/130 "2003-09-16T01:58:50Z")
They donā€™t make gloves big enough to go over the bandage Iā€™ve got on, and besides heā€™s not willing to take the chance that something might get inside or through the glove. I **do** have a pretty large open wound under there, after all. I can understand it, even though Iā€™m not very happy about it. I think theyā€™d let me work wearing gloves if the wound was sutured up, but itā€™s wide open for drainage and that makes it a whole different ball game in risks for contamination. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-better-hope-your-little-ratdog-pulls-through/200777.md?page=6)