You could at least have brought him to the door

To the person who left the dog in our parking lot tonight:

Our part-time person found him when she left at the end of her shift. She came running back in, trying to get our attention back in ICU without alarming the kid waiting with his mother for us to treat their puppy. She couldn’t tell at first glance if your dog was dead or if he was dying.

This has been a cold, wet, utterly shitty night, not at all the sort of weather for a healthy animal to be out in, much less one who’s sick or injured. We took a gurney out, expecting to find an agonal or freshly dead dog next to the front door. Instead, he was way off to the side, well away from the security lights, over by the employee parking, and he was stiff as a board and cold as ice. You left him wrapped in a blanket, with a stick and ball.

I don’t know if he was dead when you left him, or if he’d been laying out there in the cold and dark for hours and died in our parking lot. His blanket was soaked through, though. I just don’t know, but it rips my heart out to think anyone would leave their dog to suffer like that, out where we wouldn’t even be likely to find him till morning. If Betsy had a key to the back door and hadn’t parked up front, we wouldn’t have found him till morning.

I just don’t understand. If he died and you didn’t know what to do with the body, why not call us up and ask? If he was suffering and you couldn’t afford to treat him, we would have done a free humane euthanasia. And if you loved him enough to leave him with his toys, why leave him way out there where we wouldn’t find him? Couldn’t you have put him next to the door? Even if you were afraid or ashamed to ring the bell, we would have found him sooner. If you loved him, how could you leave him out there alone in the cold, dark rain?

Even if you didn’t want to face us and let us see what we could do to help you, you could at least have brought him to the door.

CCL, I think I understand my cats more than I understand people.

I hate people.

:frowning: I wish I could understand the thought patterns that lead to such actions.

One of the many reasons I could never do your job. My opinion of the human race is low to begin with, these things would push me over the edge.

I’m guessing the dog was dead before it got to your clinic. It just doesn’t make sense that someone would care enough about their dog to leave it with its favorite toys and blanket, but also be cruel enough to leave it exposed like that. It just doesn’t make sense.

What I think happened is that the dog died at home, and its owners were afraid that they’d have to pay a fee to dispose of the body. So they took it to your clinic and left it where it wouldn’t be found right away, hoping you would find it in the morning and take care of it for them. At the same time, they cared enough about the poor thing that they got sentimental and left it with its favorite toys.

I think, at worst, its owners were cheap and maybe a little dim, but I don’t think they were cruel.

I can only hope you’re right, Miller. Still, I don’t think I could have left one of mine out there like that, even if they were dead. It seems like if you care enough to want the dog disposed of properly, not just dumped in a landfill somewhere, you’d care enough not to leave the remains out in a parking lot in the rain.

I guess what gets me is that it’s not like we’re anyone’s primary vet, nor is our building easy to find if you don’t already know where we are. Besides, you have to drive past a day practice to get to our building. There’s nobody at the day practice to see you dump the body, and they’re a whole lot easier to get to. The effort somebody went to just boggles my mind.

Please, let’s get real here. People are very capable of doing cruel things. Last time I was at my vet, a woman came in with her cat (very pissed because things weren’t happening fast enough for her). My vet, who was with us at the time, left I room to treat her cat, which was in distress since it was bleeding from the nose. She wanted immediate attention for her cat. Fair enough, but maybe she should have been in this much of a rush when it started, three weeks ago!

She has no money to pay the vet (supposedly, she’s on a fixed income) but has the taxi waiting in the driveway. Sheesh!

It is quite possible the owner didn’t come to the door 'cuz there were people around and didn’t want to be seen dropping off a dead/dying dog.

Poor guy.

Cleo, I know all about the people who wait till an animal is at death’s door before bringing it in. It’s always the same damn story, too: It just started yesterday. Sure, your dog’s lost 10 pounds since it was in for its checkup a few months ago, but it just started losing its appetite yesterday. Of course. And that wound with the maggots in it, I suppose that just happened yesterday too, huh?

The lady you saw at the vet’s office is probably a relative of the people who would call the day practice I used to work for at 5:50 pm on Friday (we closed at 6:00) and want us to stay late to see a dog that had been vomiting for a week. Or the ones who call the emergency clinic at 2:30 in the morning to tell us about the unvaccinated puppy who’s been having bloody diarrhea for the last four days. These last invariably bitch and moan about the price of an emergency exam, telling us loudly and at great length how it’s just highway robbery for us to charge twice what their vet charges. (Fine, go to the human ER and see how the prices compare with your FP)

These folks also get incredibly pissy that it takes an hour or two for us to get them in and out and ready to go home when they come in at 10pm on Saturday. Hey, if you can get seen, have bloodwork and x-rays done and interpreted and have a prescription filled at a human ER in that time frame (any time, much less a Saturday night), I wanna go to your hospital.

Jesus. I’m going to go hug my dog now…

Yeah, me too. My dogs get lots of extra hugs just because of stuff like this.

I have to stop reading these things. It’s incredibly depressing to be reminded yet again what fucksticks humans can be.