Smiles-6

Animal anecdote 6.

Don’t you like to give credit where credit is due? I do and I believe it was Dr. Harmon Leonard of Cheshire, Connecticut who tells of a client with a new puppy he had given a rough outline of care before bringing the patient in for the first time. “And when you come in bring a stool.” The client responded with, “How tall a stool, Dr.?”

Another short anecdote that may have happened to most veterinarians was in answer to the sensible question, “Has she been in heat?” comes the reply, “Why yes, doctor, she sleeps behind the stove.” No comment.

One of my favorites was such because it concerned my six year old beautiful daughter, child number three of four who is now approaching middle age was asked by friend John Gamsby. It was at a time when I had written a long since out of print book called, “This is the Beagle” and I had a kennel of Beagles with several studs. My friend asked if she knew the whereabouts of her father. Katie said, “He’s out in the garage breeding a bitch.”

Another anecdote involving a child concerns a young bitch that I determined as being pregnant. The father of a little girl with him claimed in uncertain terms that pregnancy was utterly impossible. The pet had never been out of the sight of one of the family ever. The little girl with her head about as tall as the height of my examining table spoke up with, “But daddy remember when she was gone over night?”

It is a strange truism that a person and it seems to be a trait of the male of the species if involved with an activity that led to a pet problem will lie rather than being incriminated in the cause of the problem. We veterinarians take that into consideration in searching for answers to a pet problem.

Next, what determines the number of puppies in a litter?