October 20, 2003
6:51 p.m.

Sometimes I forget that miracles still happen. We had a six week old puppy come in last week. The owner had tried to save money by giving the puppy it's shot himself, and, we're not sure what happened, but, by the next day, the puppy couldn't walk, open it's mouth, or open it's eyes. We gave the puppy a heavy dose of steriods, and watched and waited. By the next day, there was no improvement, and the owner, very low on money, said he just couldn't afford to take the treatment any farther, especially since we were telling him that things just didn't look good for the little lab. He and his wife debated on the decision for quite a while, feeling responsible for the puppy's problem, but knowing that their check book just couldn't take a lot. Worst thing was, there was a kid envolved. They finally opted euthanasia. Dr. Lee looked at the puppy, and said she just couldn't start her weekend putting such a young animal to sleep. The steriods we used are in one time use bottles, so, one you opened one, you had maybe two days to use the whole bottle, or throw it away. Dr. Lee shrugged her shoulders and said since the guy had already paid for the whole bottle, we might as well keep the puppy on them through the weekend, and just see. We all figured we would put the puppy to sleep on Monday.

Saturday, the puppy wasn't really any better, he was able to stand a little bit, but would topple over, and, when he could walk, he would walk into a corner, and bang his head against the wall. We all lost hope. We already had an autopsy form filled out and waiting for the young puppy. This morning, I walk in to see the "paralized" puppy standing on his hind legs, howling at me.

I placed him on the floor, and called him to me, although he still acted a little bit disoriented, he trotted over to me. I tried to feed him a little baby food, which he ate hungrilly. He then grabbed the hem of my pants, and began to tug and growl, while wagging his tail. When Dr. Lee walked in at nine, I quickly grabbed her, and drug her back to see the puppy who didn't have a chance. With a smile on her face, she called the owner, explaining that we didn't euthanize on Friday, and that today the puppy was tons better. I think we were all as excited as the owners were. They thanked Dr. Lee a hundred times for following her gut instinct. We sent the puppy home today. Whether he improves a hundred percent, or is always kind of off, only time will tell, but at least he has a chance.

That, right there, is why I love my job.

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