I’ve always felt that with a little perseverance, intelligence and a hefty dose of excellent PR one could sell almost anything. So far, however, I have one case study on this principle that seems hell bent on discouraging my continued faith in its universality. Her name is Helen.

I’ve put the news out on the Dolittler wire. I lobbied hard to get The Miami Herald to include this deaf and blind,...

It’s 9 AM. It’s the day before Christmas Eve and I’m at my cousin’s house in the Florida Keys again. It’s been a week of serious compassion fatigue so I think I can justify a little R and R before the melee that accompanies Christmastime at ground zero in my family.

I’ll be driving back soon while the rest of the entourage takes the boat out for the day. But I’m not depressed over my early...

Yesterday one of my clients came in with her two year-old Yorkie. The dog had spent the last four weeks and the lion’s share of ten thousand dollars in and out of multiple specialty hospitals.

After coming down with granulomatous meningoencephalitis (GME) the day before Thanksgiving, she’d failed to recover measurably. She could not stand. She could not see. She couldn’t even lay down without...

First thing on Wednesday morning I was treated to a waiting room scene no vet with a steaming hot, vente-sized latte in her hand ever wants to see: blood, tears, and a painful poodle with puncture wounds. So much for the $5 coffee…

This poor ten year-old poodle obviously needed a look-see and some pain meds ASAP. She’d been attacked by a neighbor’s dog just as she’d set out for her morning...

I must be a blind kitten magnet. Remember the one from the Starbuck’s parking lot? If that one was pathetic, this one’s a travesty.

This little five month-old was found in one of my clients’ back yards. The black and white female was discovered hunched over and staring at the ground, pitifully reminiscent of a target…for three big dogs (who were almost unleashed in her direction before it was...

Let’s say you’ve decided you want a particular breed of dog but you’ve never been schooled in how one goes about these things. You haul yourself over to the nearest pet shop and fork over the proceeds from your new job’s first check. And you’re happy with yourself—you love your puppy.

Fast-forward three years later and you still have that new job—at the vet hospital. You know a whole lot more...

This past Tuesday, I arrived at the specialist’s hospital with my little Vincent in tow, hoping to secure a fit-in appointment for the following day (which I managed, as you may already know). As a referring vet, I’m granted the privilege of standing in the treatment/ICU area while I wait. When I do this (often), I thoroughly enjoy reading the cage cards and treatment schedules. It gives me a...

…and today was Vincent’s. For those of you unacquainted with the [unnecessarily stressful] saga of the quarrel between my dog’s dominant behavior, his testicles, and his cleft palate, let me summarize:

First up, the cleft palate, which he was born with and had surgically attended to when he was an eight week-old mite of a Frenchie. Then the drama of the divot still remaining after the surgery,...

Imagine you were ready for your first dog since becoming a grown-up and having a family. You undertook careful research. Found a breeder by referral. Traveled several hours to view the premises. Picked the puppy of your dreams. Socialized her to the best of your ability and undertook puppy training classes. Then, on her very first romp in the puppy park…she comes up horribly lame.

Now you’ve...

Sometimes even the simplest things can be brutally painful. Ever ripped a toenail? Yow, that hurts! Same goes for pet claws (toenails to you). They limp. They lick. They invariably make a big deal out of this seemingly miniscule injury…because it hurts like hell.

Sure, keeping your pets’ claws to a minimum length is helpful in preventing such disasters—as is the removal of dewclaws in dogs....