July 1997

It seems obvious to me that Dogs should hate going to the Vet. Whenever they go they either have to get injections, have some kind of invasive check up or there is something wrong. With Jemima perhaps I ought to have taken her to the Vet regarding her love of the Vets. It was odd to be dragged into a Vets surgery by the Dog, for the Dog to drag me into an examination room when it was our turn. Things were such that I even forgot my own dislike of the places just to ‘see what she would do next’. To Jemima everybody who worked at the Vets was treated like a long lost friend and everybody who came in was someone to be greeted enthusiastically. Even the other animals that were encountered were treated with the same enthusiastic welcome.

Prior to Jemima my only experience of a Vet was when I was perhaps 10 years old taking my Dog Sam to be looked at with my Grandma. Sam had, unbeknown to us, caught distemper. It was late evening and we had the last appointment of the day. While the Vet explained what was wrong with my Dog I remember realising that I was being told that, without saying the actual words, Sam was going to die and would soon start to suffer. I remember trying to hold back the emotion but after a very short time I began to cry with a start. My poor boy was taken from me and I really had no idea why as he still seemed perfectly healthy at that point. I also remember still, while sitting in my Grandads car with my Grandma explaining what had happened, looking up to see said Vet locking up his surgery with a cardboard box. As the Vet wrestled with the key in one hand and the box in the other Sam thrust his head out of the box to see what was going on. It was a moment that scarred me for life – I suddenly felt the fear somehow from the expression on Sams face and the feeling of that moment has never left me to this day. I will never know what happened to him and cannot know if he was treated with dignity and respect in his final hours – seeing the way he was taken away does not give me confidence that this was the case. I hope for his sake that his end was a peaceful one.