\”Come on in then,\” he said, gruffly, resplendent in only a pair of shorts, big belly pushing it\’s way in the door in front of him. \”But watch out for me pet duck (it was pouring with rain), she likes to hang around out there at this time of day.\”
I sat down in a chair, and looked around the room, the room of a confirmed bachelor, things scattered everywhere, and just a little grimy around the edges.
\”How ya goin\’, Doc,\” He said, with a well hidden smile. You could only feel it, his face didn\’t show a whisker of it! \”It\’s been ages since you fixed me dog\’s bum up, and I just wanted you to have a check of him again, make sure everything\’s ok with him.\”
\”How\’s he been,\” I asked.
\”Buggered if I know, that\’s why I got you here to look at him! You\’re the vet, not me.\” He said, but with a quiet twinkle in his eye. He rushed on, words pouring out of him like a landslide down a hill… \”He\’s been ok, he has, just the same as usual, no more trouble shittin\’ like last time. He gets his chicken necks every night, and gets along ok with all the cats, seems happy enough.\” And that was it – a man of few words, and all of them abrupt!
I called the fluffy little dog over, and got him up on my knee. I gave him a thorough examination, smiling to myself at this gruff old fella. He was retired, volunteered all the time for things like palliative care, had had a hard life working in many of the world\’s hot spots of disaster, famine and disease, making sure all the materials for aid got to where they needed to be. He seemed to be as hard as nails with the way he carried on, but I could see that he was soft as butter when it came to his pets, and I reckon he would have gone hungry any time they needed anything. He lived on the pension, so that may have been more than an occasional event, too. Precious little fat left in a pension after paying the rent and electricity, that\’s for sure. And he carried a lot of deep wounds from the life he\’d walked, I could feel that in how he was.
\”He\’s pretty good,\” I told him.
\”That\’s a bloody relief,\” He said, all in a rush, nearly talking over the top of me.
\”He could lose just a bit of weight, and the only other thing that he needs is some attention for his teeth.\” I lifted up his dogs lip to show him the brown layer of tartar, with a bright red frill of gingivitis where it met the gums. \”You see, he\’s got a build up of hard scaley gunk on his teeth, and the only way we can clean that off is for him to have a general anaesthetic, and use a special ultrasonic scaling machine,\” I explained.
His face fell as he said \”But isn\’t he too old to have one of them? Isn\’t it risky?\”
\”Well, there\’s a very small amount of risk with any general anaesthetic, but his heart is strong, and I reckon he\’ll be fine with it…\”
\”How much will it cost then,\” he burst in.
\”Probably around $4-500,\” I explained.
He sank down in his chair, stunned for a moment, then visibly gathered himself together.
\”I\’ll just have to save the money then,\” he said, with force. \”If he needs it doing to make him right, then it\’s got to happen!\”
\”It\’s not too urgent,\” I said. \”He can have it any time in the next 3-6 months.\”
\”Oh no,\” He said. \”I\’ll get done as soon as I can, if it will make him feel better.\”
I finished up with the bill, making sure it wasn\’t too nasty, while I explained a bit more about what would need to happen, and how to help keep his teeth cleaner after the op. Then I had to roll off through my day, the list of clients to see was calling me. He waved me goodbye, a bald, angry seeming nugget of humanity wedged in the doorway, with a heart of gold for his pets shining through.