Yesterday was rough

I knew that Thursday was going to be a rough day when one of the vet nurses called me up and asked me to come in early. And then she called back and asked if I could come in earlier. Usually I do a five hour shift on Thursday but yesterday I did an almost ten hour one. Ouch! I only got to sit down when I answered the phone and I only had one cup of tea. I really only had one mouthful of it before I got called away and when I came back it was stone cold. I still tried to drink it though.

We had two big emergency cases, as well as our usual workload. We had a dog that was seizuring and because of this, she was very disorientated and frightened... and therefore kept trying to bite us when we were helping her, which doesn't make life easy. It was sad, when the owners came in to see her, she didn't seem to recognise them and just lay there. But by the end of the day, she was starting to get her bearings and I'm hoping tomorrow, she'll be even better and will recognise her owners.

Then we had another tick dog. This one was a big dog with a shaggy coat so it was hard to find the tick but we found it. She was in a really bad way, could barely move and had to be propped up to keep her airways clear as she had no gag reflex. She was a real sweetie though and when I would pat her, she would briefly wag her tail, even though she was almost completely paralyzed by this tick. Unfortunately she didn't make it and passed away right at the end of the day. I had just finished patting her head and speaking to her, I left the room for a brief moment and when I came back, I looked at her and I knew. I called the vets and they came and I went out of the room and I had to go and serve people. It was surreal, trying to be all friendly and chirpy to the customers, knowing that the dog we'd been caring for all day had just died.

The owner came in to say goodbye to her dog and it was so sad. I was trying so hard not to cry. In general, I pretty much start crying as soon as someone else cries so I pretended I was busy in another room.

It's days like this that make me happy though. I was busy and I felt (somewhat) competent and I felt like I was making a difference. And to top it all off, my boss today told me to write down my hours for yesterday as he would like to pay me for that day! Ten beautiful hours of pay!!!!! Considering he didn't have to pay me that makes me happy too :)