#ALL MY PATIENTS KICK AND BITE FULL#
#ALL MY PATIENTS KICK AND BITE SERIES#

We bounced down the driveway, across the highway, and into the unsuspecting subdivision. I heard Johnny say under his breath, “This is going to be so much fun.” It was obvious that he had watched too many cop shows and had forgotten that we were chasing a confused canine, not a hardened criminal. I don’t know which smelled worse, the burning rubber or the overstuffed ashtray. The rear tires dug into the gravel driveway, and we were off. I could see, however, that it was going to be impossible to turn Johnny down, so I reluctantly crawled into the passenger side, kicking enough empty soda bottles out of the way to find a place for my feet. I was planning on searching for Toby, but not in the Animal Control vehicle. Officer Johnny had me fill out a little paperwork on the bite incident and Toby’s lack of vaccination history. You would have thought we were going after an escaped rhino, not a scared canine. “We just got a new tranquilizer gun in, and I think today is the day to try it out,” he added. Johnny was about twenty-six years old and still completely enamored of his career choice. “Hey, Doc! Sounds like we’ve got a little adventure on our hands!” he announced exuberantly. He was a really nice guy and took his job very seriously.

I had worked with Johnny several times before on animal-abuse cases. About ten minutes later, a Ford Bronco with ANIMAL CONTROL printed in huge letters on the side roared up the driveway and a short, plump man in a uniform jumped out. “We will have to file a report then they can try to find Toby.”Īfter Christie made the call, I sent her home and then waited for an officer to come by. “Christie, call Animal Control and tell them what’s going on,” I told her. Do let them know that Toby wasn’t vaccinated.” Miss Sloan agreed, wrapped her hand in some gauze, and headed down the road. “You need to drive directly to the medical office. She started to object, but Christie backed me up. “Miss Sloan, you will have to see a doctor about those wounds,” I told her as I examined her punctured hand. Once a victim shows symptoms of rabies, it is usually too late to treat them successfully.

#ALL MY PATIENTS KICK AND BITE SERIES#

If the suspect animal cannot be found, the bite victim must start a rather painful series of injection to counteract the rabies virus. Let’s just say that the tissues required cannot be taken from a live animal. Legally, the animal has to be quarantined for two weeks, or a tissue sample from the animal has to be sent to a rabies-testing laboratory. When an unvaccinated animal bites a person, the possibility of rabies becomes a huge issue. We certainly had no intention of hurting her pet, but we absolutely had to get him back. “He’s just not used to people or being confined.” Miss Sloan held her lacerated right hand with her left as the blood seeped between the fingers of her good hand. His long ears were flapping and his skinny tail was wagging good-bye to us.

#ALL MY PATIENTS KICK AND BITE FULL#

By the time I made it to the front door, he had leaped from the car and was running full speed across the highway into the subdivision on the other side. Toby had freaked out, biting Miss Sloan on the right hand when she tried to get the leash on him. Just then, I heard some yelling coming from the parking lot. Christie went out to give her a hand while I got some sedative pulled up and ear cleansers set out so we could speed up the process. We could not help but notice a large dog bouncing around in the backseat while Miss Sloan fumbled with a leash. Out of the driver’s side appeared a seventy-year-old woman with unkempt gray hair, an antique ski jacket, and tan leather work boots. The metal dragon coasted into a parking space and backfired as the engine shut down. We were just about ready to leave ourselves, when an old monster sedan pulled into the driveway, coughing smoke from at least three sides of its undercarriage. “Be sure to lock up when you are done.”Ĭhristie, my faithful, yet sometimes reluctant, young veterinary assistant, and I had already had a long day. She must be on her way,” Lorraine, our frequently blunt middle-aged receptionist, said to Christie and me as she walked out the door for the evening. “I tried to call her, but no one answered. They so rarely saw people that it made them extremely skittish when they were exposed to strangers.

The dogs, not unlike their owner, were not overly socialized, to say the least. The only time we saw them was when there was a major problem. She never brought them in for vaccinations or routine procedures. She was a single, rather eccentric woman who lived in a fairly remote area with twelve unneutered dogs. I had met Miss Sloan only once before, when she brought in a vomiting puppy after hours. She was scheduled to bring in her dog Toby, a two-year-old bloodhound–Weimaraner cross, by four o’clock to be treated for an ear infection. It was almost five o’clock and Miss Sloan had not shown up at the clinic yet.

All my patients kick and bite