I had an exciting horse post already set to go today, but it is going to have to wait. Instead you get to read (or skip if you want) this little rant.
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Its 10pm. Every single light in our house is out. Nothing is shining, not even the front porch light. It is excessively quiet and not at all welcoming. Not the kind of place that screams "please come say hello!"
Dusty is in with Wyatt who had finally fallen asleep about an hour before. I am in bed with the pets. Again - no lights are on.
I hear the door bell ring. This sets off the dogs as they were taught to do for better or for worse. I have two immediate thoughts - 1) crap, Wyatt is going to wake up and 2) who the crap would be here at 10pm? A little nervous to answer the door in the pitch dark to someone unknown (no family member would ever come over that late without calling first) I go get Dusty.
We wander downstairs, fighting to shush the dogs, and open the door to see our across the street neighbor. A man we have never spoken to in over a year of living there. He presumably knows we have a toddler since they have seen him in the yard and also that we have dogs who bark - again he has seen them in the yard.
He apologizes for waking us up which is an empty apology. He obviously meant to wake us up seeing how dark and quiet the house was. He then goes on to say that he knows Dusty is a vet and that his dog just had a seizure and could Dusty please come over to look at him. Dusty and I look at each other - we didn't even know he had a dog.
Dusty being the nice guy he is went over and I went in with Wyatt. I don't know what time Dusty got back.
Here is the thing. This was not a friend, family member or even a client of Dusty's. Dusty is not an "always on call vet" although more and more it seems like he is. He had no medicine on him to treat the dog. He had no equipment to diagnose or evaluate the dog with. It was 10 pm!
A normal person would put the dog in the car and take it to the Emergency Clinic where they have a wide awake staff, diagnostic equipment and medication. What if the dog bit Dusty while in the post ictal state? What if the dog needed emergent treatment? What on earth was Dusty supposed to do at 10 pm in a stranger's house with no medication?
Of course, the guy went on to say how much he loves his pet and yada yada yada which I don't argue with, but this is Dusty's profession. Did the guy offer to pay Dusty for an emergency home visit? Did he offer him any compensation at all? No, of course not. He is a non client and a guy we had never spoken to before that just received a free in home emergency consultation regarding his emergent dog.
I don't swear much on here, but that is complete bull shit.
I would never, ever have the gall to walk up to a silent house late at night and ask for fee services. Heck, I wouldn't ever walk up to a person standing in their front yard in the middle of the day and ask for free services. I should find out what he does for a living and then go bother him for free advice in the middle of the night. How much do you want to bet he wouldn't even answer the door?
I was fuming mad as I went to bed. I was mad that this man thought that this was proper. I was mad that Dusty didn't tell him to put him dog in the car and take him to the emergency clinic.
Please, never ever ever take advantage of someone in this manner. Respect that their work is the same as yours - it stays at work and home time is home time. It is different for friends and family. We are always available for help for them and we both bend over backwards for our clients. But a complete stranger? Ugh.
I would be very angry too and agree the dog should have gone to the vet. Similar stuff happens to me when people find out what I do for work, and I simply tell them I can't do the service for liability reasons, which is only partially true. People are disappointed, but most of the time it shuts them up.
ReplyDeleteWhen he was first in practice he gave his personal cell number to a client. Bad decision and we spent the first year of marriage getting odd phone calls at all hours until I made him get a new number. He never made that mistake again.
DeleteWe are so conditioned to be nice, that it's hard to say no to people. I get phone calls or texts quite frequently from people who I rarely see asking advice about HR things. Depending on how close I am with the person regulates how I respond. I would say the guy wanted Dusty to look at his dog because he didn't want to be bothered to pay for emergent care.
ReplyDeleteDisconnect your doorbell. We did.
I'd like to think he was just really worried and thought this was the quickest route for his dog, but in reality you are right. He wanted free care. Haven't seen him since either. If that was me I would have dropped a gift basket off at the front door.
DeleteI agree: this is bullshit, and I too would have been livid. I would have said no: just the legal ramifications if something had gone wrong with the dog later in the night or if it had bit Dusty would have been a perfect excuse to decline going over to look at the dog. Also, what if that man had been a deranged crazy person trying to lure Dusty to his house with a false excuse? I probably think about that kind of thing more than the average person because of the high crime rate in the place I come from and also from having lived 6 years in South FL surrounded by crazies and bath salt addicts. But still. I'm glad you're all okay!
ReplyDeleteThis is why we never, ever, ever, EVER answer the door unless it's someone we are expecting. I don't want people asking me or my husband work questions after hours, I don't want some religious zealot trying to sell me on their religion, I don't want a door-to-door salesperson trying to get me to buy stuff, and I don't want some random stranger trying to break into my house because I opened the door. That door stays closed unless the person called first to let me know they were coming.
Funny you mention that. As Dusty left I laid in Wyatt's bed thinking that I had no clue who this guy was (I hadn't recognized him as our neighbor and it was only the next morning when Dusty told me where he went that I realized it) or where Dusty had gone. If he didn't come back the next morning I would have had no information to give the police except a description of the guy. Not smart.
DeleteWhen we were in Cleveland he worked Emergency and I was very uncomfortable in the house alone at night. That's when we got my baby girl Bones and I taught her to bark at anyone who came near the house. She is a big love and would sooner kiss you to death than bite, but she is big, black and has a super deep and scary bark. It really helped me.