The Frustration

As I wrote last night about taking Grizzley to the vet today, I dropped him off this morning after fighting with the vet’s receptionist and cried out of sheer frustration this morning before I left my house.

Yesterday morning, when I called the vet’s office, a receptionist named Sheila answered the phone. I asked to talk to the vet, any vet. She wanted me to describe the problem to her instead. So I did. She never let me talk to any vet, but told me if it were HER cat, she wouldn’t wait until Saturday. Duh, that’s why I’m calling! She couldn’t give me any appointment yesterday, but I could bring Grizzley in today. But I cannot take today off – for your information, I have to drive an hour to get to work and the vet is about 15 minutes from where I work, so it’s not possible for me to go to work and have an appointment on the same day unless I can get off early, which I can’t today because half the people in our group are not in the office today. So I asked if I could drop Grizzley off in the morning and pick him up in the evening, and Sheila said of course, I just have to call the office around 8:30 in the morning to tell them I’d be dropping him off that day.

This morning at 8:35, I called them as Sheila told me to do. Another receptionist named Lorraine answered. I told her I was bringing in my cat. She told me that I couldn’t, I had to make an appointment, and by the way was I already their client? So I told her yes, I already made an appointment 2 weeks ago for tomorrow, but my cat stopped eating Tuesday night. She still insisted I could not drop him off. I told her I already spoke to Sheila yesterday and she had told me that I should not wait until tomorrow. She answered, “Well, Sheila is not here, she’s on vacation starting today. You need to come in for an appointment, you need to be there to answer in case the vet has any questions.” I told her that I could not take today off. She told me she could give me an appointment in the evening after work. I told her I get home from work a little after 7:00. She answered, “we close at eight” I told her “I can’t make it there by eight.” She went, “You should have talked to Dr. XXXXX.” I went, “I tried to, but Sheila wouldn’t let me. So let me talk to her.” She went, “She’s not in, she comes in at 2:00.” We were going back and forth with this questions and answers session for what seemed to me like an eternity. When she said “Why don’t you arrange somebody to bring him in for an appointment? Can’t you make some other arrangement?”, a sudden feeling of utter helplessness and the frustration got to me finally, and I started crying and yelled at her, “This IS the arrangement I made. What is this? What am I supposed to do NOW? And how does arranging somebody else bring him in help in ANYWAY answering the vet’s questions when he lives with ME? ” Then Lorraine relented and said OK, it’s just that there was nothing written by Sheila about me dropping the cat off, and why don’t I give her some information to give the vet?

Seriously, if I was able to talk to a vet yesterday and I was told that I couldn’t drop him off today, I would have driven an hour and a half to the Animal Medical Center in NYC last night. Does she think I actually LIKE leaving my pet all day in vet’s office? Why does she think I make appointments on Saturdays instead of dropping them off in the morning and picking them up later? Do I really need this aggravation when my cat hasn’t had any food for 3 days? I was so aggravated that I couldn’t stop crying after hanging up the phone, and when I tried to explain why I was late for work, tears welled up again.

I love this vet. I thought I finally found a vet who is open-minded, is willing to give options to clients who have different philosophy on what’s best for the pets than hers, cares about my animals more than my wallet, is thorough in every possible way, and very knowledgeable in pet care in terms of medicine or otherwise, and is not afraid to say “I don’t know” but willing to do everything to learn and investigate what she doesn’t know. I do love this vet. Too bad I’m seriously thinking about looking for another vet.