It completely slipped my mind to mention my veterinarian in this thread. I will call him Dr. Skittles (not his real name). Dr. Skittles's veterinary hospital is more of a charity than anything else. He knows he has to make money to stay open, but he puts any extra money he has into his patients. Once he did a $3,000 surgery for $350! (It's all the people had.)
Here's the story (names changed):
SOME TOWN - Bawling like a baby, Wendy Stridor said goodbye to her family dog at Some Town Animal Hospital the day after Christmas. She couldn't afford to pay $3,000 for the major surgery that her 13-month-old pit bull needed to survive, so Stridor paid about $350 to put her down.
Four days later, Stridor, her husband and four kids received the best belated Christmas present they could have asked for: The veterinarian had saved the dog's life for free.
"I don't know if it's a Christmas miracle or if God was just watching over us, but it is just amazing to me that (the vet) would just do that," said Stridor, 45, of Some Other Town. "We couldn't believe it."
The dog — a black, blue-nose pit bull named Barkley — had been sick for about three weeks. After an examination, Dr. Bag'O Skittles, owner of Some Town Animal Hospital, said Barkley had a serious blockage in his abdominal cavity, which had likely been caused by eating from the garbage.
Devastated by the news, Stridor and her husband paid to euthanize the dog and left the office in tears.
"I sat down on my desk, and I thought, ‘This is the family dog,' and it's the holidays, so if I can do something, I should do it," Skittles said. "It took me about three minutes to make the decision."
Skittles spent a little more than an hour on the major surgery, which rang up nearly $3,000 in medical costs, and he stayed until almost midnight that night to ensure the dog was recovering well.
"You don't work for the money, you have to really care for these babies," Skittles said. "And I'm blessed to have a beautiful and caring wife who understands when I spend my time and money on cases for the good cause."
On Friday Stridor fed Barkley her medicine — also provided by Skittles for free — while the dog hung out with the family in her new Pittsburgh Steelers jersey, a family Christmas present.
To thank Skittles, Stridor purchased 10 fleece blankets that she will be donating to the animal hospital for dog cages — "the least I could do," she said.
Skittles said he regrets he cannot provide free services to every family in need, and he must make tough life-and-death decisions every day.
During a press interview Friday, Skittles sat debating whether to save another family's dog, a 5-month-old Chihuahua mix with the same blockage problem. Skittles said he kept thinking about the sad young boy who dropped off the dog to be put down.
"I'm just sitting here and thinking, ‘What I should do?'" Skittles said. "This is New Year's, and I am very busy, but I still told my technicians not to euthanize that pet yet, to just hold on.
"I can't do everybody's, but who knows, maybe I'll give good news to this kid who was crying. Some dogs are savable — I can save some."
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I can personally attest to Skittles' kindness. One year when one of our dogs needed care to survive and finances were tight and we could not afford everything the dog needed, he discounted the heck out of our bill and ended up doing two surgeries for free as well. Dang.
