Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Door #1, Please

On Monday, we took Benjamin back to the specialist for his post surgery checkup. When we arrived we were promptly assigned a room where we waited to see the veterinarian.

The rooms at the facility serve as a small private waiting room and a consultation area where you get to meet with the veterinarians and surgeons. There is no exam table or other items that you typically find in a veterinary exam room. Instead, the rectangular rooms are filled with a long bench that runs the length of the room and a couple of stools. All exams and pet evaluations are done in the back section of the facility, away from nervous pet owners. The rooms have two doors. One that leads to the back section of the facility where all the real work is done and one that leads to the lobby.

When we arrived for our checkup, Benjamin immediately remembered where he was and he quickly became a bundle of nervous energy. We were assigned a room right away and we waited in our room for our turn to speak with the veterinarian. Both doors to the room were closed and Benjamin ran from one door to the other. Taking a second to peer and smell under each door. Back and forth and back and forth, pausing each time a little longer at the door leading to the lobby as if to give us a clue that that is the door he hopes to be leaving from. However, he couldn't ignore the other door because he could hear voices coming from that direction. So, back and forth he paced, heading from door to door as quick as he could go on the slippery floor.

To distract him, we had Benny pose with the framed collage of the agility dogs in the room that have had surgery at AVS and are all healed up and back on the agility course. This served only as a mild distraction because as you can see Benjamin's gaze is intently focused on the door that leads to the exam side of the facility.

When our veterinarian entered the room, Benjamin gave him an overzealous greeting and jumped around a bit while we talked and gave an update on how Benjamin has been doing. Then it was time for Benny to get a thorough examination, which meant it was time for him to go through door #2 leading to the back of the house.

Once he realized he was being led through door #2, his tail uncurled and he tried his best to dig his nails into the floor to resist being taken for his dreaded exam. He looked at us and gave us a look of "Oh, no! Not door #2!" So I casually mentioned that there might be treats back there and his little tail curled right up and off he went.

After his exam, he came back to the room and promptly went to door #1, which leads to the lobby, and scratched at it. As far as he was concerned he was done and he would like someone to take him to the car. But, we still needed to hear how his exam went. And, despite not wanting to get his exam, Benjamin got a great report. Everything is look great after his surgery.

When we wrapped up our conversation with the vet, Benjamin bolted out door #1 and right to the front door of the facility where he scratched at that door was well. Once he was outside, he marched directly to the car, as if to say, "I'm not letting you forget to take me home this time!"