What happens when your veterinarian is no longer working out?
Or, alternatively: What happens when you’re a status quo kind of person but the status quo gets disrupted?
(Honestly, this pic has nothing really to do with this story, but her doggy daycare did yearbook pics this year, and I’m so obsessed I need to share it everywhere. How cute is she?!??!)
When we moved to central Indiana 10+ years ago, we interviewed veterinarians in person to find the right fit for anxious, reactive, high-strung Cooper. We found a fantastic fit. (Read how we found the right vet for our reactive dog.)
Cooper passed away. Penny came into our life. It made sense to stick with this vet. He was seeing our cats, too, and we’ve never had a problem. We started to notice that we were seeing the vet we chose less and less. Clearly, he inched toward retirement, and we found ourselves seeing a rotating cast of either brand new or temporary vets.
Still, no problems: The cats are cats so not vet will ever be good enough, and Penny is so easy-going and mild-mannered that she’d be happy anywhere.
Then, along came Stola.
Stola is not a reactive dog. She loves people. She loves dogs. She wants to play and snuggle and lick faces. Stola enjoys life.
She does not, however, enjoy being handled.
We’ve been working on this. She’s gotten much better in many circumstances, and we’re making massive strides. She isn’t “there” yet, though, at least not with strangers. So, when we took her into the vet for her first well visit, we weren’t sure how it would go. She got to see one of