I get a notice in the mail that reminds me I have to pay for his dog license. It also requires proof of his rabies vaccination.
Last year, I got up at the ass crack of dawn and took him to the Humane Society's vaccination clinic on a Saturday morning. They have them several times a week. Little did I know last year, these clinics are not a few people going to get their animals shots, it's a ton of people. I got there when it opened at 7 a.m. and it was a 90 minute wait for a 2 minute session to get him vaccinated.
I thought I'd be smarter this year. The Humane Society was doing a vaccination event at the vacant lot on Roger Road west of Oracle where they're going to soon be building their new facility. They were on the Blend promoting it on Wednesday and the advice they gave me when they appeared on the TV show was "get there early". So, I got up at 5:45 a.m. this morning, took a shower, and put Lucky in the car. We were off to the other side of town.
That was a ZOO. Holy crap, there were 50+ cars on the lot and more than that waiting in line at 6:55 a.m. It was already 85 degrees out and I wasn't about to make Lucky stand out in the heat and sun for an hour plus (and I only brought water for the dog, not for myself). I am thrifty with my spending and thought I'd be saving myself a little money going to this thing to get it done. Bad idea. I put Lucky back in the car and headed back home.
I had no idea until I vented about it on Facebook that there are other vaccination clinics around town that are specifically designed for this sort of thing. One of them was an afternoon session at the Petco store on Wrightstown about 3 miles from where I live starting at 1 p.m. Even if it cost more than the Humane Society one, I was determined to get this done today and hoped it wouldn't involve a long line and standing out in the 100+ degree weather.
It turned out that there was a line at Petco too, but it was much shorter -- about 15 people. And, it was indoors. I decided Lucky and I could deal with that, so we stayed.
It ended up costing me $64 (I would have spent $15 at the Humane Society event). They offered some package that included distemper, deworming, rabies, and parvo. He doesn't interact with other dogs much since he hangs around with Ken and Anthony all the time but he does stick his face sniffing into other dog's pee and poo when we go on walks and I thought 'what the hell'. It's better to spend more to get him vaccinated for stuff he may not need than have him get sick or die. I may be a rather numb person emotionally but I am not so cheap that I won't spend a little to keep him around as long as I can.
Mission accomplished.
On a side note, the veterinarian wasn't a very nice guy. I got the impression that he didn't like the work he does. Apparently it's not required when you help animals to be nice to people. Fortunately, the assistant that was helping him was a really nice woman.
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| The line at Petco on Wrightstown for dog vaccinations. Indoors and the air conditioning on. Yes, please. |
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| Lucky waits his turn to get poked. Sounds like a date I've had. |