Collecting Your Dog’s Urine Sample– Dedicated to the Carleton Place Valley Veterinarian Clinic
My best friend is sick. He can’t tell me what ails him as he does not speak, so I am trying to help him get on the right side of health. Yesterday my German Shepherd Axel began spotting blood and as a former UTI Queen I knew he had a kidney infection, or maybe even stones due to his age. This morning I called the Valley Veterinarian Clinic in Carleton Place and the vet asked me if I could bring in his urine sample. I asked her point blank how she expected me to do that due to his size and my lack of experience in bush trekking. Quickly she explained to me how it was done and then informed me if I could not do it there was only one other solution. Upon arriving at his appointment he should be kept in the car and then they would let him out and chase down a sample. As dollar signs flashed before my eyes, I became determined to accomplish the feat.
I put Axel on his leash and walked him outside. He ignored common favourite areas, and I tried to entice him with spots he was not supposed to pee on. My friend the Carleton Place Museum curator, Jennifer Fenwick Irwin, pulled out of her yard on the way to work and I waved. Alas, she didn’t see me and I knew I was on my own. There was now no one to ask if I should catch the specimen midstream like us adults.
Axel and I walked many times around the yard until he came to the brand new lilac tree sapling. His leg began to rise, and I quickly put a large bright yellow bowl in line with the incoming. He must have wondered what in the heck I was doing similar to the man building the fence did later. He said he would have paid big money to see that scenario.
Sample captured, I covered it with saran wrap and put his name and appointment time on it. After all, even if you are going to a vet one must be organized as my Grandmother used to say. I donned my new floor length off-white $3.00 Great Gatsby Thrift-store coat (we insist on living dangerously) for delivery, and immediately had flashbacks to what happened hauling water to the cemetery a day ago.
Their water source is not in service yet due to a long Canadian winter delaying winter burials, and as they are behind– getting the water to flow is not on the top 10 list. I remember spilling ¾ of the intended plant water on the car mat after a sharp right turn and ended up carrying the saturated mat to the grave site to water the plants. I know it sounds ridiculous but a girl has to do what a girl has to do. In no way did I want to have a similar casualty with the urine sample sloshing around in the bright yellow bowl.
I entered the vets office saying I had no idea how I did it-but here was the sample. In reality I did know. If I could save a buck or two I would have even disguised myself as a tree. She asked me if I would like my bowl back. I loved that bowl—the colour, the size– but it was the only one I knew that would do the trick so I told her they could dispose of it. This dog is everything to me. He protects me and he loves me unconditionally. Unlike the Joni Mitchell song– “I know what I’ve got and I don’t want him gone.” He may not be my WHOLE life but he makes my life whole, so anything I have is his.
Dogs and philosophers do the greatest good and get the fewest rewards.(Diogenes)
Dedicated to the Valley Veterinarian Clinic in Carleton Place, ONtario
Update on Axel
Axel now has meds for a bad bladder infection. He takes them for 2 weeks and then I collect another urine sample (another blog?) and go back and have it tested. I am just relieved he is okay–that is all that matters.
If you liked this story please read yesterdays.
Heartbeat Stories of My Best Friend
Read Linda’s column in theHumm
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