It Shouldn't Happen to a Dog

[Leander Hastin]

When Lee walked up to the front door of the small animal clinic, the last thing he was expecting was to see a long leash tied to the door handle, leading to the bushes that were next to the door. He followed the lead with his eyes, catching a glimpse of white fur, "Hey puppy." The fur didn't move, so Lee untied the leash and then stepped away from the door, tugging at it. He wasn't prepared for what came out of the bushes towards him, a nearly pure-white, thin dog.

The aussie, for it was an Australian Shepherd, was a mess. Not only was her fur matted and lanky, but her eyes were pink-rimmed and had strangely shaped pupils. Lee shook his head in disgust, "Poor dog." He picked the puppy up, knowing that he had an extra shirt for afterwards in the clinic, and then unlocked the door, hugging the puppy to his chest as he flipped on the lights and carried her to the exam room.

Once there, he set her down on the table before moving to turn on the lights. The dog's head popped up at the brightness, but she didn't follow his movements with her head, and Lee felt worry in the pit of his stomach. He had his guess why the puppy had been left on his doorstep, and yet, this was why he hated some people. If people bred a puppy like this one, who looked to be about three months old, then they should be willing to live with the consequences.

[Deleted]

Jenna sang quietly along to Love Somebody by Maroon 5 while she pulled on her purple North Face jacket. The air wasn't actually that cold, which she knew since she had been out earlier, Jenna was just being a baby when it came to the cooling weather. The teen had finished everything she needed to do for the day, now it was time to spend it how she preferred. With a rough yank, she had her old suede boots on and was standing on her own two feet. Jenna patted her pockets quickly, checking for her phone then exited her room. One quick motion and her door was locked and she was on her way out of Blue Ribbon.

The cool air greeted her as she walked over to the animal clinic. It was rather rejuvenating and the air gave her the small bit of energy she would need to pull through the day.

Jenna walked up and pushed the door to the clinic open and stepped inside. The waiting room was empty, though the lights were on so she shrugged off her jacket. She walked over to one of the the chairs and sat it down carefully before she walked to the back. Dr. Hastin would know if she was in there, she Jenna knew her presence would startle him if he happened to see her before she saw him. It didn't take long to find the doctor because after a few step she was him in the exam room. Instead of walking straight up to him, Jenna lingered towards the entrance for a moment so that she didn't disturb the ball of fur on the exam table.

Her eyes ran over the animal for a moment, trying to see if she could recognize it as one of the clinic animals but nothing came to mind. She pursed her lips before greeting the doctor as she normally would, just with a less energetic tone. "Morning Doc"

[Leander Hastin]

Lee heard the door to the clinic open, but didn't turn to see what was going on, instead running his hands over the puppy's body, trying to see if there were any other issues he would be treating, or if the starvation was the worst of it. Ear mites were present in the puppy's ears, but that would be an easy fix, and she was flea-ridden, but that also wouldn't take more than a good bath or two, so he was pretty confident that she would be fine, at least, health wise. Life condition wise? Maybe not so much.

He heard Jenna's voice and turned to smile at her, "Good morning, Jenna." That was the one good thing, he supposed. Their talking wouldn't disturb the occupant of his newest patient. Setting the aussie up in a small bed and leaving her in the corner of the exam room, that she wouldn't fall off of the table, he walked towards the door, "I have a case for you, if you're interested." He closed the door to the exam room, then led the way towards the back, "Someone brought in a dog with CPV2 yesterday, and they can't take care of him to nurse him back, so he's going to be staying here until he heals up." He opened the door to the quarentine area, holding it for his student before leading her to the last kennel, "Meet Angus, a pit mix puppy."

[Deleted]

A small smile formed on Jenna's face when the doctor greeted her. She stood near the door, keeping quiet while watching the dog get relocated. Jenna played with the idea of asking if there was anything special to do, though it was pretty routine for her to ask and just kept quiet. When Dr. Hastin offered her a case she had to stifle a laugh and offered a simple 'okay'. She listened to his words as they walked through to the back. Jenna graciously nodded as he held the door for her and approached the last of the kennels.

In the kennel was a skinny brown and white puppy who seemed to just notice human presence. His tail beat back and forth as he slowly got up and sauntered closer to the two. His digits spread as he stood on his back legs, pressing his front paws against the chain-link fence. Jenna smiled softly at the dog, who was obviously weak, then looked at the vet. "I'm definitely willing to take care of the little guy." Though Jenna knew that she herself couldn't contract parvo, she decided that she would grab a pair of gloves so that she wouldn't accidentally spread it to any of the other dogs.

[Leander Hastin]

Lee smiled as he heard Jenna's acceptance of the project he was about to put on her shoulders. He knew that the equine vet did similar things with her students, which, to be honest, where he had gotten the idea. After all, Jenna knew enough about how things worked to come to him if she didn't know what to do, and having one or two less patients to worry about overall would be worth it in the long run.

As they entered the quarantine, Lee watched Jenna's reaction, smiling as he heard Angus' paws against the kennel. As he heard her taking on the case, he nodded, pleased, "Awesome, thank you." He pointed to the corner, where there were scrubs and gloves, "Those scrubs stay in the quarantine, your clothes don't go anywhere near him. There's antibacterials in here, although I'd rather you wash your hands even if you do use gloves." Strict? Yes. He didn't care, though, "And the reason for that, half of our patients are old enough not to catch it. Any puppy, though, will get it if it gets out of this room, so we have to be really careful."

He pointed at the puppy's leg, "I put a catheter in already, but keep an eye on him, he's going to need IV fluids for quite a while. I'll let you get to know him, and then whenever you're ready, you can call me and I'll come and show you how to do an IV."

[Deleted]

Jenna listened to the doctor and nodded. Her eyes followed his hand to the corner where the medical attire was. She was nervous, yet excited for her first patient, particularly one with parvo so she listened to every word he said carefully. "Sounds good." She smiled when he told her to come to him for a hand.

She put on the plain colored scrubs then tied her high ponytail into a bun so that her hair had no chance of getting chewed on. She crept into the kennel with the puppy and sat down next to him. Angus wagged his tail and followed her over to her seat before he started licking the latex gloves on her hands as they were the closest thing to him. Jenna smiled and pet the pit mix softly. They got used to each other for quite a while before Angus calmed way down and she decided to find the doctor.

Jenna got Dr. Hastin so that they could do the IV and stood outside of the kennel. "I'd say he's ready." She gestured to the brown and white dog who was laying down and peaking up at them with a sweet puppy dog face.

[Leander Hastin]

Lee smiled and nodded as he heard Jenna's agreement, "I'll leave the two of you alone, then. I'll just go and find some scrubs that I can work with him later, and I will be right back." He looked at Jenna, smiling slightly to take the sting out of his instructions, but his face was tense, "I will be back. You will stay in here." He didn't know quite what to do with his student at the moment, if he was honest. He had seen a bad parvo outbreak in his clinic, leading to too much euthanasia for him to put it out of his head. However, as he walked away, he felt bad for being to terse with Jenna. Yes, the whole place was as stake, but his worry shouldn't translate over to the girl.

Perhaps he would apologize later, he decided, pulling on clean scrubs. He popped his head into the exam room briefly, his eyes sweeping across the white puppy in the corner, who seemed to have fallen asleep, then closed the door again gently before walking to the quarantine wing. He entered, and then leaned against the door, watching Jenna interact with the puppy with a smile.

When she came to get him, he nodded, picking up the catheter and the IV bag, entering the kennel, although he handed the needle to Jenna, "I shaved him when he came in, but decided to let him calm down a bit before the IV, because he was still freaking out. You're going to be putting it into the right leg, the cephalic vein." He picked up the limp dog's leg and held it out, "He's not going to give you much resistance, so your job is easy." He traced the point where she would place the needle, then simply held up the IV bag, and tape for holding the catheter in place.

[Deleted]

Jenna stood up after she set the puppy down next to where she had just been sitting and attempted to brush off some of the hair that stuck to her scrubs. She didn't need to go far to get Dr. Hastin, as he was by the door watching. She gave him her usual bright smile since he seemed a bit distressed.

Jenna took the needle from the obviously worried doctor. She knew the consequences of Parvo, as it was very well known, but she hadn't expected him to be as worried as the doctor was. She took a deep breathe, expanding her lungs almost as far as they were able to go, then let out the air through nose quietly. Her shoulders relaxed a little as she tried to relieve her own nerves.

She had noticed earlier that Angus had been shaved around where his IV was to be put in but nodded anyway and took a step towards the puppy. She pinpointed the spot where Dr. Hastin had showed her where to put the needle in and got it in his vein with the most accuracy she could muster up. "Not as bad as I thought it would be." She spoke quietly and a small smile formed on her face. He wasn't kidding when he said that it was going to be easy and Angus wouldn't put up much if any resistance.

[Leander Hastin]

Lee watched as Jenna slid the needle into place and nodded, seeing that it had hit its mark. As she commented on how easy it had been, he nodded, "I guess that's the one positive of parvo, if you can call it an upside. By the time the owners realize anything is wrong, they're too weak to resist anything we want to throw at them." He held out a piece of tape to her, "Now just tape it in place, and we'll give him a chance to take it in." He hung the IV bag on a small hook higher up on the wall, knowing that the puppy wouldn't be up to moving for a few more days at the least.

Leaving the kennel, he looked at Jenna, "If you feel like hanging around, there's laundry and then cages to be done, but otherwise, not much happened, and you can just come back later to check on your patient." He smiled at her, "You've been around long enough, so his care's going to be your job. If you have questions, I'm always here, but I think you've seen enough cases to have your own project for once." He would still keep an eye on the puppy, obviously, and speak to her if something wasn't going well, but how would she learn if she never got to make decisions?