Complete Lack of Human Compassion

I debated on posting this here at Triangle Mamas. However, several people have told me that it needs to be said here. I want Triangle Mamas to be a positive place; a place to share. Sometimes though, sharing means passing along information that might be helpful to others. In that spirit, I'm sharing this story. Blogging gives us a voice, and offers us the chance to be heard. Maybe someone who needs to will hear this:

Chelsea and I were at peace with each other when she left this past
Friday. Although I miss her more than you possibly want to hear about,
I know that it was time for her to go, and it was my responsibility to
help her leave this life. I promised to be her guardian and caretaker,
and I was for 14 years. All the way up to the very end.

There
was a part of the story I didn't tell on Friday. I didn't want to mar
saying goodbye to my pup anymore than had been done for me that day.
The experience we had at the vet was unbelievable, and I wavered on
whether to share it at all. However, if anyone is searching for this
vet online, I think it is important that they hear how we were treated.

Quail Corners Animal Hospital,
where I had trusted the care of my dogs for close to eight years now,
will no longer be our vet. There was a girl who was supposed to be
scheduling it to be done at home for us. Two days went by without her
calling me back, only to find out that the vet who was supposed to do
it had gone into labor. While I certainly understood that labor and
birth took priority, I didn't understand why I hadn't been extended the
courtesy of a phone call to give me this information. Instead I had to
keep calling back, trying to find out what time I would say goodbye to
my pup. I needed to find someone to watch Bird and really wanted Kevin
to be off work to be with us. I needed to prepare myself mentally and
emotionally.

After two days of not letting me know anything
except how little she knew, I finally told her that I would just bring
Chelsea in to have it done. She told me the vets who were available,
and after I chose one, she asked me if I wanted morning or afternoon. I
told her afternoon. She offered me 1:30, and I said that would be fine.
I repeated back the time to her, and she said yes 1:30 was the time.

I
called Kevin and let him know. Then I called Boo who had offered to be
with me, and I asked her to watch Little Bird. I set the whole thing up
for 1:30. I did not get the time wrong of the death of my dog.

When
we arrived at the vet, we were told by the front desk that our
appointment wasn't until 4:30. The woman at the front told us there was
nothing she could do to change it.

Seriously?

I'm sitting
there in the waiting room, bawling already. Chelsea is just standing
there because she can't lay down without just falling over anymore.
Kevin is standing with his mouth agape. It was all I could do to get
there once. There was no way I could go home and bring her back again.

Seriously? Nothing she could do?

I
told her through my tears that she didn't need to change anything; that
our appointment was at 1:30, and we were there at the right time. I
wasn't going to even entertain this discussion.

She just repeated herself.

I
start sobbing. I can't help it. I tell her that I had been working with
Rachel for three days to get this taken care of, and that I had been
extremely patient with her. I told her that our appointment was at 1:30.

She went to get Rachel.

We
have to believe that something else was going on in the office because
Rachel approached us swinging. She came out and immediately told me we
were wrong. I was wrong. Our appointment was at 4:30 and that she had
confirmed it on the phone with me for 4:00. Um, okay. I'm not sure how
that made any sense, but whatever.

I have to admit. I lost it. I
actually yelled. In public. At that girl. I yelled at her and told her
she was incompetent. I yelled at her and told her that she was
completely unable to engage another adult in an intelligent
conversation that resulted in effective communication. I yelled at her
and told her to quit talking to me and just get me all of my dogs'
records so I could get out of there and never have to see her again.

The
whole time, she was yelling back at me, telling me that I was wrong.
Telling me that the circumstances were out of her control. I'm not sure
what circumstances kept her from inputting the correct time of my
appointment into the computer, but whatever.

Kevin stepped in
between us and told us both to stop. He looked at Rachel and asked her
what she was going to do to fix this. She said that she couldn't do
anything right then, that we could be worked in at 2:30.

I told
her to get our records and she yelled over Kevin's shoulder that she
would be glad to do that and then stormed out of the little office
cubby.

After she was gone, another office worker came out into
the waiting room and leaned over to me. She said that there was a vet
who could help us then. Kevin took my arm and nodded at me to get up
and go back. He knew that this was the one chance we had at my
strength. It was sapped, and if we took Chelsea back home again, I
would never let her go.

There were mumbled apologies at the "mix-up." I ignored them. There was no "mix-up." It was a major mistake on their part.

The
thing is, even if I had gotten the time wrong, which I didn't, they
should have ignored it. Obviously, I wasn't in some sort of hurry that
I deceptively came in with my dog and tried to get them to put her to
sleep 3 hours before my scheduled time. That's freaking absurd.

Any
ounce of compassion would have caused the very first woman in the
office to ignore the discrepancy between the time we arrived and the
time that Rachel the genius entered in the computer. She would have
quietly slipped into the back and found the vet who helped us in the
end, and made everything work out without subjecting us to the drama
that their incompetency created.

This isn't a rant, it is simply
what happened that day. In the event that someone Googles this vet, it
is the chance for them to see how they might be treated if they choose
to go there.

It was hard enough to make the decision. It was
hard enough to get in the car with my pup. It was hard enough to get
out of the car and take her inside for the very last time. To say
goodbye.

I will never understand how they could possibly treat someone in so much obvious pain as badly as they treated me.

Crossposted from Don't Take the Repeats. Marty, now doggie mama to just Aja and Gibson, also blogs at Don't Take the Repeats and Deep South Moms Blog.

We Have a Winner!

Triangle Mamas would like to congratulate Heather on winning our very first giveaway! You can find Heather at Vanilla Pudding for My Soul. Random.org chose Heather our of all the comments left before this past Friday at midnight.

Thank you to everyone who entered and linked to our contest.

Water of Life

Here is a sampling from the CD you can enter to win by commenting on this post. You have until Friday at midnight to enter, and if you link back to our contest on your blog and leave another comment with the link, you'll be entered twice!

Win the Beauty of the North Carolina Mountains in Music and Watercolors

These days, a blog just isn't a blog unless it's giving something away. I've seen giveaways for countless toys and games for your kids, but rarely something just for Mom.

That's where we come in.

This week, we are giving away a copy of Bill Leslie's newest book and CD, Blue Ridge Reunion. Granted, if I want Christopher to go to sleep in the car, it's the first CD I go to. He's usually out by the end of the first track. And the book is a picture book . . . but not the kind you are used to reading before bedtime.

The pictures in this book were painted by Bill's father. He was a watercolor artist, much like Bill is a musician. On the side.

Bill's father owned a bookstore in Morganton, North Carolina. Bill says they carried a little bit of everything really. And after hours, his father would paint. Like his father, Bill pursues his artistic passions after hours. He is an award winning anchorman on WRAL in the mornings, and an award winning musician on the side.

The paintings in the book are incredible portraits of the North Carolina mountains. There is, in my humble opinion, no place on earth more beautiful than western North Carolina, and William Leslie captured that beauty in simple, pure, watercolors.

I don't have to wax poetic about the beauty of Bill's music. Plenty of people have done that already. Yo-Yo Ma called Bill "one of the greats in modern Celtic music" during an interview Bill was conducting with him, and author Jan Karon uses Bill's music on her website as the perfect musical backdrop. The CD has been receiving generous airplay on new age stations around the world, was number 1 on the world music charts in September and number 2 in October.

I cite my references as I glow about him because I am a little biased. Those are my backing vocals you will hear on the three vocal tracks. I laugh when I say that I'm finally doing music my parents enjoy, but it's true, and I'm proud of that.

Bill has generously given us a copy of both the book and the CD to giveaway here on Triangle Mamas. He has a soft spot for babies and for mamas. The three ladies he shares the WRAL news desk with have six children between them, Christopher attends our band rehearsals on my back in our Babyhawk, and our violinist will be bringing her nine month baby belly to our gig at the Grove Park Inn in February. 

That's Mr. Leslie just above there with a tiny tiny Little Bird way back when. . .

Pardon my distraction. He's just such a cute baby.

You want this CD. You want it with a glass of wine, a warm bath, and a husband who is watching your kids for an entire hour. The book is going to look beautiful on your coffee table, and I dare say we can even get him to sign it for you if you like.

For anyone who loves North Carolina, this is the perfect Christmas gift. Even if that "anyone" is yourself.

Leave us a comment. That's all you have to do to enter. Link to our contest and leave us another comment with that link and you get two entries. It's that simple.

Entries will be accepted until midnight this Friday, December 12. We'll post the winner over the weekend. Please make sure that we can get in touch with you via email in case you win!

This is an original Triangle Mamas post. Marty can also be found blogging at her personal blog, Don't Take the Repeats when she isn't slacking off on Facebook.

Why Moms Wear Sweatpants

Crossposted at My Sweet Babboo.  Abby can be found sweatpants and all blogging at My Sweet Babboo.  That is, unless she's out buying new sweats at Old Navy.

Stay tuned for Triangle Mamas' first giveaway this week!