Happy Vet

Walking down the lane of dreams u n f o l d i n g, I recalled my awkward encounters with animals my childhood days.

The class was told to think of a theme using pronouns if I remember it right. I came up with a topic about how our week revolved around our only family dog then. My draft included running after Kukoi for its weekend splash, daily manual deticking and defleaing and three times a day meal. It ran thru couch rumbling and sneaking thru bedroom doors when given a chance or door beating on firecracker season and thunder blight. Until Kukoi was bred by roaming-free alike mates and boom! More pups filled the house. The family would know Kukoi on its way to whelping by its bump and we would just be surprised in the morning she already whelped. One pup after pup died due to this bloody diarrhea or frequent vomiting. I had to go to school late trying to revive a pup I did not know was on the brink of life-death. I slowly forced fed the pup with a sugar-milk solution and I got more encouraged to feed more with its swallowing until its tummy could not contain anymore. The pup went like a wilted leaf, regurgitated  everything it took in and lay still on the sofa. I did not want to be scolded so I had to pull the sofa outside and washed the surface at least.

We did not know anything about deworming or any vaccination of a dog but just rabies.

I was bitten by a puppy when I was a kid but it did not stop me fron writhing with joy with a sight of a furry creature. My mother brought me to a barangay clinic where I had these sessions of "tandok."

When asked about what to become, everybody mentioned becoming a doctor, nurse or police. One weird said becoming an astronaut. Nobody said about scooping poop or drying a pee or injecting an animal some pro-life chemical.

Even when I was in high school did I hear about a vet's work until I enrolled forestry and shifted to vet med a year after.

Sifting thru old photos, I saw me hugging a puppy. It was I think a hint of an inclination.

About two decades later, I became a veterinarian. And all of our mistakes about dogs are coming to realization. :)))