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Is it still Monday?

No, it's Wednesday, but I seem to be having Monday-itis every day this week. I overcome one problem just to find another.

I had my feline companion of 20 years put to sleep last Saturday. The ordeal was very tear filled for me. I just let the tears flow, creating a runny nosed, red-eyed, very upset person before I left the vet's office. I was a mess, not thinking clearly, and just wanting to leave when it was all over with.

Dr. McMahon said that people usually pay for the euthanasia before it's done so that they can leave the office when it's over--rather than writing the check in the middle of tears. Well, I was already crying, but I wrote a check for $133.00, put the receipt in my purse, and went back to the exam room to spend our last minutes together. I was real upset, but I worked at an animal clinic before, and people usually are.

When I ran across the invoice in my purse today, and read it. I was devastated, and grieving all over again. I had told the vet that I wanted the clinic to dispose of her body because I felt comfortable with the system. I knew what I used to do when I worked at an animal clinic, and I figured this clinic would do the same thing. The body is put in a trash bag, laid to the side, and set outside the clinic in a special area where the city comes by and collects it--usually the same day.

I've heard stories of people getting new houses, digging up the yard, and finding the remains of the previous owner's well loved, but decomposing pet. I have a new yard, and I didn't want to bury her in it. I knew she was very sick, with kidney disease, so I had a couple of weeks to decide what sort of final arrangements I wanted for my dearly departed feline.

I didn't want to spend money for cremation. I don't have a lot of money to go around these days, so I decided I would do best with my memories and photographs.

I took vet tech classes ten years ago, and at one point in time I had wanted to send my next deceased pet's body to Texas A & M. They have the means, and the sanitary environment, to have the flesh decompose but keep the bones intact. I may go back and finish that associates degree someday, so I considered having "Nellie's" remains treated so that I could keep her bones and use them as a study aid. It was too expensive a venture.

Rather than paying for a box of ashes and bits of bone, I just wanted the clinic to take care of the final arrangements. The vet looked me straight in the eye when I told her what I wanted to do, and I know she understood.

When I looked over the invoice today, I discovered I had been charged $46.50 for cremation. I specifically told the doctor that I wanted the clinic to take care of the matter. Either she didn't pass the word on to the clerk, or the clerk assumed I was so upset that I wanted "Nellie" cremated so I could keep her remains as a memory.

I was just devasted, to the point of feeling like I was going to be sick. I thought the dealing with the body part was over with. Now I have to go back and claim remains that I wanted the city to return to the earth. I can still plant a tree, and place her remains so that they provide nutrients for a new growing tree--a living memory, but that wasn't my first choice of what I wanted.

I'm SO upset that my wishes weren't followed, and I was charged what I consider an exhorbatant amount of money for something I didn't want. I've written a rough draft letter to take to the clinic tomorrow. If I walk in and try to explain I'll just start blubbering and feel like a fool. I know I'll end up getting upset and crying again, even taking a letter for them to read, but what they did wasn't right.

I can't change what happened, but I can let the clinic know how upset I am. I'm probably going to change vets too. The doctor is professional and compassionate, but if they can't follow an owner's final wishes, they haven't done a good job. They need to know it, so maybe someone else won't have to go through what I'm feeling.