Brave Old Lady

It’s Friday morning - I find myself sitting in the vet’s waiting room. Moss seems to quite enjoy the social aspect of the visit and is well behaved, which makes me happy.

An elderly lady walks in with her black dog, on one of its front paws it’s wearing a waterproof sock. She sits down and removes the sock carefully, underneath there is another bandage. She looks like a kindly soul.

I’m not having a difficult visit it’s just inoculations, so I lean forward and ask her what’s wrong with her dog. She tells me the dog has a tumour on its paw and she thinks it’s spreading. The dog is fourteen.

Almost immediately I’m called into the vet’s consultation room. I go in, we have our meeting, it’s all fine. When I come out the elderly lady has gone, I assume she’s having her consultation. I leave and put Moss into her crate in the back of my car.

The car park is busy, I have to drive very carefully. I see the elderly lady, I have time to wind down my window and ask, “How did it go?” She looks at me with those kind eyes, “They’ve given her painkillers, so that she will be comfortable. It’s spreading.”

It makes me stop and think about the true value of having a dog.