Veterinarians are the most important people in the world if you own a dog or a cat, or any other type of pet. They'll be you and your pet's best friend, and they'll stick with you through thick and thin. They won't mind so much when your pet nearly claws their skin off when it's time for their yearly injection. They might start wearing a pair of heavy-duty gloves thereafter but they won't say anything.



Veterinarians won't mind if the dog who thought the vet was his best friend, suddenly starts shying away from them, especially after the nasty jab they were given. Veterinarians won't take offense if your pet makes a mess on their carpet, it's plastic anyway and imminently replaceable. They'll even pull one out of their cupboards like a genie.

There are however some drawbacks to having a pet and sometimes that drawback becomes the veterinarians themselves. Regular check-ups become nightmares if you're swamped with work and the veterinarians are too. Trying to get an appointment that will coincide with both your busy schedules will become something to be arranged on the scale of a royal visit.

You'll need to find the time to go down to the veterinarians practice, and this unfortunately for you lies clear across town. This is another reason to curse all veterinarians and the day that you even thought about getting a pet. And if you're stuck with going to the veterinarians on a fully packed Saturday, you won't be thinking nice thoughts, especially when you find yourself squashed between an elderly lady with a yowling cat and a dog of dubious temperament that keeps looking at you as if you were its next meal.

And let's not forget the mad dash you had to actually get your dog into the car and to the veterinarians office. After that last time when he received his shot he refuses to come anywhere near the veterinarians office. With the uncanny ability for sensing danger that most animals have, your dog will do a mad dash under whichever convenient surface that he can find and refuse to come out.

When you finally do manage to drag him out you're just as scratched and clawed as the poor vet was last time. That's probably the last time that you'll feel any sympathy for them however. Your job now just gets that much harder, as you need to leash your dog and try to bundle him into the car.

You finally manage, cursing all the way, and get there to find all the seats are taken, you've nearly missed your appointment and might have had to rebook ? banish the thought! ? and your arms are starting to itch and look like you tried to crawl under a barbed wire fence. The many people and veterinarians around you look on with amused sympathy and you can finally see the funny side and join in their amusement. After all if you can't laugh at life what can you laugh at?