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Wanna Play? It goes like this:

Reb: “Kee Kee!”
Mom: Monkey?
Reb: No
Mom: Spanky? (that’s the name of our leopard gecko)
Reb: No! Kee Kee!
Mom: Froggy?
Reb: Kee Kee!
Mom: Piggy?
Reb: Yes, Kee Kee!

Okay.

It’s 2 am now, so technically this took place yesterday. Ok, yesterday I dropped Charlotte off at the vet’s early in the morning at around 8 am. She was going to have her teeth cleaned.

Up until today, I’ve never cleaned any of my two rat terriers’ teeth. I thought by just giving them dry kibble and bones to chew on it would be ok. I forgot to include all the times when they licked up the food dropped by Rebecca, or when I gave them leftovers from the table. So on their annual examination, the vet told me that both Charlotte and Cayenne needed to have their teeth cleaned. I sort of put it off because of how expensive a procedure it was, but last week, when I smelled Charlotte’s breath, it was just unbearable. I could even smell it when she coughed. That was the last straw. I called up a few vets around the area, wanting to have a feel of the average cost, and it seems to be around $300 per dog. Ok, I guess I can live with that. I made an appointment with a vet who had a package for $289 (I save $11!). The package didn’t include any additional charges arising from x-rays and extraction. Of course, I hoped that Charlotte wouldn’t need to incur those costs. From what I’ve heard, extraction is time-based, and they charge by the minute (gulp!).

So everything was fine yesterday morning. On the surgery consent form, there was a question “If you can’t be reached, do you give permission to extract teeth?” I thought about that for a moment. If I’d said yes, who knows how many teeth they would pull? Well, I just have to make sure that I’ll be available to make any decision should they call. So I checked “NO”. The staff was very friendly, and helpful. Charlotte took to them immediately, so I was pretty sure they were nice people, and would take good care of her. After filling up the form, Rebecca and I said goodbye to Charlotte and left the vet.

I got a call at around noon. It was the vet tech. She said Charlotte had a deep pocket, and needed to get an x-ray done, and most likely needed an extraction. My heart sank. I recalled a few days ago when I made the appointment and Doug told me that I would end up paying more than $500. He’s so right. There wasn’t a choice for me. I would never withhold surgery to be done on my pets for the sake of money. Just couldn’t do it. I was just worried about how freakin’ high the bill would be. So I said, yes, do the x-ray, and extract the tooth. After hanging up, I was in some kind of daze, and was just dwelling on what just happened. My thoughts ran back and forth from the final cost and being worried about Charlotte and how she do after the anesthesia. Finally at around 3 pm, the vet called, said Charlotte is awake and doing fine, and they wanted to keep her for a while to monitor her. I can’t leave till 5:30 pm anyway, so it was ok. When she told me the final cost, it was like waiting to get your exam results. I was helpless. Whatever amount she said then and there I’d have to pay. Then she said it - “$630″. Ouch. Ok, I let that amount sink in for a bit. It’s funny how if you repeat something over and over again, it numbs your senses and you start to accept it. I just told myself over and over - “That’s not so bad, at least its not $1,000.” I don’t earn much, so this amount is pretty significant for me, but, at least Charlotte isn’t going to get any infection arising from that bad tooth in the future.

Let me tell you what makes the difference between a good vet clinic and a bad one. It’s not the price they charge, because here in the Bay Area, its pretty much the same for every vet. The difference is the people who work there. When we went to pick up Charlotte, the vet tech was patient in explaining to me what to do, and was able to answer all the questions I had about Charlotte’s bad tooth. Even though it was after closing time, they didn’t try to rush me off. I still had to pay the $630 though. Ok, whatever, what is done is done. I just needed to get this off my chest. I would’ve still taken Charlotte to get her teeth cleaned anyway, so, it wasn’t something I could “save” on. I think her bad breath was due to that bad tooth. What’s more, Cayenne is next, and come to think of it, I’m so glad I didn’t schedule them both for the cleaning! Now that would’ve been a hefty bill. Cayenne’s teeth is much better than Charlotte, so I’m hoping she doesn’t need any extractions, but … who knows!

Charlotte is doing really well so far. When we came back Cayenne was ecstatic to see her sister come home. She’d been moping all day long, looking aimless without her “partner in crime”. I fed them and Charlotte took the dry kibble with no problems, so that was a good sign. She did look a little more sleepy, and understandably too, she’s had a long day! Antibiotics and pain meds for the next few days and she should be back to her normal self real soon.

I’m sure those of you who are reading this and have pets of your own, you can relate on the costs of vet care. The amount I paid today might be nothing compared to what some of you paid for your dearest pets. But we just love our pets too much to not care.

Moral of the story, keep your dog’s teeth clean. I know I’m going to brush their teeth on a regular basis from now on.

Before she would usually call for the subject in question, for example, “bear-bear”. Now she would say “Where bear-bear go?”, or “Where Daddy go?”.

Rebecca is starting to talk more like a human and less like a babbling baby, so I’ve decided to create a category to record what funny things she says. This should be fun.

We had a great day today. Cake in the afternoon, and dinner at the Elephant Bar Restaurant. Check out our pictures here!

Today Rebecca turns two. No big party, I think she’ll only get to appreciate a party when she’s four. We’ll just be spending it with a good friend, have cake, and a nice dinner. I’d wanted to get her a trike but it seems that the smallest one is still too big for her. We might have to wait till she’s two and a half for that. So instead I might be getting her a little tikes toy car.

We seldom have wet weather here in the Bay Area, so today’s storm was quite a “treat”. Howling winds of up to 80 miles per hour, endless pouring rain, it was the best time to stay indoors and snuggle up. Since I’m working from home, I was thankful I didn’t have to drive in the bad weather, and good thing Doug didn’t have to drive to work either. NBC had continuous coverage of the storm from all parts of the Bay Area, and reported on overturned trucks, high winds, flooding, and power outages. We’re lucky the only thing we got was a little drip from one of the ceiling lights in the kitchen, but still, that means it might be time for a new roof for the house.

Rebecca wasn’t really phased by the rain, except that when she looked out she said “Rain, Rain, Way, Way”. Charlotte and Cayenne, of course, weren’t too excited about the wet floors, but luckily (for me) they were good enough to still go potty outside, in the sheltered area of our backyard. I took the chance today to wash Spanky’s cage and turned on the heat lamp, trying to to coax him out of “hibernation”.

We went out for dinner, and judging from the emptiness of the restaurant, it seems that everyone’s decided to stay in. By that time the rain has already died down, so it wasn’t so bad. On the way back I got some crickets for Spanky, and he actually ate a couple of them while basking in the night light. Good for him!

We will be expecting more rain in the coming days.