No Dedication To Medication

CONTENT WARNING: Death & Animal Cruelty

I work at a boarding kennel. We have two dogs come in regularly, both beautiful show-grade Borzois. One is fairly old and the other quite young.

The owners of these dogs don’t socialise much with actual people.

During a stay, the older one tragically passes away in his outside run with his brother by his side. These dogs are some of my favourites, and we are all devastated to inform the owners of their dog’s passing while they are away. We call them after we find him.

Receptionist: “Hello, Mrs. [Owner]. I’m so sorry to be making this call, but it seems [Dog] has passed away this evening. We’re so sorry.”

The receptionist then goes on to explain we had been doing rounds to check on everyone and a kennel hand had found him, and then we’d left his body until they gave us direction in what to do, and we’d moved every other nearby dog away and/or locked them inside, including his brother.

Owner: “Oh, yes. Well, he did have a heart condition. That’s what his meds were for.”

Alarm bells start ringing; we never gave him meds. The receptionist frantically looks up his file, panicking that we’d be responsible for his death, but sees no meds on file. She obviously has to tell the owners about this, in case.

Receptionist: “I’m sorry, ma’am, but we don’t have meds on file for him.”

Owner: “Oh, yes, they were blood thinners, but we didn’t bring them with us.”

Receptionist: “Can I ask, why not? They seem pretty important!”

Owner: “Well, he was getting on a bit, and we figured it would be the easiest way to let him go.”

Yes, you read that right. These people, who had been bringing these dogs in for years, had put their dogs with us for the specific purpose of letting their elderly dog die here.

The next time they came in — because the owner refused to ban them — they had a Borzoi puppy.