Keric's blog: "Sense or Sensitivity"

Today goes into my records as one of the saddest in recent memory. As many of the folks here know we have been trying to adopt two rescued basenjis. We have spent just over a thousand dollars all told to get them carry cages, beds, collars, leashes, food, vet bills, 2 steel "baby gates" and a host of toys and treats. We were as committed to making this their forever home as we could get. We have 2 cats and we made it clear to the shelter and to BRAT (Basenji Rescue and Transport) that we could only deal with cat friendly dogs. We were lied to about this. The dogs refuse to not chase the cats. The gates we got to divide our home into areas in an attempt to give the cats some ability to roam, tho never the freedom they gave up. It has become a bit like living in a state of siege. and the cats are losing. Today Almond Nut, our little girl cat - who has lived huddled on a top shelf of one of the bookcases in my office since the dogs came here, venturing out only if she though they were gone or penned in the master bedroom - started throwing up blood. Trip to the emergencey vet clinic, during which she peed herself and cried pitiously, then was poked, prodded, x-rayed and 2 blood samples later the vet says no bad stuff like feluke or fids, but either the feline version of IBS or, more simply and more likely - Ulcers. A stress disease. No question about that being a cause. So she is in overnight, dehydrated so being given IV. Hopefully this will help the physical results, tho mental/emotional is likely not going to be good. If it succeeds without a second IV series, we'll bring her back tomorrow, along with 3 meds and orders to give her a stress (i.e. dog) free environ. Possibility exists that she may be on one or more of the meds the rest of her life. Current vet bill $684 so far, but with another close to $300 expected. Call it and even 1K. We were gone 43 minutes. While we were the dogs, deprived of any human presence for less than 3/4 of an hour, destroyed two sets of blained,s. Blinds that bt were not even closed, but were available to be chewed on to show their displeasure at our rushing a cat off to the vet because of them, but not taking them along. Probably cost to repair/replace approximately $500 as they were custom cut cherry wood. I have come to love these animals, truly feeling a bond. However enough is now become too much. Kisa was in tears over Almond Nut and I was so concerned I drove to the vets without my wallet (meaning No driver's license) at speeds well exceeding the legal limit and helped clean her piss off her so that she could stand to be out of her carry cage, petting her and feeling her once again butt her head against me - something she has not been able to do with the dogs ready to chase her whenever she climbed off her shelf. I can not even manage to allow the dogs in here as I type as I know my heart would go out to them and I must harden it once again. I may not be online much in the next couple of days, partly because I will be back at work tomorrow and partly as we run hither and yon to get what "Nutter" needs to live here safely again. And then there will be the process of handing off the dogs. They are good dogs, just not cat friendly and entirely too needy of a human IN SIGHT all the time to live here.

There has been a lot of talk about why people act with so little courtesy or even regard for others. I am going to relate some details and some thoughts about one such incident and would remind readers that while it has been edited to remove any names, it is still a true occurrence. An agent recently got a call from the wife of an exec for a nationally known store chain. Husband and wife were traveling together to a big meeting of said chain. When they arrived at the airport for some reason not related to the bag being "lost" or even delayed they decided to not wait for all their bags to come out on the bag carousel. After arriving at their hotel, they called the airline to have one bag delivered to the hotel. The airline of course refused based on the fact that the bag had not been lost, but simply left behind and the airline had no liability in such a case. The wife immediately called her travel agency, which was closed, but which has a 24 hour emergency service. She then wanted the travel agency to set up and to pay for delivery of the bag to her at the hotel. The agent explained, several times and in several polite, though differently worded ways, that the agency could set up such a delivery, but would not pay for it as the traveler had that responsibility having left the bag without valid cause. Now let's backtrack and think a bit here. Say husband and wife each checked 2 bags for 4 total, and further each had a carry-on and maybe he had his golf clubs too - so maybe 7 bags total. This was a major airport, complete with skycaps. At the going rate of $2 per bag they could have had a skycap take charge of all their luggage and gone for a cigarette or coffee break while the skycap did the waiting and gathering for a base rate of $14. Add a tip to the skycap for the service and his time (and maybe aid in loading the bags into a taxi) and the grand total might go $20 max. The cost to have a limo go to the hotel for the baggage claim check, then to the airport to claim the bag from the airline's left luggage office and return to the hotel to deliver it would be either a minimum number of hours at the hourly rate or "garage to garage" (from the time the limo wheels started rolling out of the garage to when they stopped rolling back at the garage) plus any tolls or fees. I'd estimate not less than $200 given where this took place. I'm sure most of you have already made the TEN times amount association here. To continue with the phone call: the wife then said to the agent "Why can't someone else coming in for the convention pick it up for us?" --- Yes, I am serious. That was her next "request". OK the agent explains (again) that the claim check would be needed to get the bag from the airlines left luggage area, leaving out the impropriety of the agency or the couple making such a request to other top-flight execs. The response? "Well! I'd get my husband to tell you to do it, but he's already playing golf!" Have you all stopped laughing or groaning yet? Pretty obviously these people are bullies (To make a bully give a small mind small power) who are used to taking advantage of the normal courtesy and politeness of others to browbeat their way thru life not taking any responsibility (moral or monetary) for their actions. I certainly would not want to work in the store this clown manages, nor be employed in the household where this woman lives. I bet she'd defend her "requests" for the bag delivery by claiming she'd tip the driver when the bag came up -- what a whole $2??? Come on lady get a grip on reality. If you just had to not stand around yourself waiting on your bags, pay a skycap a lousy $20 and go have a martini while you wait. Do NOT expect someone else to pick-up a tab which is now 10 times that amount, just because you have no sense or are you really so insensitive to other people that you have forgotten that even the Bible says: "The workman is worthy of his hire"? Which in simple English means that if you order a job done, you pay for it, not try to bully it done. Who exactly made you Pharaoh or mistress of the plantation? Next time THINK and pay the $20 yourselves, because I don't think you're ever going to convince anyone else to spend the $200 on your laziness. At least I hope not.