Well, Deb, I am sorry that you are dealing with those eye problems, and
as someone with a few including glaucoma (currently stable again so we
will jump again for more surgery the next time it isn't) I can not only
empathize but sympathize. I'm also sorry that you are coping with not
one but three chronic medical problems. That's hard. It seems to have
caused you to forget, though, that people also can have transient
serious things to care for, things which make certain weeks or months
difficult to impossible. Now, in that situation a person who needs
service or help uses an alternative. For example, the alternative vet
you mentioned who will now become your vet again.
When I wrote that post about the many things that can create a
situation when someone isn't available to help -- things like surgery
and recovery, personal illness, illness of a family member, death of
a family member, and fortunately also good or exciting things like
weddings, births, getting a kid off the college for the first time,
vacations, etc. -- I was not prepared for the MANY notes i got back
from shelter people (and 2 from breeders). Perhaps I should have been.
It sounds like there are way too many shelter people out there whose
free help is taken for granted by a few. Luckily, most people are
understanding and realize that anything that can place demands in their
own lives can also place demands against the lives of others, and that
everyone can get exhausted or simply be too unwell short-term to deal
with calls at all hours. There are those few, though, who fail to
empathize, don't consider schedules, don't consider time zones, and
figure that free help -- no matter what it costs the provider -- is
their due. I was literally FLOODED with notes from shelter people who
had had a few certain people read them the riot act or throw tantrums
when the shelter people could not provide free help 24/7 or dared to
have their own lives.
I guess i should have realized how those wonderful people are affected
by this same problem, and apologies for being slow on the uptake on
that score.
So, whether people are talking about a shelter operator, a breeder, a
contact, a vet, a vet tech, a list moderator, or someone who tries to
find time to look up health info for others: ALL of us need and deserve
some time of our own and the chance to tackle both the hard and the
exciting things in our own lives. There just plain will be unexpected
times that become too demanding temporarily without any way to tell
people in general ahead of time (or perhaps a way but no time, or too
ill to tackle it). That is simply true for everyone. Heck, even ferrets
have their downtimes, and we humans don't match up to them :-).
And now i figure the topic can be dropped but I had debated later
pointing out the needs of shelter people and others, and your three
posts gave me good reason to do so.
Be kind, people. Kindness, consideration, and favors don't run in only
one direction. When people try to have that be the case they are
repeatedly abandoned by good individuals who had tried to be friends.
Many thanks to the majority of you because you already know these
things and use those skills with love and respect.
Sukie (not a vet)
Recommended ferret health links:
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/ferrethealth/
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/
http://www.afip.org/ferrets/index.html
http://www.miamiferret.org/fhc/
http://www.ferretcongress.org/
http://www.trifl.org/index.shtml
http://homepage.mac.com/sukie/sukiesferretlinks.html
[Posted in FML 6080]
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