The ZOE

When David and I moved to Terrace, one of the local vets had just died of cancer. Very sad, yes, but for us it meant specifically that we couldn't get a vet for our little love child, Sierra. The two other practices in town immediately stopped taking new patients after getting overwhelmed with the overflow.

So what do we do? We adopt an unspayed pitbull that has no known medical history. Sounds like the perfect solution right?

Shortly after we added our new bundle of joy to the family, Zoe started exhibiting some odd behaviour. Like being extremely hormonal, and having giant, udder-like nipples that get in the way of everything. And running away constantly. We've picked her up at the pound, the post office, an ice cream shop, a neighbors kitchen, "Harlem" (read about that here), and one time she came home on her own with icicles frozen to her lips.

So of course, Dave and I discussed what to do. Should we have her spayed? Well, probably, but we can't get into a vet. Should we try to find her another home? Well, sure but no one wants a lactating, boy-crazy pitbull.

Sigh.

Nearly a year later, I started calling vets again and found that one was taking new patients and I promptly made an appointment for the both of them. The vet seemed concerned about Zoe's abnormally large mammaries and strongly suggested that she get spayed as soon as possible, and of course I agreed. He went on to say that it would cost somewhere between $450 and $650 and possibly on up to infinite to get the procedure done because apparently she has a ginormous uterus and could suffer complications.

I managed to stop my stomach from climbing into my mouth when I heard this number. I immediately began to calculate...tuition, mortgage, food-on-the-table...perhaps we could trade our firstborn...if only we had a firstborn...what to do....

I booked the appointment - then started looking for a second opinion. The other vet in town still has a one-year waiting list to get an appointment so I called the vet in Prince Rupert who I found to be very accomodating and quoted me $250 all in. YAAY! We'll book the day off and spend the day in Rupert and eat sushi ALL DAY LONG. It will be wonderful. Maybe not for Zoe, but for us it'll be nice.