double your fun

Last night at work we had nearly two simultaneous codes going on--both crashing trauma OR patients who didn't make it.

The code I worked was the result of a fairly young guy chasing after his dog across a street and getting smacked by a car. Dubious silver lining: the dog is fine. I sternly informed Piper this morning that if he runs out in traffic somehow, dog, you's on yo' own.

The patient's tragedy did, however, remind me to change Piper's address-of-record on his microchip, and city dog license. When I called the microchip company, however, they were trying to sell me on paying for the microchip service, and making it seem like I needed to, because their old service was obsolete.

Smelling a rat, I steadfastly probed and poked holes into this story, and flatly refused to pay fifteen bucks a year for services I don't need. I pointed out I had paid to microchip the dog back in 2003, and I wasn't about to pay again for random "services" that are basically covered by his Seattle dog license and basic, "free" microchip non-annual fee.

I mean, the whole point of the microchip is that if your dog is found, sans collar, by a vet's office or a shelter, they can wave their magic microchip wand, contact the pet service, who will then call you. And any way, if some non-magic-microchip-wand owning person finds your collarless dog, they'd probably bring it to a shelter any way, right?

The guy pointed out if the dog was wearing his collar, with the microchip tag on it, that if someone found him cum collar, and called the Home Again number, that the company "would not be able to release any contact information" to that person.

Personally, I'm not convinced I'd want my contact information to be released to a stranger who might then come over and kill me and my little dog, too.

Plus, in a time of economic downturn, people get a little incensed when forced to pay for mysterious 'services' that defeat the entire purpose of having bought or invested good money a thing in the first place.

It sort of feels like having to buy and install digital cable in order to get any t.v. reception at all, doesn't it? Or having to install that box-thing (I'm very high-tech, you know, with my electronics jargon) and then pay more money per month to get the high-definition to work on your high-definition capable t.v.?

(Incidentally, what was wrong with regular old t.v.? Maybe I'm getting blind in my old age, but I don't really see much of a difference between HD t.v. and non-HD t.v. images unless you have a trillion-dollar t.v. set, and if you had a trillion-dollars to spent on a friggin' television, you'd probably be out buying other planets for sale in the universe or actually running your little Evil Empire off of the backs of the rest of us working slobs, not watching On the Record with Greta Van Susteren and counting her chin hairs.)

Any way, this is not to say I don't love Piper and wouldn't spend the money on him if I thought it was necessary. I mean, obviously, I thought it was necessary to microchip him because I love him (except perhaps not enough to want to take a car vs. ped accident for him).

In conclusion: I'm not a heartless cheap-ass who wouldn't care if Piper got lost, I just don't think it's necessary for me to lose a dog and get ripped off, is all I'm saying.