Annual Vet Visit

14 Years Young

Earlier this year I had my annual check up with Dr. Pandolfi; I call her Dr. P for short. She’s awesome. She loves it when I do my “jump up” thing (jumping straight up into the air like a champ) and always claps and gives me cookies. So of course I do it as many times as possible when I get to the office. This year my mom was concerned about my hearing. She thought I might be losing my hearing because over the past year I haven’t been as attentive to her requests as usual. The conversation went like this:

“I think there might be something wrong with his hearing,” my mom said. “He just doesn’t listen to me like he used to.”

“Well that’s easy to check,” said Dr. P. “I”m going to go outside the door and blow this whistle very softly, let me know if he seems to notice it.”

Of course I heard the whistle and turned my head sharply in the direction of the sound. Busted!

My mom gave me that look that said, “Okay mister. You may be old, but you still have to listen to your mommy.” The rest of my check up went beautifully and Dr. P even made the comment that she wished every 14-year-old dog that came into her office looked as good as me.

It’s so important for doggy parents to take their dog to the vet at least once a year, even if no vaccinations are due. It becomes even more important as a dog ages. Even if your dog seems to be doing just fine, take him or her in anyway. Not only may your vet notice something you don’t, it will also set a benchmark for each year to get an idea of what’s “normal” for this dog or that.

Now I’ve just got to figure out what other ailment I can pretend to have so I don’t have to listen to my mom.

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