Chapter 5: No Time to Spare

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Later that day, Tandy and Ethan Danzig arrived at the clinic carrying Linny, their gray Labradoodle. Autumn paged Kaybri and Noah to come to the treatment room right away. When they arrived, Tandy and Ethan explained how they had read every book they could find and watched hours of video online, but the thought of being responsible for Linny and the birth of her first litter was too much for them.  

     Kaybri didn’t know what to say. She hadn’t performed many deliveries in school. Noah, sensing her distress, stepped near the table. “We’ve got puppies to deliver, doc. Let’s get at it.” The confident, quiet man had reemerged, and any evidence of the earlier distress Kaybri had caused him was gone.  

     An hour later, Linny lay with her eight squirming pups, which Kaybri left in the capable hands of Noah and Erika, the veterinary assistant.  

     In the adjacent examination room, Kaybri came face to face with an upset man who introduced himself as Finn Atkins. On the table was his six-month-old blue heeler. The wheezing sound coming from Kipper’s lungs, the dryness of his mouth, and the dullness in his eyes told Kaybri that the dog was in serious distress.  

     “How long has he been like this, Mr. Atkins?” Kaybri asked.  

     “This dog has been a disaster for our family from the beginning,” he responded angrily.  

     “Mr. Atkins, please. This dog is in distress.” Kaybri stroked Kipper’s head to comfort him and felt his abdomen in hopes of learning a little about his condition. She had little patience for this man’s anger. 

     “You think the dog is hurting? You should see my daughters. They’re devastated. They think they haven’t given him enough love and that’s why he’s sick. He hasn’t been well since day one.”  

     “Well, it’s not the dog’s fault. Let’s focus on him and not on you,” she said brusquely. The man’s face reddened. “This is the seventh time we’ve brought Kipper to this clinic. Each time with a new problem.”  

     “Please. We can discuss the past in a few minutes. This is a serious situation, and there is no time to spare. I don’t know what I am going to find and we’re going to need to move quickly and treat Kipper aggressively.”  

     “Do what you need to do,” Atkins grumbled as he retreated to the waiting room.  

     Kaybri scooped up the stricken pup in her arms and walked gingerly to the treatment room so as not to jostle him more than necessary. Autumn had prepped the staff about what was happening, and they were waiting to assist. Time, they knew, was not on their side.  

     Once Kipper was on an IV and receiving fluids, Autumn pressed the dog’s file into Kaybri’s hands. She took it to her office and asked Autumn to have Mr. Atkins join her in five minutes. Kaybri slammed the file down onto the desk. She needed to figure out why the puppy was in such poor condition. Kipper’s file was thicker than those of most senior dogs.  

     Kaybri moved quickly through each of Frank’s entries. The dog’s health issues began days after Kipper was purchased from a local pet shop. The dog was half the weight he should have been. He had trouble keeping his food down and often had diarrhea. The most alarming entry was that he had lost permanent teeth just after they came in.  

     From what she could see in the file, Frank had tried everything. He had tested Kipper for parasites and heartworm, and there was no way the dog could have any sort of infection with the many types of antibiotics Frank had prescribed. Perhaps Frank had been guessing, maybe praying, that something would work. Kaybri closed the file and took a sip of water. She walked to the waiting room and invited Mr. Atkins to come to her office again.  

     When he did, she was relieved to see that he had calmed down. “Do you know what’s wrong with him?” he asked.  

     “No,” Kaybri said quietly.  

     “At least you aren’t blowing smoke up my ass like Frank did.”  

     “Dr. Stevens is as competent a veterinarian as I have ever met. I am sure he did everything he thought appropriate for Kipper.”  

     “I’m sure he did. He also billed me thousands, and the dog is still sick.”   

     “I’m sorry. Kipper should be a happy, healthy puppy. I’d like to keep him here. Let me rephrase. There is no choice but to keep him here.”  

     “Maybe that’s best,” Atkins said angrily. “I’m not a difficult man, Dr. Lynn, but this situation has caused my family tremendous heartbreak and stress. My twins begged us for a dog. We finally relented when they turned seven because we thought they were ready for the responsibility. Almost from day one, my house has been filled with tears. The girls are despondent, and they don’t want to go to school because they don’t want to leave Kipper alone. They fear he’s going to have another crisis and there won’t be anyone at home--”  

     Kaybri interrupted him, eager to get on with it. “I’m sorry about all of that. But I need some information from you. Where did you get Kipper?” 

     “Puppy Camp in York.”  

     “How was he when he was at the pet store?”  

     “A little on the small size but vibrant and alert. Blue heelers are such handsome dogs. It was like a scene in a corny commercial. He was licking the girls’ faces and jumping on their laps. He wasn’t the healthiest looking puppy, but the girls thought their love would help him grow stronger. They liked the idea that he was the runt of the litter who needed mothering.”  

     “And then?”  

     “Disaster. His health quickly deteriorated. He didn’t have the energy to go on walks, and when other puppies were learning to socialize at the dog park, Kipper just lay at our feet. Some dogs would come and nudge him with their noses as if they were trying to encourage him to perk up.”  

     Just then, Autumn knocked gently on the door, entered, and handed Kipper’s test results to Kaybri. They showed that the dog was suffering from renal failure, his pulse was thready, and his heart was laboring to sustain breathing and circulation.  

     Kaybri figured she’d better tell Mr. Atkins the bad news as quickly as possible and get it over with. She took a deep breath. “I’m sorry but Kipper isn’t going to be with us for much longer. Maybe that’s for the best based on what our test results show. There isn’t much we can do.”  

     She turned to Autumn and asked her to prepare an invoice for today’s services. “We can arrange a payment plan if the balance is too much to handle at one time.”  

     When Kaybri finally looked over at Mr. Atkins, she saw that his red face now looked white and he was shaking his head.  

     Autumn nudged Kaybri aside and addressed Mr. Atkins. “I am so sorry, Mr. Atkins. I won’t presume to tell you what’s best for your wife and kids. I can only speak from experience when I suggest that you bring the girls and your wife here to say goodbye to Kipper.”  

      “It’s too much for the girls.”  

     As the tears welled up in the man’s eyes, Autumn moved quickly to embrace the man. “Your family needs closure. They need to see that he is being cared for. They need to be around people who love dogs, and they need to see that not all dogs who get sick die.”  

     The man fell silent and coughed into his hand until his composure returned. “I’m sorry. I’m not usually this emotional. The girls get out of school at three. We can be here at three-thirty. Will Kipper still be…alive?”  

      “We’ll do our best. We’ll approach the situation differently if he dies before you get here,” Autumn said firmly.  

     “Why did this happen?”   

     Autumn was certainly outshining her in handling the emotional side of things, but Kaybri knew that she was the one who had to answer medical questions. “I don’t know, but I will find out,” Kaybri said. Then she added, “I’m terribly sorry.” 

     “Sure, you are,” a sullen Finn Atkins spat out as he walked through the door.  

     Autumn walked out after him. As she passed Kaybri, she curtly said, “I’m going to walk him out to his car.” Autumn did not seem pleased with her. Kaybri realized she probably should have shown more compassion toward Mr. Atkins, but she had to place her focus on the dogs. The owners should be able to take care of themselves.  

     As soon as the two were gone, Kaybri paged Noah and asked him to come to the exam room she was in. By the time he arrived, her emotions had evolved to an even more intense level of anger. She wasted no time in getting down to business. “I need your help. We need to comb this clinic’s records and find any dogs that died before their first birthday.”  

     “How far back should we search?” Noah asked.  

     “Three years, for now,” she answered testily. 

     Noah grimaced. “Okay. We’ll need a day to compile the records.”  

     “Thank you. We should also find out where the owners acquired the dogs that died.”  

     “We don’t always have that information in the files.”  

     “Call the owners and find out.”  

     “What if they ask questions?”  

     “Tell them we’re doing a study or measuring customer satisfaction. Just find out.”  

     Noah’s face went pale. “You asked me this morning what I knew about the Amish and their puppy mills. What you just saw is what they produce.” 

     “Mr. Atkins and his family should never have had to suffer with such a sick dog. That dog should never have come into their lives. At least Finn Atkins won’t have to pay another huge bill.” She turned away from Noah to reach for Kipper’s file on her desk. “I’d like to talk with you about what happened today and how we can prevent it from happening again,” Kaybri said. But when she looked up, she saw she was speaking to an empty room. Noah had left in the middle of their conversation.