"My Dog Died"

I'm just simply going to give you a rundown of something that happened to me yesterday.  Maybe you've been in the same situation before but handled it differently, and if you did I applaud you for that, but I chose a different route.  A route that landed me feeling pretty crummy.  Read on, and you'll find out why, but you must do one thing...As you read this post, please don't judge me for my actions. 

It all started almost two years ago when we brought home this little lady (that's her name, Lady).

 

Shortly after we brought her home, we took her to a local vets office that advertised a cheaper rate than most other vet offices in town.  They seemed nice enough at the time.  They checked her in, weighed her (I'm sure she hated that part, what lady doesn't?!?!) and finally took her back to the exam room to get a good look at her (thermometer up her butt and all!).

The initial results of the tests they ran shocked us.  We had just gotten Lady from my cousin in Arkansas, and the vet gave us the bad news a few days later; Lady had heart worms.  The vet then proceeded to tell us that if we didn't take immediate action, our Lady wouldn't live much longer.  At one point, the vet suggested some sort of surgery, and that alone was going to be over $1,000!   Now, Luke and I hadn't been married long, we had just moved into the house we bought, and we already had another dog besides lady.  We simply could not afford to give Lady the surgery that she "needed."  We left the office that day sad thinking that any day Lady would pass on to pee on the greenest grass in the world (AKA: die!).  Little did we know that within a few weeks, that vets office would begin calling us and bugging us about setting up a surgery time for Lady.  They knew as we left the vets office that day that we weren't going to be able to let Lady have surgery, so why they kept calling I'll never know, but they did.  They called weekly for months.  Every time they would call I would just decline the call, and go on with the day.  

For a few months I hadn't heard from the vets office.  I had convinced myself that they finally got the hint that we weren't bringing her in for a surgery, and they decided to quit badgering us about it.  Well, that wasn't the case.  Last month they started calling every few days, and one day I just got tired of it.  I didn't want to decline their call anymore, and I didn't want to tell them that we had moved Lady to another vet and get a million questions about why we made that decision, so I did something about it.  

One day, at the end of last week, the vets office called.  I knew it was them because I added their number to my contacts list as "Vets office-don't answer!"  I picked up the phone and said, "hello?"  The lady on the other end of the phone introduced herself and told me who she worked for.  She then proceeded to go on about how long it had been since we had last brought lady in for a visit and how important it was that we bring her in as soon as possible for further evaluation.  It was at that moment a (what seemed brilliant at the time) idea popped in my head.  I followed her lengthy statements with this, "ohh...yeah...I...uh...I forgot to call and tell you.."  "You forgot to tell us what? she said.  "I forgot to tell you that Lady passed away."  *cue awkward silence*  After about thirty seconds of no one talking (literally, it was that long!), she spoke up and said, "oh, I'm so sorry to hear that.  When did it happen?"  "Uh..when did it happen?" I said.  "Yes, when did Lady pass away?"  "She..uh..passed away a few months ago.  We've just been really busy with school and church that I totally forgot to call and tell you."  The lady sadly said, "It's okay, I'm sorry for your loss" and hung up (she didn't even say bye!)  

That day I felt proud.  I knew that I wouldn't be hearing from them again, and that made me all warm and fuzzy inside--never mind the fact that I lied and told them my dog died even though she was still alive and was actually barking in the back yard as I was telling her of my dogs death on the phone!

All was well (and I hadn't heard from the vets office again!) until yesterday!  I went to check the mail, and here's what I found.

Yeah, talk about feeling horrible!  I felt so bad that I had to confess what I had done to my church family last night after we had bible study!  Maybe I could have handled it differently, but I can't just call them back and say, "oh, by the way my dog has been resurrected and is now alive but we're still not going to take her to your vets office because you charge ridiculous amounts for something that really isn't necessary!"  

So, I ask you.  What would you have done?