Snarly Snowie and Tom the Vet

Most days on my walk I tie the dogs up in front of the post office/newsagency and go in and read the Herald Sun for two or three minutes. I check Melbourne's reservoir levels on the weather page (it fascinates me on a daily basis to see whether the levels rose or fell the day before and correlate this in my mind to the weather.... the levels are falling rapidly now that we've had hot temperatures for this week, although amazingly, due to the cool and moist December, the overall level is higher now than it was on December 1), and flick over the day's horse racing page to see if there's a horse I'd like to put a dollar on ($1 place bet only.... just makes life a little more interesting). I don't buy the paper, why would you when you can glean what you want without paying, which saves me a dollar plus (funding the bet). The newsagent doesn't mind.

A couple of weeks ago while I was checking the form, an old bloke came in and said that the older dog outside bit him on the hand when he went to pat her. He thought she was only being protective of my backpack which I leave outside, adding that it was only a warning nip. He was sucked in, he said, because the young dog is so friendly and tried to lick him to death and jump up on him, so after patting 'Pip' he went to do the same to 'Snow'. I apologized for 'Snow's bad manners. "No worries", said the old fella, "I should be more careful."

Last week 'Pip' and 'Snow' had an appointment with the new vet for annual heartworm injection, and Snow was also due for C5 vaccine (parvo etc). 'Snowie' hates vets so I was a bit worried how she'd go when Tom started sticking the thermometer up her bum and jabbing her with needles. There was no problem with 'Snowie's behaviour, Tom seems to have excellent skills. In fact when examining her teeth as part of the general check up, he found she had a split tooth. This would need extracting under anaesthetic after a week on antibiotis. If left it would, sooner or later, become infected.

The tooth was extracted on Wednesday. While she was 'out to it', he found the tooth next to it was loose so he took it out too, and while polishing her other teeth he found another small one which was decayed so out it came as well. 'Snow' made a quick recovery after a "textbook" anaesthetic and operation, and she seems a lot happier. As well as the biting incident at the post office I'd noticed she'd been snarlier than usual for a while. Probably the broken and decayed teeth were upsetting her.

Tom the vet is making quite an impact in the town. I often see him talking to people in the street and it seems his services as a vet are greatly appreciated. And he's a good man... he walks to work from somewhere down Launching Place Rd. He's coming up sometimes while I'm going back down. When I took the the dogs up for their shots he explained he's walking to work to lose some of the Christmas cheer he put on, as well as reduce by a tiny amount some carbon emission. I told him however small his contribution seemed he was doing a great thing for the earth, every day, by doing that, and his attitude needs to flow on to everyone.

"One thing I've noticed," he continued, "when you walk it makes you more aware of things like the clouds.. you have an eye on the sky wondering if it's going to rain and get you wet."

"Dead right Tom, and not only that you'll notice you become aware of a lot more...trees, birds, noises, scents, you start to use all your senses more. The car robs us of much of this, makes us immune to our own senses. And distances and seperates us from other humans."

"Youre right you know. We noticed when we were in Africa a while ago, people are so carefree, happy and friendly. Most have never owned a car."

"We noticed the same thing in rural Peru. I don't like to be critical of my own countrymen, but we've lost our way."

"Yeah. But it's different in the outback. It's somehow different there."

I had to agree, not that I've spent a lot of time in the outback, but there's a huge difference in attitude. I haven't talked to Tom at any length about his background, but I know he was a vet in outback Qld. and got his pilot's licence so he could get around better in the bush. I read that in a local paper that did a story on him.

He seems like a hell of a good bloke, our new vet Tom, and I hope he and his wife Kath have a long, happy and successful association with the Gembrook community.