Little Brown Bunny

I have no misconceptions; I am fully aware of the huge gap between "the way things are" and "the way things should be". This is the reason communism doesn't work.

But it still doesn't allay my frustrations, especially when my rabbit died tonight.

I went to the animal hospital when I noticed that my rabbit was in a catatonic trance. I was hoping that it was something the "Fancy Pants Animal Hospital" could take care of. But that hope was pretty much stuffed down the shitter once I got there.

I dropped Sholmo off at the front desk, and it should have set off a sign when one of the first things the receptionist said was "don't worry; rabbits aren't too expensive" - not, "don't worry, we've got some really good people on call", but "don't worry, this morose routine won't cost you an arm and a leg...maybe just half an arm".

Little Shlomo was brought into the back and after a few minutes a "doctor" came out to ask a few questions. It should be noted that prior to this I had filled out a laborious chart answering questions about his sex, age, medical history, etc. When the doctor came out, with a large billing chart in hand, she asked about his sex, age, medical history, etc. Really instills a lot of confidence here.

She said "well, I haven't looked at what you filled out, but we have a few options", and she pulled out the large billing chart. This was before she asked more than 2-3 questions. She began to list prices; how much each decision might cost. I tried to steer the question back to the actual rabbit, and asked what might be able to help and what the cause might be, she said "listen, I don't know much about 'exotic animals'; my job is to stabilize the animal enough so that they can be moved to a specialty hospital in the morning".

OK, I'm aware that a rabbit isn't an 'ordinary' animal like a dog or cat, and I'm aware that what she said is perfectly reasonable; but there wasn't even the slightest bit of a hint of comfort in her voice; she was saying "I'm here to keep this animal alive and offer you no sympathy whatsoever. I'm not open to discussing ways to make this animal better, but I am here to discuss costs; because there is a limit to how much you want to spend before just giving up and putting the animal to sleep".

After taking his temperature, she came out with the price sheet again, and ostensibly said "things look bad, and it's going to cost a lot to keep this animal alive", again I asked about what symptoms the animal was displaying, but she didn't answer more than "temperature is low and he doesn't look well". After I consented to a $150 catheter of fluids to be injected in his arm, she left.

She returned, though, a few minutes later and basically said, "listen, this is going to cost a lot of money; do you want to just put him down?". My pessimistic thought was that she was concerned that she was going to put another hour of work into it and then present me with expensive options that I would eventually turn down; to her, I had reached that precious point where the amount of money I was willing to spend met the amount of money she felt it was worth keeping him alive. She didn't want to put in more time, because she wasn't going to be able to milk any more money out of me.

I consented to putting my little friendly bunny (who loved to get pet, sit in your lap and be carried around) to sleep. Final cost? $400 bucks. For what? 15 minutes of a doctor's time. Just showing up was $300...(sadly lucky that I made the decision to put him down before they put the catheter in him.)

I am highly critical of the medical profession in general. Because it's a "profession", the doctors and staff are out to make money, and for so many of them out there, treating people is just that fine balance:

Money That Can Be Made = Equals Money That It Costs To Keep You Alive + 1

Maybe George Bush had it right:

We've got an issue in America. Too many good docs are getting out of business. Too many Ob-Gyns aren't able to practice their love with women all across this country.

Personally, I just miss my rabbit. I know it sounds extremely silly, but I dare you to live with another animal for almost two years and not feel miserable when it's lost.

I had two rabbits that were happy just licking each others' foreheads all day. If I was home during the day, I would look over and see them in sinful rabbit embrace. They weren't married, and maybe some people in southern states would look down at them; but they were in love.

Now the other rabbit is frantically hopping around looking for something; ducking her head into corners, standing on her hind legs; contorting her body around, and sniffing everywhere. Hard to feel sorry for a rabbit, but I do.