Archive for April 5th, 2006

I’ve been to a vet, and I’ve been to a hospital, but until today I’d never been anywhere like the Animal Medical Center. It’s a four story hospital with dogs rolling by on gurneys, people in blue scrubs walking through the halls and doctors being paged over the loudspeaker. It’s like E.R. for pets.

The staff was friendly, the wait was long (just like a human hospital!) and the doctors were knowledgeable, but more importantly they were patient and kind. The lobby (which, unfortunately, did smell like dog pee) was filled with anxious people waiting to hear how their pets were doing. There was a palatable fear in the air. When you bring a pet to the ER, you never know if you’re going to get them back. The full range of human emotion was on display here: squeals of joy when interns came out with a healthy pet to wails of sorrow when someone was told a loved one had to be put down.

At the same time I was in the waiting room, a benefit for the hospital was going on downtown. The 7th Annual ‘Paws for Style” featured ‘dogs on the catwalk’ with celebrity walkers and designers Bebe Neuwirth, Michael Kors, Gucci and more. At $100 a head, it wasn’t the kind of event I could have afforded to be at. But after spending my afternoon at the AMC, I’m glad there are people who could.

The Animal Medical Center is expensive, but hopefully benefits like these can help keep costs down, because it should be accessible to everyone. When it’s a life or death situation, it’s nice to have a place that takes your pet’s health as seriously as you do.