9 to 5 job - what's that?

So far the comment of the week came from a pug breeder who had taken 4 hours to decide to finally allow us to take her whelping bitch to surgery. By this time it was 7pm (we closed at 6:30pm) and she asked if she could wait in the waiting room as "it will only take about half an hour won't it?"

Well, yes, the surgery itself will take about 30-45 minutes, but if you would like us to anaesthetise her first before slicing her open, clip and sterilise the site, and allow her enough time to regain consciousness, then you're looking at a minimum of 2 hours. All of this I said in my head of course, while my actual reply consisted of, "No, it will take a bit longer than that. She should be ready to go home by about 9pm."

"Oh," the unperturbed breeder replies, "well I guess I'll go home and have dinner. I suppose we've ruined your night though!" she laughs good-naturedly.

Had to grit my teeth in a grimace of a smile to avoid saying, "Well, yes, actually you have and I might have been able to have dinner tonight as well if you had just brought her in at 5pm like I advised in the first place!"

And that is what emergency after-hours surgical fees are for...now if only that money actually made its way into my pocket!