Who's the Sucker?

The world is a sad place. I went to the doctor yesterday to get a rabies booster because of the raccoon John shot on Saturday. I found out that I have to lose 5 pounds and the doctor will be calling in six months to do a weight check on me. They wanted to do a intestinal parasite exam, but I declined that. I did break down and splurged for the $20 prepackaged diet food (sort of like Jenny Craig) and I also got sucked in to a year's worth of preventative medicine for a problem that I don't have. Last time I bought it, I took it once or twice and had to pitch the entire year's worth of medicine because it got so old. Who am I? the pitiful family dog, Max.

Who's the sucker? My human, the boy one. Not the smart one. The girl already learned her lesson on the many visits to the vet. But the boy is new at it. The girl tells the vet that we only want the $10 rabies booster, and that even if I go on a diet, I will dig in the garbage, catch stuff outside and not lose any weight. The girl has figured out that the $8 Iams diet food maintains my weight just as well as the $20 vet diet food. Also, the girl has a hard enough time giving her human kids their medicine, so I'll only get mine once or twice and then it will be forgotten. But the boy thinks it is a bargain to get a year's supply for just $21 so he bought it. AND he opted for the pain-in-the-neck syrup that you have to draw out with a syringe instead of the handy little gumdrop style that I used to have. I think it is because he works on an ambulance and it makes him feel more like a doctor to give it in a syringe dropper, but he'll never remember, so they'll be throwing it away soon enough.

So, instead of the girl taking me and spending $10 (with the boy commenting on how EXPENSIVE vet visits are), the boy took me and the bill looked like this: Well visit exam $28.85, Rabies booster $10.35, 10-pound bag diet food $19.40, heartworm medicine $21.85 (total of $80). I don't think it occurred to the boy that if this had been one of his human kids, he would have only paid a $20 co-pay for the whole kit-n-caboodle.