{"id":43,"date":"2010-07-15T16:13:01","date_gmt":"2010-07-15T16:13:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ipsinaction.com\/ips\/?p=43"},"modified":"2024-06-20T15:40:19","modified_gmt":"2024-06-20T15:40:19","slug":"the-christmas-parable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.luc.edu\/ips\/?p=43","title":{"rendered":"The Christmas Parable"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Michele G.<\/em><\/p>\n

As a veterinarian, I have been \u201cparabled\u201d many times.\u00a0\u00a0 During the course of my career, I\u00a0 have come to appreciate many clients and patients as teachers\u00a0 and know that there are lessons to be learned if I can only open my ears and heart and, at times, suspend belief.\u00a0 As is the case with parables in their truest sense, there have been uncomfortable twists to some tales, endings that I could not have anticipated and events that challenged my previous ways \u00a0of thinking.\u00a0 Perhaps one of the most potent parables, out of the many, occurred on Christmas Eve 1983.<\/p>\n

I was working a double shift that day as a technician at a veterinary emergency clinic on Chicago\u2019s North Side.\u00a0 The evening was bitterly cold \u00a0(it would plummet to \u00a0\u2013 25 degrees Fahrenheit) and concern \u00a0among the staff was, \u00a0as always, \u00a0for the homeless people and animals who had no place to go for warmth, food and safety.\u00a0\u00a0 Early in the shift, we received several calls from the far South Side about a dog who had been hit by a car and was lying unattended in a gutter.\u00a0 Our calls to the local police station, humane organizations and animal rescues found no one who would come and take the dog out of the elements and into a shelter.\u00a0\u00a0 After a few hours, the calls from the public regarding the dog stopped coming.\u00a0 We all presumed that someone had stopped to pick up the poor pooch and get him to a place of warmth and treatment.\u00a0 Or, perhaps he had succumbed to his injuries.<\/p>\n

About 10 p.m. that night, the doorbell to the clinic rang and as I peered out through the window, I saw a thin, older, shabbily dressed African American man cradling a large (approximately 40 pound) dog in his arms.\u00a0 I buzzed him in and he and the dog entered the clinic in a blast of frigid air and fog.\u00a0 It was clear that the dog had been injured and other staff members quickly surrounded the man and dog, wrapping each of them in heated blankets and bringing them to the back treatment area.\u00a0 It was only then that the doctor on duty made the connection that this was most likely the dog that we had heard of earlier in the day \u2013 the one who had been hit and left to suffer on South Ashland Avenue.\u00a0 Indeed it was.<\/p>\n

Between sips of coffee, the man recounted how he had looked out from his apartment window just as the dog was hit.\u00a0 The driver of the car that struck the dog didn\u2019t stop and the dog hit the curb with a sharp yelp.\u00a0 Our new client went out to see if the dog was alive and proceeded over the course of the next few hours to cover the dog with a blanket, make phone calls to a variety of agencies and sit with the dog as the temperatures further dropped \u00a0and the sun began to set.\u00a0 The man had little money and no car and the dog\u2019s suffering nagged at him throughout the afternoon.\u00a0 Calls to many veterinary hospitals were met with refusal to treat if he could not produce the money necessary for an office call and medications.<\/p>\n

With night coming, the man decided that he could not not help the dog and reasoned that his only chance for assistance was to take the dog on a series of buses to our clinic.\u00a0 He dressed \u00a0himself as warmly as he could, wrapped an old necktie around the dog\u2019s muzzle (to avoid being bitten by the painful animal) and took bus after bus after bus until he arrived at our doorstep four hours after his journey commenced.\u00a0 Some bus drivers \u00a0refused to let him bring the dog on board and so his journey was punctuated by long stretches of standing with the dog in the bitter winds.<\/p>\n

We were all incredulous at the story.\u00a0 Veterinarians take an oath at graduation to reduce animal suffering.\u00a0 How was he repeatedly turned away (and on Christmas Eve!) \u00a0by our colleagues ?\u00a0 The veterinarian on duty, who later became my mentor, said something \u00a0I will never forget :\u00a0 \u201cI apologize for those who turned you away, but we\u2019re going to do everything possible for him and get you back home safely, too.\u00a0 Don\u2019t worry about any bill \u2013 there won\u2019t be one.\u00a0\u00a0 That\u2019s my thanks \u00a0to \u00a0you \u00a0for doing what so many did not. \u201d\u00a0\u00a0 We placed intravenous catheters in the dog, began infusing warmed fluids, took radiographs, removed the trapped air from his lungs, wrapped him in a series of circulating water blankets and rubbed his paws and legs, to return circulation.\u00a0 Someone found a restaurant that was still open and we all chipped in and bought the Good Samaritan a turkey dinner, which he enjoyed.\u00a0\u00a0 A cab was called for him, the driver paid in advance, and the man departed back for home. \u00a0\u00a0The story had a happy ending:\u00a0 The dog survived, the Good Samaritan visited a few times during the hospitalization and a humane society eventually adopted \u201cNickie\u201d to a family who had lost their beloved dog on Christmas Day.<\/p>\n

I have never forgotten this story\u00a0 — which I have often referred to \u00a0as a parable, even before this course.\u00a0\u00a0 The \u00a0message of the tale superseded for me \u00a0the \u201cwarm and fuzzy\u201d components .\u00a0 \u00a0My view of veterinarians who selflessly worked to prevent animal suffering was de-constructed:\u00a0 Those who were privileged to be trained to prevent animal suffering refused (for whatever reasons) to do so that bitter cold Christmas Eve day.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 However, a \u00a0man who had limited education and means, but a good heart and hope, decided to take a journey of faith on a bitterly cold Chicago night , not knowing whether he would be turned away after an arduous journey with an injured and unknown animal .\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0As a result of\u00a0 this \u00a0modern day parable,\u00a0 I have never \u00a0dismissed the \u00a0intentions of\u00a0 clients because of their clothes, their inability to pay or their socioeconomic status.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0I have strived not to be unduly deferential to clients with money or status and have sought to recognize in everyone who comes through my doors an individual who is concerned, worried and anxious about a sick companion animal.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Additionally (and this has been the most challenging part) , I have come to live with the tension that my colleagues may not see their chosen profession\u2019s duties and responsibilities as I do. \u00a0No matter.\u00a0 Rather than judge them, \u00a0I give them the \u00a0benefit of the doubt and proceed as my heart and desire direct to reduce suffering,\u00a0 many times \u00a0pro bono; other times, not.\u00a0 Thus have I \u00a0met the God who assures us that not even a sparrow falls without his knowledge.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Michele G. As a veterinarian, I have been \u201cparabled\u201d many times.\u00a0\u00a0 During the course of my career, I\u00a0 have come to appreciate many clients and patients as teachers\u00a0 and know that there are lessons to be learned if I can only open my ears and heart and, at times, suspend belief.\u00a0 As is the read more <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.luc.edu\/ips\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.luc.edu\/ips\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.luc.edu\/ips\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.luc.edu\/ips\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.luc.edu\/ips\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=43"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.luc.edu\/ips\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4612,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.luc.edu\/ips\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43\/revisions\/4612"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.luc.edu\/ips\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=43"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.luc.edu\/ips\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=43"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.luc.edu\/ips\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=43"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}