Dog Vasectomies

My nuclear family consists of all males and me. All the dogs we have owned(and I use the term "own" loosely, they are family members) have all been male. Growing up we only had German Shorthair Pointers and only girls. My mother thought male dogs bathroom manners were unseemly. My husband did not share this notion, he wanted male dogs and I did not care. When the subject of getting our dog "fixed" came up I was met with tremendous hostility. My boys claimed that I would be taking the dogs' manhood. I disagreed and tried to explain responsible pet ownership and was sneered at, as if I was only making it up to torture our pets. For the first dogs' operation I was a little unprepared. Our own veterinarian charges obscene rates so I found a spay/neuter clinic. I was assured that the vets at the clinic were top notch and performed emergency vet services. I wanted to meet the vet so I went in to talk to him. I asked if the vasectomy was a complicated operation on dogs. He laughed. Not a in-your-face-you -freaking-idiot laugh, but he did laugh. I received the explanation that they do not perform vasectomies on dogs. No, the actual operation was a little more drastic. What did I know? As I said, I grew up with girl dogs!
Today I have taken our younger dog, Winston for his "procedure". I did not discuss this with our boys because I am a non confrontational, plus they had no say in it. I do not feel in any way empowered by taking my male dogs "manhood", I just feel like I crossed off my list another damn thing I had to do. Oh, and I feel like a very responsible pet owner. Bob Barker would be very proud of me.

I guess a disclaimer is appropriate, although late. I use a lot of swear words both in my everyday life and here on this blog. I noticed I could flag this for "adult content" but I don't want anyone thinking that I am way into pornography or anything. I just have a problem censoring my language. Mostly, I think it is how I deal with anger. There is nothing like screaming "fuck!"
to get your aggression out. My kids tell me that I use too many swear words, they are right. One of my dad's favorite sayings was, "Profane language is for the unintelligent, those who are not smart enough to come up with other words." My dad was an MIT graduate, I am definitely not as smart as him and I am too tired to come up with a new vocabulary. So, if you are reading this and end up offended, sorry. You really don't have to read this. It is not required.
I am proud to say that I am going to be a volunteer for Animal Protectors. They are a no kill shelter, otherwise I don't think I could handle it. Already I am emotionally preparing myself that I absolutely cannot bring home every dog there. This will be VERY hard. I love dogs. Cats are ok, but I love love love dogs. Probably more than people, no offense to those reading. I start as soon as they have a volunteer training.
For my sicky friends out there I have a blog you might be interested. This is dependent on the fact that anyone is actually reading this, other than my few friends that I have threatened with bodily harm if they don't read my blog! Anyway there is a blog called The Angry Pharmacist that is just wonderful! I was delighted to find that someone out there actually hates pharmaceutical reps as much as I do, maybe even more! I will tell why I think drug reps are the dregs of society: they are whores. They cart around their rolling fun box of whatever is the most costly drug that their company is touting at the time, and then they buy off the office staff with coffee and pastries to get in to see the doctors. After the drug whores spend the night before bleaching their teeth and memorizing the doctors' wives and childrens names they go in to our doctor offices bribing them with free pens and "conferences" in Florida. This is all to sell the drugs that just happen to be "the next great thing". Drug reps disgust me. The angry pharmacist makes some good points, and he or she is very funny.