Boo and other assholes

So for those of you who guessed that Boo had a problem with his anal glands, well, you win a prize. Not really sure what kind prize you want for winning, but there you go.

We were lucky that the vet was able to come over to the Penthouse first thing this afternoon, dragging along her cart of medical joys. This one of the things I guess you have to love about Iqaluit. Yes, we don't have full-time veterinarian with his or her own office. But, for now, we do have a nice woman who, from 1-4 pm on weekdays, will swing by your place and tend to your pet. Assuming there's nothing drastically wrong and beyond her abilities to handle.

So yeah, it also leads to some improvising. No metal tables to perform the procedure on, for example, but rather the kitchen floor. No assistants to help out, but rather the two of us trying to wrestle a surprisingly determined 13 pound dog. But everything appears to be better with Boo right now, although he was deeply unhappy with the whole process. Given what was involved, I can't say I'm surprised. He also has a shaved butt and antibiotics.

So give him two weeks and he should be fine. The downside is that this "draining" might have to become a regular occurrence. We're going to have the vet back towards the end of February to check on him again. We should have a better idea of how often this fairly gross procedure needs to be done then.

***
And now to move onto something completely different. I'm going to be a touch vague on some of this, because it involves family and a local business.

So my in-laws run a nice retirement business. They operate out of their house and, once a week, go to an area flea market to sell their wares. They're not getting rich off of this, but they are retired and it's nice for them to earn a few extra dollars and keep them busy.

So they've been going to the same area flea market for years with no problems. However, last week they got a call from the people who run the flea market. A local company who shares the building that runs the flea market is upset with them. The local company is in the same business as the in-laws and were upset that they were taking part in the flea market and wanted them gone. They viewed the in-laws as competition.

So the owners of the building kicked the in-laws out. Called them in for a meeting, gave them two days notice to attend the meeting, and then were banned from the flea market. The in-laws kind of understood the company's position, so all they asked was to be able to attend the flea market one last time to let some of their customers know what happened. They also had people coming by to pick up items from them that week. The company opposed even this, and so the in-laws were tossed, a mere couple of weeks before Christmas.

They were understandably a bit upset with this Scrooge-like treatment, but there wasn't much they could do.

They went and popped into the flea market that weekend, basically to hand out a few cards and put a sign on a neighbouring table letting people know what happened. It was really all they could do. When they got there, a person from the local company that had them kicked out was standing up in front of their old table handing out sales fliers to customers coming to look for them.

Yes, there was nothing illegal about it. Yes, maybe it's even aggressive business practice. But I can't help but think it's also more than a touch prick-like. It's the kind of thing that makes me glad I'm not actually back in St. John's, as I might be tempted to walk through that company's doors and let them know, in person, that they're pricks. And perhaps stand outside their business to point out to customers how vastly over-priced their product is compared to any of their other competitors in town.

I take some small comfort that they'll likely be bankrupt inside a year if this is the way they conduct business. If you do this to some fairly harmless mom and pop operation, you get the feeling that perhaps they're not nice people to deal with on any level.

I'm not naming the business. I'm not naming the relatives. It's tempting, but the in-laws would just as soon put this behind them and move on. I, however, have a touch more of the vindictive in me. If you live in town and are curious, I could be persuaded to give details in email.

Last Five
1. Diamond mine (live) - Blue Rodeo*
2. Go easy - Ryan Adams and the Cardinals
3. Run (live) - Kathleen Edwards
4. Celebration guns - Stars
5. Open all night (live) - Bruce Springsteen