A phone conversation at work.......

"Sticksville Valley Vet Clinic, this is J.Day."

"Hi, this is Betty, can you look in my file and tell me the date my horse was gelded?"

"Oh sure, what is the horse's name?"

"Star."

wondering why a male horse is named Star . . . "Okay, looking through your file..."

"I think it was done around 2000."

blank stare. and slightly speechless. "Ohhh. Okay. . . . . I'm not finding any of Star's records over here. They should have it over in Town."

"No, I called them first, they don't have it. It was done before they had computers. And it was done from the Sticksville office."

wonders what part of 'I don't have Star's records' she's not understanding. "I understand, however, I don't have records for any horses in your file. Only dogs."

"Well, it was done from the Sticksville office."

really? we're going to do this? "I understand that, but I don't have any equine records in your file. And the dog charts in your file only go back to 2009. If there's any information regarding your horse being gelded, they should have some record of that. If they don't, I'm not sure what else to do. This was all well before my time here."

"Well . . . hmmm . . . fine, thanks."

"You're welcome." (click)

Okay, so exactly why does someone need to know the date of their horse being gelded  11 years after it's been done?! (FYI, gelding is neutering a horse). I cannot fathom a reason. Once it's gelded, no one cares. Most horses are typically gelded before they are a year old, so they don't get a "stallion temperament". So, I again pose the question: who cares about the exact date your horse was gelded if it was 11 years ago? NOBODY. That's who.

Now granted their should be a paper trail for that procedure, but sometimes things fall through the cracks. More than likely, a ticket was written up, and she was charged for said procedure. It should have been written in the file. However, unless medical treatment was provided, it probably didn't. And if really was pre-computers in the office, I don't think they transferred all the information of all their clients animals into the computer. That simply takes too much time. As a routine procedure that was probably a ranch call, it simply fell through the cracks.

So I will repeat: Nobody cares about a procedure 11 years ago. Especially a routine procedure where nothing went wrong. 11 years ago.