Recycling.  It's time to set the record straight on recycling.  The humans like to think that they discovered this concept, and more recently it has become the popular thing to do.  The true story is that recycling is a dog core value.  Dogs have been recycling everything and anything since our great great grandparents were puppies.  We don't even look at it as recycling, we just don't like to let things go to waste.  Plastic bags and wrapping make fun toys.  Previously chewed food items such as chicken wing bones and corn cobs are delicious treasures that any dog worth her fur would never allow to go into a garbage bin.  And even when the food comes out of your body all used up as the brown nuggets, it can still be a tasty treat.  Yep, in the dog world, nothing goes to waste.

Patient Pam is the queen of recycling at our clinic.  Bottles and boxes all get put in their assigned places.  But recently mother showed us all that recycling can involve a lot more than things.

The Fatigues were an older couple that had grown tired of retirement and decided to devote their spare time to a cat.  They were definitely not dog people because they would roll their eyes when a dog approached them and I overheard them say once, "We just don't understand why anyone would want a dog!"  I could tell you more about the type of people they were, but that pretty much says it all.

The Fatigues were very particular people.  They searched far and wide and found a special kind of cat called an "exotic shorthair".  They named him Mr. Bud.  To me he looked like he had run into something with his face, and made it very, very flat.  But if that's exotic, I'm glad that I'm ordinary.   Well, not surprisingly after having the exotic cat for about a year the Fatigues had grown tired of him too.  They brought him in to mother to be put to sleep, for good.  Not just the sleepy pinch that lets her do her work, they wanted Bud to have the forever sleep.  Mother got the worried look and told the Fatigues that Bud could probably be happy in another home.  "Not Bud"  Mrs. Fatigue said, " he is very particular, he has to be hand fed every few hours otherwise the food falls out and he won't eat it again.  His eyes drain unless they're wiped five times a day.  And you can't do anything but pay attention to him, otherwise he'll stare at you!"  Mrs. Fatigue was clearly at the end of her rope.  That's when the idea of recycling came to mother.  "Trust me" mother said, "I'll find him the right home".  Sure enough, Bud found a home with 6 other cats.  His new mother says he does like to stare, but she's able to leave the house every day anyway.  She also doesn't hand feed him and today Bud's mom was getting an ear full from my father about letting Bud gain 3 pounds! 

It doesn't take a flat faced cat to prove the age old dog theory that recycling works!