The curious case of Uptight Man at the vet's today.

Back to the vets again today for dear old collie to have his nails trimmed.  Vet was running late and he really doesn't like to.  There were two other dogs in the waiting room and everyone was chatting away - even the dogs.  Except collie got a bit scared of the lab trembling and working itself into a state of near apoplexy trying to get over to say hello (now my collie was doing this when two cats tried staring him out a visit or two back, and he definitely doesn't like being on the receiving end).  He even tried getting under the chair I was on and standing up, nearly toppling me off it.  Everyone, including me, had a good laugh at that - the things dogs do when they want to hide eh?  All the times I've been a dog owner and been to the vets I've never had that happen - first time for everything I s'pose.  There was a wire haired fox terrier, gorgeous little guy up there too.  Lab gets seen and goes home and then the terrier.  Terrier and his owner come out and are waiting to pay when a silver car screams to a halt outside the vets (on a single yellow line no less) and out gets a very uptight looking man with two cats in one cage (poor little sods), miaowing and carrying on for all they were worth!  His wife strolls in behind.  Cue collie going ballistic, his favourites are back!  The terrier's owner, a woman after my own heart, says to her dog: "No, that's not lunch."  As the cats were crying and making a really horrible sound collie starts barking which is not like him and we quieten him down. 

Collie gets seen and we come out again, engaging the receptionists in chit-chat while we wait to pay,  we explain that collie is tormented regally by cats strolling along the garage roof and wagging their tails ... at which point uptight man pipes up: "Oh well, that's just awful isn't it, it's a shame for your dog that a cat wags it's tail ... " he would have carried on, probably till he was blue in the face and burst something, but I just cut him off and carried on talking with the girls, thanked the vet and we left.

Firstly, how bloody rude is uptight man (thinking of rewriting 'Uptown Girl' to fully illustrate the point with very profound apologies to the master - Billy Joel).  Secondly, why can't he behave himself like every other owner (cat, tortoise, frog, budgie, dog etc) we encounter?  Last cat owner was a lovely lady but this guy; well, he needs to go cool off.  What a a moron!  Now, it's entirely possible that his cats had been hurt by dogs but that is no excuse for his dreadful behaviour, after all it's not my dog who attacked them, and not all dogs are the same. 

Most cat owners I know don't hate dogs and vice versa (even if the cats and dogs themselves do - it's their ancestry - no, they haven't been using a well known ancestry site to look up their ancestors, just trust me on this - ok? - notice I almost resisted saying it's in their genes, and then trying a joke about how we can't get a pair to fit!! but thought I wouldn't do that one as you probably know somewhere I can get jeans for dogs and/or cats) just the odd one who gives the owners a bad name, and uptight man was very odd indeed.  Hope I never have the extreme bad luck to encounter him, his wife, his cats or his big fast car ever again! 

Where's a traffic warden when you need one eh?

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