Some Good in the World

Raina

I wouldn’t have gotten into this line of work if I had wanted to have time to myself. When Rita and I had invested in this clinic, getting it cleaned up and turned into the practice that it was today, I had managed to convince myself that this would be a chance for me to set my own hours and take a little more time away from work. But in truth, with so much more on the line, it just made it harder for me to take a break and relax.

I was constantly running around, trying to make sure that everything was running smoothly and that we were going to make enough cash to get through the next few weeks, and that all our clients were receiving the best care that they possibly could as long as they were with us. It was hard, yes, but it was what I had always wanted. It was work on my own terms, and that work came along with a huge stack of responsibility, too.

I spent most of my day covered in cat scratches and dog hair, not to mention the occasional angry peck-mark left by a bird who wasn’t too happy about having to be brought in here in the first place. And I could say with certainty that I didn’t give a damn about any of that. I loved my job. I had loved my job before I’d ever started it, when I had taken my introductory course at college and met other people who were just as passionate as me. I adored animals—always had and always would—and the thought of getting to spend my time around them all day was the best thing I could think of in the world.

It had been at college that I had met Rita, too. She had the same outlook as me, the same passion, and it made me so happy to know that there were other people out there just like me. We stayed in touch when we had graduated, as we both took on tech jobs under more experienced clinicians, but it didn’t take long until both of us were jonesing for something that was a little more by our rules.

And that was how we came to open a place of our own.

It had been a couple of years now, and it had been hard when we had first been getting off the ground. Rita had been forced to cut her honeymoon short to make it back in time to take care of our first flurry of clients. We had built up a steady stream of people who trusted us and came back to us, no matter what, and they would never know just how fucking grateful we were for their returning here. In Portland, word of mouth was so important in getting anything like this off the ground, and we relied on it in the early days.

Those were far behind us now.

I cleaned up and got myself ready for the first arrival of the day, a bird who had managed to get caught in an electric fan and break its wing in the process. It was a delicate procedure to get it all fixed up and casted, but I managed it.

After that, we had a dopey dog who had eaten a shoe and managed to upset his stomach in the process. He needed some meds to make sure that he got it all out of him in one go without too much suffering. I scratched his head as he hopped off the table, and I couldn’t help but smile when I saw his owner scooping him up into her arms on the way out. The people who came here did it because they loved their animals just as much as we cared for them.

Next came a cat with a hurt leg, then thirty minutes for lunch, and then handling all the emergency intakes of the day—the pets who had managed to get themselves into trouble one way or another in the preceding few hours. I didn’t have to take on anything too upsetting, which was a relief.

I knew I was supposed to toughen up to this stuff the more time I spent in the industry, but that had never happened. In some ways, I hoped it never would. I felt like so much of my ability to actually do this job came from wanting to stop animals suffering, and if I stopped caring about that, then what motivation would I have to keep going?

I sent Hannah home as early as I could so she could rest up, and I cleaned up and prepared for the next day as best I could. By the time I stepped onto the train to take me back to my apartment, I was yawning so widely I could barely see.

I made it up the stairs to the little studio I lived in and crashed into bed. I had some frozen meals I could throw on the stove and cook, but I didn’t want to have to move for a little while. Sometimes, I was so tired that I wondered why I did this in the first place, but then I remembered the way the owner had happily scooped up her dog when she had been walking out, and I knew just why.

It was for the animals. And the good they did in the world. That was why I did it.

No matter how grueling it got, I owed it to them to give it my all, and I was going to keep doing that as long as I still could. Things might have gotten tricky, but I was committed.

And more than anything, I was glad that I could come home from work every day, confident that I had done some good in the world.

How many people got to say that?