Stuff happens. Precautions fail. Suddenly, you need help.
Children can yell for Mom, but sometimes Mom needs back-up.
Our younger son embodies fearless creativity. Somehow, he hasn’t required an Emergency Room in years. (We’re pretty sure that the Good Lord set him up with an angel equipped with extra armor, weaponry and a serious jet pack.) Our other kids seem to have delegated their quota of emergencies to our basset hound and shih-tzu.
Basset hounds can digest just about anything, which is good because they eat everything. To be clear: This otherwise passive creature will bend doors, break sealed trash cans and leap tall buildings to get at the leftovers from a bloody nose. His devoted shih-tzu sidekick/understudy also gets in on the action. This Determined Duo could break into Fort Knox if it held enough used feminine hygiene products, greasy paper and oven cleaner.
Did I mention oven cleaner? Shocker: Dogs and oven cleaner don’t mix. So when, despite considerable precautions the Determined Duo pried the kitchen trash full of used oven-cleaner-coated paper towels open, we were on the phone with VCA Mountainview before my hair came back down. At that moment the vets were unavailable so their admin offered an alternative location, but encouraged me to contact Animal Poison Control through the ASPCA.
Once on the phone with ASPCA Poison Control they explained the need for a service cost of $65 per case; repeat calls for that case would be no extra charge. Would that be all right?
Within 1-2 minutes the screener carefully recorded vital information: How to find me, our dogs’ names, ages, weight, whether they’d been “fixed”; when, how much and which poison they had consumed and what it might be mixed with. (Luckily, I had remembered to have the original container handy!) The rep consulted one of the veterinarians on duty.
Shortly a specialist carefully reviewed my information and gave me instructions. (The dogs never did get sick.) If we recognized any warning signs, we were to take the dogs to a veterinarian. We received a call-back number and a case number for their reference. The ASPCA Poison Control Center would fax all case-related information to that vet. They would gladly consult for no additional charge. Once all was settled and pet care well in hand, I was transferred to arrange payment. It turned out that if our dogs were chipped by Home Again, they would cover the cost of treatment for subscribers.
I did the math: $35 to renew Home Again vs. $65 for one case.
I renewed.
A week later, we had a mix-up. Oven-cleaner-laced grease came within reach; the dogs briefly licked the area….
I love Home Again. They covered that call, too. The ASPCA Poison Control Center was efficient and kind. And I love our veterinarians: VCA Mountainview—the ones who referred us to Home Again.