Birds of a feather....

Last week, my Labrador Ursen had to undergo surgery to extract a painful tooth and to have a biopsy done on epulides ( growths on the gums). What was to be a straightforward procedure turned out to be quite difficult as the incisor in question refused to budge. It was pushed back in the mouth in an unnatural position and the root was extremely long ( they kept the tooth for me!). The vet said they couldn't use normal teeth extraction instruments and that it was quite a nightmare. Poor Ursen,who will be 9 in a few days, stayed under anesthetic for more than an hour. When the vet called me at about 1:30 to say they had finished the operation, she initially wanted to keep Ursen overnight to make sure he would recover properly. I replied that I preferred taking him home when possible because he is an anxious dog ( rescued from neglect and cruelty). She then said she would keep him until at least 6 p.m. At 3:30, the nurse phoned and asked if I could pick him up early because he was "howling the place down". It made me smile because years ago, when I worked at a vet clinic in the USA, I had brought in my fox terrier for a teeth cleaning, as soon as he was awake he started barking and they put him in the isolation ward because he was disturbing the other patients! Finally, they told me leave work early and take him home! In Ursen's case, the vet was surprised at how quickly and vigorously he came around. You know the saying "birds of a feather flock together", well, I was undergoing abdominal surgery in France and I awoke during the procedure, I distinctly heard father and son team of surgeons mentioning that something looked odd, I asked them what looked odd, they gasped and I heard the anaesthesiologist say:" go back to sleep, dear" before drifting off again! We are a hardy bunch!