Dogs especially have an insane superpower of a nose, they surely smell the fear and even just regular body odour of all the previous animals who’ve come through there in the last week. I don’t know if the cleaning protocol of even the most fastidiously-hygienic clinics could get rid of that ‘doggy Holocaust train’ smell. It puts me in mind of my own struggles with autistic sensory overload. It must be the equivalent of someone like me being walked through a door and out onto the stage at Wembley Stadium without anyone telling me what was about to happen. At least in my case, I’d see the crowd, whereas the dog only smells the ghosts of animals past and has to imagine what might have caused their pheromone bukakke.
The same goes for the vet/groomer themselves; they surely emit the screaming echos of slaughterhouse stank like a pealing church bell every second of the day. They are absorbing pure animal terror into their clothes and onto their skin like an adrenochrome-fiending Clinton.
I’m glad you’ve had good experiences in waiting rooms! Mine were mixed and now I honestly never have to deal with any of it because she does.
And I completely agree on the latter. We have that done and it’s so much … better? To have that closure, with all the other pets able to be present and see/smell them and say goodbye.
I experienced this last year for the first time.
I don’t think our other dog really understood. I think we would have had to wait longer for her to come sniff in order for her to have understood.
I was afraid that I wouldn’t want to use the piece of furniture that we had always cuddled on and that we chose for her euthanasia, but after a week or two, it was fine. I don’t even think of it now, when using that furniture.
It was definitely the right choice.