As you all know we had to put the love of our life down a few short weeks ago. Before we came to that decision, we took Max to a local animal hospital-not our usual as he was very weak and never liked to travel in a car. We chose Clear Creek Animal Hospital as it is only a few blocks away. Max was 15, and very weak. The vet, Dr. Stone, did the usual blood work (which they shaved his neck for), x-rays, etc and said he was in general good health. Exactly one week later, we had to put him down. When I made that phone call, I was asked if I wanted to be in the room. I said both my husband and I would be there. At that time I also inquired about cremation. When we arrived, I felt as if we were on show. Every staff member was staring as if to see how upset we were. We were ushered into a room in which we waited 20 minutes with Max. We had made our decision and this extended period of time was excruciating. Finally a vet tech came in and said he was there to take Max. When we asked if he was coming back, the vet tech said no. He then said he would give us more time. We said we didn't need any more time and when he went to reach for Max he didn't support him and Max let out a cry. It was horrible. We attempted to regroup when another vet tech came in to "take Max." By this time we just wanted to get out of there and headed to the front desk. The receptionist seemed puzzled and kept saying "they're not staying." and "I don't know what to put in the computer." She then asked if I wanted a "private cremation". My whole point of addressing this before we went was to avoid it after the fact. One week later I received a call where the person on the other end said "Max is back." I asked her to repeat herself because I wanted to make sure I heard her correctly. "Max is back." Needless to say, I wrote them a letter and this Tuesday I received a call from Clear Creek's owner Dr. David Gallagher. While he said his call was to apologize as they had received my letter, he proceeded to list out exactly why none of this fiasco was their fault, but rather that my husband was a liar as Dr. Stone had told him that Max had a tumor and that she recommended an ultrasound; that we in fact had abandoned Max when we took him in to be euthanized; that I was under stress and was just overly sensitive, and that the individual that called me to tell me that Max's remains were in, in fact used a somber tone-though he hadn't yet talked to her. When is it ever okay to call a customer and blame them for the impression they received in your establishment? You can imagine that I did not take this lightly and now have made it my mission to warn everyone of Clear Creek Animal Hospital's lack of care and compassion. I have started with reviews on Citysearch and Google and plan to move to the Better Business Bureau, the North Carolina Veterinary Board and a letter to the editor in the Charlotte Observer. It has been hard as the events of the past few weeks are overshadowing the bulk of Max's 15 years. Thank you for indulging me and I promise to get back to the purpose of this blog ASAP!
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