An Ounce of Prevention

He didn't want to go on this vacation. The timing was all wrong for him, but he had set everything aside so that he could be with his family. Carmen was right. They needed some family time. He had been neglecting them all. It would only be for two weeks. He could spare that much time for them. As she had pointed out, the clinic would still be there when they returned. That was true enough. It was the possibility that some of his clients wouldn't still be there that troubled him. One in particular was already complaining about the fact that he had lost a horse and foal because Alex wasn't available. He wished he could say it wouldn't have made any difference if he had been there instead of another doctor. The fact was; he wasn't there so he couldn't be sure. All he was sure about was that he couldn't be two places fifteen miles away from each other at the same time.

The client was furious because he felt Alex had made a poor choice on priorities. Actually, he didn't have a choice because the other client had called first. The fact that one was a goat and the other a race horse worth thousands of dollars was irrelevant. A life was a life. He had saved the goat and the horse had died. He had gone over it a hundred times or more in his mind. Maybe he should have had the other doctor take care of the goat while he shifted his attention to the horse. He had more experience with horses. Still, if the goat had died, its owner would have been irate. Whatever the case, he couldn't go back and do it differently. If the owner of the horse wanted to sue him, he would simply have to take more time from his schedule at the clinic and meet the man in court. That wouldn't be for a while, though. He had plenty of time to get into more trouble.