In 1978 I was given custody of my two young sons at that time I think they were 7 and 10 years old. We were leaving in rental house fairly close to my wildlife preserve, Stonewood Meadows. I had envisioned my preserve as a self supporting wildlife preserve for the various agencies to relocate in to the Santa Monica mountains, indigenous species that ended up in animal shelters, highways and attics. To support the project, I had several fruit and nut trees plus the boys and I planted 10 acres of wine grapes. We had no money to do this, but knew a wonderful gentleman who sold as grape cuttings for a nickel a piece. Since the buds on the cutting came out straight on the cutting, the boys and I had no idea which way was up or down. The vineyard workers cut the vines in certain way so we could tell. What they explained to us is that the flat end went into the ground and the pointed end was meant to point to heaven. Everything proceeded nicely. I put a king sized mattress in the back of my pickup, and the boys slept while I irrigated all Friday night and Saturday night. In the cold morning both days I would take the Boys down to main street 8 miles away to a small diner.
Bob the owner took pride in fixing animal pancakes and having the boys indentify them along with eggs, bacon and hot chocolate.
Soon thereafter, I was working out at a gym, and saw a client of mine who was an orthopedic surgeon. He said to me, “you do not have to do this but my gas passer has a very bright son who they are having a hard time handling, but he is interested in animals. Might he visit your practice?” Obviously I would like him to have him visit as I have done in the past with so many children. I have always the best things on earth besides Mother Nature, are children and
animals. If you read my Biography, you will see I was hoping to be a pediatrician, and even at the time, I was disappointed, I realize now I would have never had the liberty to make my findings as an MD.
Our new little friend loved what he saw at the practice and eventually he became our friends would spend the weekend with us. Since the boys and I really react to poison oak, our friend would tether Sidney our goat in the middle of a patch and would love to eat it with no adverse effects. When we took Sidney home he had to be washed in a heavy commercial soap and we had to wear long rubber gloves. The only one who enjoyed the entire event. We took our two Borzoies with us plus Moose our English bulldog. I did all my grading and field preparation on an old bull dozer which was an International Harvester, A TD18.
I bought the bulldozer from a guy, two canyons over, that was Seebee and used a similar dozer to build airstrips in Gaum. I had never been on a dozer before, but I did manage to get the beast home without hurting the environment or myself. I had to work in steep areas and kept everyone in the shade under a tree. To everyone’s amazement, Moose would come to see me buy running up the tract of the dozer and sitting next to me to say hello with a slurp with is a wet lick. When he decided to check on the boys and our friend, he would run down the tract to the ground and share his slurps. This all occurred before the battle of Stonewood Meadows began.
The real point of this story is that our young friend not only went to the University of California at Davis but ended up our number one intern and went on with his studies to become a Board Certified Veterinary.
Dermatologist. He is highly respected, but guess what, he is still a professional human being.
Young people really are the hope and future of not only our world, but also the world of our animals. Anything that I can do or any veterinarian can do, is vital to our young people. They not only need to believe in what they are doing, but also they must believe in themselves. We all need to extend our hand to children and help them develop into happy successful people that leave more than they take.
If you help a child, that event often remains in their memory for ever. I remember this wonderful little 7 year old carrot top boy, with tears streaming down his cheeks because his tortoise had gotten out in the street and been run over and had a cracked shell. At his age, this had to be pretty much of the end of the world for him. I did keep the tortoise and with a little antibiotic and a lot fiber glass I was able to give the little boy his friend back in good health. Obvious this was my pleasure and kind of what I was trained to do, but this was outside the box a little. No money was involved but my compensation came with a big smile and a hug. Trust me I have only seen our little friend since has grown up, but he shared with me, that he will never forget this experience and that will always keep him on the tract that only allows for good things.
This is a little like seeing a person that is really down on their luck, and are struggling merely to survive and you help them out with a donation but say to them, once you are on your feet and your see someone down on their luck, you can pay me back by helping the as I have for you. Sorry for my ramblings.
Yours in Health
Dr. Al Plechner DVM
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_b.png?x-id=40bfda5b-a670-4216-bda0-a7361e3a7bf6)
Thanks for returning, you may want to subscribe to the HPN RSS feed To always keep updated...
HPN Related Websites
Loading ...
