Storytime Tapestry Newsletter

The newsletter devoted to spreading love and cultural awareness throughout the world.

Special Treat – Sharon Bryant

June 28, 2007

A Special Kind of Doctor

Sharon Bryant

I believe most of us want to find that one doctor that we feel comfortable with.  I know I do.

I believe I've found a very special doctor.

I met him around fifteen years ago.  I walked into his clinic and was greeted with a smile.  I glanced around and liked the cute photos on the walls.  It gave me reason to smile and feel comfortable.

He's 56 years old now.  He attended college at Auburn University in Auburn, Alabama.  He began practice at the age of 27.

His name is Clarke Millsap Gaines.  His clinic is in Bessemer, Alabama.

I like the relationship he gives to his patients.  He is gentle, sentimental, and just a good doctor.

I have seen him touch a patient with the most tenderness a human can touch.  I've seen him hang his head down when the diagnosis is not good news.  His patients cannot speak. 

Dr. Gaines is a veterinarian, owner of the Bessemer-McCalla Animal Clinic.

When we humans go to a doctor, we can tell what we feel, where we hurt, what is wrong.  When Dr. Gaines has a patient come into his office, he can only go by what the animal's owner can tell him.  He has to guess many times what is wrong.  I believe that would be hard to do for many people.

I asked Dr. Gaines to give me some incidents that stand out in his mind after all these years of being a veterinarian.  He said there are so many.  He told me about a little beagle brought into his office one day that was hit by a car.  His leg was mangled and had to be removed.  No one came to claim the dog.   After his surgery healed he was named "Limping Jack".   Six months later a couple walked into his office and told him about a little beagle of theirs that came up missing a few months earlier.  Doctor Gaines showed him the beagle.  It was theirs.  He said that was one of the happiest moments he witnessed.

I had a dog, named Pokey.  She was a long-haired dachshund and basset mixed.  We adopted her as a puppy from the Humane Society.  From day one, Dr. Gaines was her doctor.  When I would take Pokey in for her annual shots and check up, she always was at ease with the doctor.  He was always very gentle with her.

Pokey died when she was eleven years old from cancer in 2003.  My heart was broken.  She was my "little girl" and to lose her was horrendous.  Doctor Gaines sent my husband and I a card.  It wasn't only a card saying how sorry he was, it was a beautiful letter telling us what a good home he knew Pokey had all those years.  He said he could tell by a dogs behavior the treatment they receive at home.  As he put it, "Pokey was a happy lady."

Many mornings when Dr. Gaines arrives at work, in the little fenced in area on the side of his office, a dog or cat will be laying there waiting.  People drop off their animals all the time.  I often wonder if people think a veterinarian is a shelter with the way they take their animals and just drop them off.  Dr. Gaines has many clinic dogs and cats that he tries to find homes for.

I think the one thing that is very special to me is he will never put an animal to sleep just because it's been dropped off.  He does his best to find each animal a home.

Someone I know now has a cat with three legs who resides in their home.  Someone dropped the cat off one day and told Dr. Gaines to put it to sleep.  It's leg was mangled.  He refused to do that and amputated the leg saying the cat could have a good full life with three legs.  The cat's name is Tripod, TP for short, and he lives with my son and daughter-in-law. 

We all hear of people who abuse animals.  In my area recently, someone set a dog on fire.  A horse was shot while in his field.

I never understood people who can do such horrible things to an innocent animal.  Neither can Dr. Gaines.

I asked Doc if I could mention that he is sentimental.  He hesitated a moment then said, "sure."  He always feels bad when an animal does not make it in surgery.  When the owner cries, doc cries with them.  I think that is a special kind of doctor.

Recently a little bird was saved from a snake attack.  It is being nursed with baby food and doing very well.  Daily my daughter-in-law, who works for Dr. Gaines, takes little "Albert" back and forth from home to work.  Daily Dr. Gaines checks on the little guy to make sure he's ok. 

I asked doc what is the most valuable thing he could tell me as a veterinarian.  He said it's the relationships he sees between people and their pets.  He said, "Spell dog backwards." 

He also said people don't realize that animals can get the same diseases as humans.  The way we feed them has a lot to do with their health.  The way we treat them has so much to do with their habits.  We talked about dogs that are known to be "mean" dogs.  Doc said people kill, animals don't.  Animals who are trained to be mean are that only from the hands of humans.  He doesn't think any breed of dog is born mean.

In a way, if you think about it, you can compare that with children growing up in bad homes with parents who treat them badly.  For some it is hard to be gentle when they have never known gentleness.

There are bigger clinics in newer buildings in my area.  Yet I prefer to always have Dr. Gaines treat my two border collies and my corgi.  He knows my dogs.  They are comfortable with him.  That means a lot to me.

A couple of years ago he was telling me not to give my corgi anything but dry Purina dog food.  Doc has two corgi's of his own.

Pokey was fed table food just about every day and he said a dog's digestive tract cannot tolerate human foods all the time.  When my husband and I got our Corgi, I wanted to make sure I was giving him the right foods.

One day I went to get some heartworm medicine and Dr. Gaines opened the door.  I saw his two corgi's behind him and in his hand was a bowl with what looked like gravy inside it.  I knew right then he was giving his dogs something more than the Purina.

"What's in the bowl?" I asked.  He tried to hide it behind his back, and I laughed and said, "Oh yeah right, just dry dog food, huh?"

Doc looked at me and grinned and said, "Just once in a while....."

I believe a veterinarian is a special kind of doctor.  I can't imagine trying to diagnose something without having much to go on.  Yet that's what a veterinarian has to do.  His patients can only give a sign with their tail and their eyes.  A vet has to know body language with many of his patients.

Dr. Gaines has one corgi who is blind and epileptic.  Like he says, humans can go blind and they can become epileptic.  The love between doc and his little corgi is obvious.  His love for all animals is special.

Animals depend on us for their food, water, care and love.  What they give us in return is worth giving them a home.  They have hearts, they feel the same way humans do. 

I myself love dogs.  My whole family has dogs and some have cats also. 

There is nothing greater than to come home from work, open the door and being greeted by your pet.  They are so happy to see you.  They wait patiently for you all day.  They ask for nothing; only that you love them. 

They are little children in fur coats in my eyes.

That's the way it should be.

Sharon Bryant

1946@bellsouth.net