Lessons I learned from a pigeon hoarder.

There are many interesting people that come in and out of a veterinarian’s life and those people teach us valuable life lessons.  We tend to assume that we are the teachers in the veterinarian/client relationship however clients are often our BEST teachers. Teaching us everything from humility to housekeeping.

There was one wonderful client, who has since passed away, that I think about often.  I think about her mostly when I have a house cleaning or organizing job to do.  I never visited her home, but I always imagined that it was a housekeeping disaster because she was a hoarder - a pigeon hoarder.

Mrs. Poupak (not her real name) was a widow that lived with her adult son in a suburban neighborhood near my veterinary hospital.  She maintained multiple bird feeders in her yard, which she would carefully fill daily. I don’t think that she had a lot of money, but what she did have she spent on her birds. The feeders were well attended and became so popular with the neighborhood birds that the word soon leaked to the neighborhood hawk population. The hawks learned that Mrs. Poupak’s bird feeders were a good place to pick off a pigeon or two if they wanted squab for lunch.

Thus our long veterinarian/client relationship began.   As Mrs. Poupak’s backyard population grew, so did the incidence of hawk attacks.  She did not want to feed the predators, so she took to watching her feeders “like a hawk” and beating back the hawks if they happened to try to pick off one of her precious pigeons. She would chase them down with an umbrella or tennis racket to break the victimized pigeon out of the offending hawk’s grasp.  Once she told me that she chased a hawk for 6 blocks to get it to drop one of her backyard birds. 

The mental picture of this small woman running through her neighborhood with a tennis racket screaming at a hawk flying overhead until she caught up to it, then beating it into submission to rescue a pigeon is priceless.

As she rescued the birds her indoor population of recovering pigeons grew and grew.  She took them in and brought them to me, fixed them up and rarely let any of them go.  She kept upwards of 40-50 pigeons living free in her home and as pigeons will tend to do, they set up housekeeping and started having baby pigeons, adding to her indoor population. She would bring me one bird after another that had either been mangled by a hawk or her new babies with a myriad of issues.  I knew that her health and her bank account would at some point collapse and I worried about her situation, and told her so.  We discussed that fact that she needed to stop collecting birds, but she could not bring herself to let go of her pets and the population started to control her.

At some point, well into my relationship with her, the situation was discovered by her daughter who forced her to give up most of her birds for her own health’s sake. Many of them were released or re-homed and she was allowed to keep only a few of her beloved pets leaving her somewhat heartbroken, but better off financially and physically. She lived the remainder of her life in a much cleaner environment with her children and a few of her pet birds. 

Mrs. Poupak’s hoarding situation taught me three valuable life lessons:

There is an inverse relationship between quantity of things and joy, so let some of your things go.

No matter how much money you spend on a situation, if you cannot see it for what it really is you may spend your life savings trying to fix it.  

Too much of anything is not good.

I think of her fondly as I go about keeping my own house and space in order, and I remember the lessons that her situation taught me.  She had beautiful intentions of helping the birds, but in the end her pigeon hoarding resulted in her home being condemned and her being separated from many of her beloved pets.  

“Sometimes letting things go is an act of far greater power than defending or hanging on.”  Eckhart Tolle

Dr. Julie Cappel

An Attitude of Gratitude to Carry Us Though Thanksgiving and Beyond

There are days when it just feels that no matter how hard we try we cannot make every client happy.  In some cases we do not even get a smile or a “thank you” for the amazing services we provide.  This may leave us feeling discouraged and dejected.

You may think we don’t deserve a thank you because we are just doing our job.   But I think everyone deserves a smile and some level of gratitude.  It is such an important part of human interaction and makes us all feel better.

I talked about this last week in my blog, but I thought that we should dig into this subject a bit more this week because it is the week of our Thanksgiving holiday.   As this holiday of “thanks” and “giving” approaches, I think we should explore how an attitude of gratitude helps us to have a better outlook towards our clients, our team and our family.

Gratitude is defined as “the quality of being thankful; readiness to show appreciation for and to return kindness.”

The second part of that definition really gets to me - the “readiness to show appreciation for and to return kindness.” 

I experienced a lack of client appreciation just this week and it turned into an opportunity for me to be more grateful.  

A client was visiting the office with a young puppy. The technician team attempted to educate him about intestinal parasite control and the importance of fecal parasite exams to diagnosed and eradicate intestinal parasites in young pets.  The team members that were involved in the interaction felt that they had communicated well and were confident that the client understood why we recommend two consecutive negative fecal tests for his puppy.  After the client left the office I discovered that he left a negative review for us on Google. His review basically stated that it was laughable that we should run the same test twice.   He obviously had misunderstood the explanation as to why we repeat samples on young pets. 

When I read the snarky review it took me a minute (maybe more like 10) to find a valid reason to be grateful for the fact that he left us a negative review.  Once I thought more carefully about it, I realized that if he had not left the review, I would have been unaware that there was a misunderstanding about our protocols.   It gave me the opportunity to develop a better system of client education and a new subject for our next hospital blog. He had given us the opportunity to improve.  I was grateful!

In contrast, we have another client that has been loyal to our hospital for many years.  He is one of the kindest and most positive people that I have ever met.  He has a variety of pets that he treats them as his animal children.  He is warm and kind and generous.  He faithfully presents his babies to us for their annual examinations and always shows up with a gift for the team.  He frequently brings us large sheet cakes and coolers full of ice cream as an expression of his gratitude.  He has even brought us presents from his overseas business travels. He is without fail the person that I think of when I think of living with gratitude.

My point in contrasting these two very different veterinary interactions is to demonstrate that we have a choice when it comes to living with gratitude. We can choose to feel just as grateful for the first client as the second. 

As you enjoy your Thanksgiving holiday with your family try to remember to be grateful for every interaction.  Even something that appears negative on the surface can lead to positivity if you can just manage your mind around it.    

“Develop an attitude of gratitude, and give thanks for everything that happens to you, knowing that every step forward is a step toward achieving something bigger and better than your current situation.” – Brian Tracy

 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Dr. Julie Cappel

Do I really matter? It takes one small thing.

I spent the better part of last week at a veterinary gathering in Dallas Texas.  The program was designed to be uplifting and informative - teaching the participants everything from human resource laws to gratitude and self-awareness. There were many different speakers with differing approaches presented, but they were all aiming at the same goal in some way:  aiming at self-care for veterinary professionals and encouraging a gratitude mentality. 

This subject is my passion and the main reason that I started this blog. 

The one event that I found particularly enjoyable and meaningful at the conference was the “charity” activity.  The entire group of over 1000 veterinarians, hospital managers and veterinary technicians were gathered into a room and separated into teams.  We were then given supplies and challenged to make blankets, build doghouses, birdhouses, and dog beds for a variety of animal and human charity organizations in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. 

The collective energy in the room was so positive it was electric.   Everyone in that huge ballroom was engaged and motivated.  Why?  We were giving back.  We were focused on doing something to better another.   The activity caused us to focus on the power that each of us has to overcome the negativity of the world by doing one small thing.  

On my team I met a veterinarian from Los Angeles who was such a sunny personality that I immediately felt great about my profession and my life.  She was the kind of person that sees the glass as half full.  She had a fantastic life outlook and gave our team added energy.  She focused her energy outward and affected us in a positive way.

This is something that you can focus on everyday to make your own life better.  You have the power to improve your attitude by focusing on someone else.  Giving back to the universe for what it has given to you.  It is a positivity super power that is always available to you.  

Start each day by feeling grateful for one small thing in your life.   It can be something as simple as your warm bed, your cup of coffee or the roof over your head.  Write it down as a way of seeing it in a concrete way.  Then spend a few minutes thinking about something you can do for another person today. It doesn’t have to be as complex as giving money or time to a charity organization.  It can be as simple as happily letting someone merge into traffic on your way to work. It can be something as simple as being positive for your team like my new friend from Los Angeles. It can be something anonymous. In fact anonymous random acts of kindness are often the best things you can do to make yourself feel alive.    

  

As veterinary professionals we do a lot of giving and it can make us feel depleted.  However, we have the power to use giving and gratefulness as a way of improving our outlook and feeling energized. By using the tools of gratitude and living openhandedly you will feel the difference and realize that every little thing you do really matters in this world.

Do one small thing.

You do matter.

 

Dr. Julie Cappel

Taking Baby Steps - How to get things done.

This weekend I was on a scrapbooking trip with my girl friends.  We always have so much fun working on our scrapbooks, eating and talking.  As I sat at my table looking at the piles of paper, photos and scrapbooking supplies that were laid out in front of me, I began to feel overwhelmed.  I could spend hours thinking about what I wanted to do with all of it.  I needed to start working. Working on my daughter’s wedding scrapbook, but there were so many beautiful photos and I didn’t want to ruin any of them.  The thought of getting started gave me a little anxiety and kept me frozen in inactivity.  Then I thought of a book I love called, “ The Slight Edge”.  It is a book about the concept of just taking little baby steps towards a goal.  Taking one small action at a time each day will eventually get a large task accomplished.  I began to work.

There are so many things that we want to do in our lives and we continually put them off because they seem so large.  We want to make more money, go on a fancy vacation, or learn a new skill.  We keep saying we want to do it, but the goal never materializes because we are caught in an inactivity/fear loop. 

If we spend too much time thinking about what we want to get done, we will idle and never accomplish anything.  If we wait for the perfect idea, the perfect job offer, the perfect deal for our vacation, we will never move.  Our brains get in the way of our goals.  Our brain brings up all the negative things that we think might happen if we step out of our comfort zone.   The negativity scares us into inaction.

I see this idle tendency so often with my clients.  I ask a client to brush their pets’ teeth.  They say, “there is no way doctor, he will never let me brush his teeth!”  I talk to them about the power of the “baby step” or “slight edge”.  Get the toothbrush, show it to the dog then give him a treat.   The next day place the toothbrush gently on one tooth, then stop and give him a treat.  The next day swipe at one tooth, then give him a treat.  You get the idea.  One tooth at a time keeping it positive until that dog loves getting his teeth brushed.  The goal is accomplished!  It becomes easy when you break it down into baby steps. 

How do you take baby steps and get this concept to work for you?

Focus on one project at a time and take one small step at a time.  Break the goal down into little bite sized chunks and write them down.  Make a list of baby steps.  Take each step until you get that project finished before switching to another.  Don’t multitask.  Your brain cannot do more than one thing at a time and if you allow yourself small chunks to focus on you are more likely to continue to move forward.  

Have no fear.  Nothing you want to do in life is out of your reach.  You want to learn to dance?  Take one dance lesson at a time.   You want to write a book, one page at a time.  You are perfectly capable of doing more than you think you can do.  Push through the fear and take a step.

One baby step.

Dr. Julie Cappel

...Pants on Fire...

As a long time practicing veterinarian I have learned that some clients lie. Maybe a kinder way of saying it is, they stretch the truth.

Untruth after untruth will be reveled if you ask enough questions.  They tell the receptionist one story on the phone then tell the doctor a different story in the exam room. It is so fascinating.  Why do they do it?  How can we understand their motivations and get the real story so we can help their pets?

It happens almost every week in some small form, but it happened to me a few weeks ago in a big way.  

The story goes like this.

I had a couple come in with a beautiful, but quite ill parrot named Cass.  Cass was not feeling up to par and the couple was worried about him.  They told my technician that he was on a great diet and had never been ill before.  They also said that he was not on any medications.  They repeated the same story to me when I was examining Cass.  The owners seemed to love him very much and wanted what was best for him, so we drew some blood for testing and took some radiographs. When the results showed that Cass had severe liver disease we discussed a course of medications and diet modifications.  The couple was grateful and promised to adhere to my recommendations and bring him back for a recheck in a week to see if we were making any progress. 

The second time I saw Cass he was acting a bit better, however after more testing we realized that he still had a severe liver problem.  As I talked to the couple about next steps, they asked me to speak to another family member on their cell phone to explain the results.  I happily took the phone.  As I was explaining the tests results and my recommendations for an ultrasound of the liver, the person on the other end of the phone said, “He already had an ultrasound a few weeks ago.”  Flabbergasted I asked for more details.  He said that the bird had been seen by another veterinarian and had the same tests that I was recommending.  I could not believe my ears.  Why would the owners bring me a bird with a known problem and not tell me the complete history?  What kind of game were we playing here?  I asked which veterinary hospital and promptly called them.  When I asked the receptionist if they had any records on Cass she said, “Oh yes, we have a huge history on him.”   The other veterinarian told me that Cass had been visiting their veterinary hospital for 15 years and the bird was diagnosed with liver disease over SIX MONTHS ago and was on multiple medications for the problem. He also had radiographs, and ultrasound exam and was treated multiple times over the years for similar problems.

Once I had the entire history, I went back to speak to the couple to see if I could figure out why they chose to lie to me about his history.  I asked them about the medications that he was supposed to be getting from the other hospital and they magically produced a bag of at least 10 medications that they had but were not giving.  When I asked them why, they just looked at me and said, we didn’t think they were working.  I pointed out that when he was getting the medication they reported to the other hospital that he was doing better, but now he was ill after not getting the medication.

Oh, My!!  Why did they lie?

As a veterinarian I think it is our duty to be patient with “liars” and see the lies for what they really are, FEAR.  Fear of the unknown and fear that we may judge them for seeking a second opinion or not following our recommendations.   We need to be able to reassure people that we are all on the same team.  We need to be open to sharing information with other veterinary hospitals so clients will not feel that they have to hide information. We need the whole story before we can do our best work.

Gently ask probing questions in different ways and ask multiple times.  It seems that when I ask the same questions in different ways, I often get closer to the truth.  Also, be open to suggestion.  Most clients know their pets’ needs best, and want us to think as they do.  If they make a suggestion about their pet’s care, be open to it as well as being open to their opinions on treatment options.  

If you are a veterinarian or veterinary technician, be patient with the “little white lies” that people tell.  Understand that they are not doing this to harm us, but are just trying to navigate the fear they have of our profession.  Show them how much you care about the truth and the patient’s care to put them at ease.

If you are a pet owner, please do not hide important information from us, we really do love animals and want to help you and your pet.  We will be better able to help if you do not keep important information from us.   

We are all on the same caring veterinary-client-patient team.

The truth will set us all free.  :)

Dr. Julie Cappel

How to love people you don't like.

Yesterday I heard someone complain about one of their colleagues.  I listened to them grumble about the other person’s personality, work ethic, intelligence and leadership skills.  They had an idea in their head about how the person should behave and it was not happening for them, so they felt frustration, which lead to complaining and gossip.

Complaining about a co-worker, family member or friend is not a useful or productive exercise.  Wouldn’t life be easier if we could accept and love everyone?  What would your day be like if other people did not bother you, but in fact pleased you? 

Beautiful right?

It is totally up to you.

Your relationship with other people is about how you THINK about them.  It really has nothing to do with them.   It is your thoughts about them and their behavior that determines your relationship. 

The first step towards accepting others is to learn about and understand you.  We are all wired in different ways and in fact we all think differently.  There are many tools to help you understand personality and behavior styles.   I like Myers-Briggs, DISC, and Enneagram but there are many others that you can use.  Through these tools I have come to understand that I am an extrovert that enjoys harmony and getting things done.  I enjoy a fast paced work environment and quick solutions.  I do not enjoy tedious tasks that require reading detailed directions or sitting for long periods of time alone in my office.  I have the capacity for detail work, but it is not my preference.

Once you understand some things about yourself, you will have more capacity to look at others and understand their personality preferences.  You will be better able to appreciate their usefulness in your world and in your relationship.

The second step towards acceptance is to let go of your script.  We all have these scripts in our head that we write for others.  How we think they should behave.  How we think they should do their job.  How we think they should treat others.  The scripts keep us from allowing others to just be.  The truth is that adult people get to behave in any way that they want to behave.  Nothing in our script can prevent them from doing as they wish.  Once you accept that, you can let go of your preconceived notions towards their behavior and appreciate the things that they do well.  They have their own agenda, which has nothing to do with your script.  

Adults get to behave as they wish.

The third step is unconditional love.  Once you accept yourself just the way you are, you can move on to any self-improvement project without boundaries and the trappings of past failure.  You are free to explore anything that your heart desires.  When you accept and love others unconditionally, your relationship with them is free.  You no longer have to try to control their behavior because you realize that they are perfectly perfect the way they are.  This does not mean that you have to put up with abusive behaviors or poor performing employees.  You can love someone and still set boundaries around yourself or the job.  If the other person chooses to violate those boundaries, you can let them go without guilt or anger.  You can set them free and complete the relationship with love.

How you feel about another person is totally dependent on how you think of yourself and think of them.

“As you think so shall you be!  Your relationships are all in how you think about other people in your life.”  Wayne Dyer

Dr. Julie Cappel

Photo credit - Quattrozampe.online

Seek First to Understand

It occurred to me yesterday, as I was telling my family a very funny story from my workday that being a good listener is a huge part of my job.  Veterinarians must be good listeners and very often, good actors too. Some of the stories we are told are not to be believed and would cause a normal person to either laugh hysterically or drop open their jaw in disbelief. 

Listening is one of the most important skills that we as veterinarians must perfect, and is one of Stephen Covey’s seven habits from the book “7 Habits of Highly Effective People”.  Steven said, “Most people do not listen to understand; they listen with the intent to reply.” 

John Maxwell, leadership guru, calls listening our most important skill.  He recommends that we spend 80% of our time listening and 20% talking.

In veterinary medicine we not only have to listen to the clients to get an idea about why their pet needs help.  We also spend much of our time “listening” to the body language of our patients as we attempt to figure out what they are telling us about their illnesses.

There are multiple ways that we can work to develop skill as a good listener to benefit our clients our teams and ourselves.  These are the some proven steps for success when it comes to listening carefully and responding appropriately:

Identify the speaker’s problem.  You can get to the identification of the problem by asking yourself a few questions.  What is the issue that brings this person to me?  What is their goal?  Once you have the answer to these questions you can start to try to understand the facts that will help you solve the problem and offer the speaker a solution that they are after.

Determine the person's mindset and formulate your plan to cater to them.  Are they approaching from a scarcity mindset or an abundant mindset?   Are they more concerned about the financial cost for treatments, or are they willing to align your goals with theirs in order to get to the bottom of the problem?

Respond in a way that meets the other persons wants and needs.  To respond in the correct way you need to approach the problem with empathy and the speaker’s personality in mind. Use the words that you believe that the speaker wants to hear as you present the solution to their problem.  If you have really paid attention and listened well you will have no problem getting their problem solved to everyone's satisfaction. 

Remember that listening is a skill that requires practice and the ability to be generous to the other persons' needs and wants.  If you listen with the goal to understand as your first priority  it will open up your skill as a listener and grow your relationship with your clients and your team.

And also practice your "straight face" for those times when the clients say or do things that cause a shocked response.  Then later you can use those stories to entertain your family and friends.  

Dr. Cappel

Lessons from "Reality" Vets

There seems to be an ever-growing obsession with veterinary reality shows on television.  In my mind it all started with "Emergency Vets" back in the 90s, which was a show that focused on Alameda East Veterinary Hospital where the medicine was cutting edge.  Now, there are so many shows with veterinarians working everywhere from Alaska to Hawaii to Houston, with varying levels of veterinary medical care. There are even some wacky veterinary characters that have become admired in spite of their less than conventional medical practises.  I am a fan of some of these shows because they allow the pet loving public to get a glimpse --albeit not always an accurate glimpse -- into the “reality” that is our veterinary world.

As I watch the variety of veterinarians showcased on these shows I am reminded of the huge job that we do each day and the challenge of treating a wide variety of patients and conditions.  I see the tremendous capacity that veterinarians have to persevere when the going gets tough.  It is one of our most admirable qualities.  It is the thing that keeps us from running out the door on any given day after we face a treatment failure or nasty case.

Perseverance is “steadfastness in doing something despite difficulty or delay in achieving success”. 

Perseverance is something that we needed to get through our difficult schooling and something that we possess each day in order to do the best job for our patients, clients and families. So how do we continue to develop this skill in and out of our work environment?  How do we further develop our capacity to persevere?

Formulate strong goals.  In order to push through to a conclusion of success, you have to have a clear goal in mind.  It may be something as simple as cleaning off your desk or as complex as getting through a successful surgery. You have to start with an end in mind. 

Make up your mind. Have a strong will or intention to achieve your stated goal. You cannot persevere if your mind is weak, so decide up front that you will not fail or if you do hit a bump in the road, you will continue to try.

Hold on to optimism.  If your brain thinks the goal is too lofty or wants to think negatively about it, you are less likely to follow through.  Think optimistic thoughts and you will be more likely to push through when things look grim.

Stay focused on the present.  It will not help you to dwell on your past problems or your future fears.  If you stay focused on each step you will be less likely to give up if things look down.   You will have a higher capacity to get each thing done and will feel less overwhelmed.  With each step, acknowledge your accomplishments or small successes then focus on the next step in the process.

All of us can learn to develop our tenacity and increase our ability to push through when the going gets tough.   When obstacles get in your way and discouragement threatens your optimism, think of the grit and strength that brought you where you are today and carry on. Learn a lesson from those “reality show vets” and get the job done before the "hour" is over.

“Perseverance is the hard work you do after you get tired of doing the hard work you already did.” Newt Gingrich

Dr. Julie Cappel