legends · 4 min read ·
Case Notes, Room 3
A veterinary practice's case notes show animals refusing one room, and the room's founder still using it.
**Hollin Vets — Case Notes (practice: 3 vets, 4 nurses, 6 consulting rooms)**
**1 Oct · Room 3 · Labrador, 6 yrs, male (Biscuit).** Lameness, left hind. Examined. No fracture. Anti-inflammatory, rest. Behaved well. (Dr. A. Pryce)
**3 Oct · Room 3 · Cat, DSH, 4 yrs, female (Moth).** Vaccination. (Dr. A. Pryce)
**4 Oct · Room 3 · Border collie, 3 yrs, male (Fly).** Stood in the doorway and would not come in. Owner pulled. Dog lay down on the threshold. Seen in Room 5 instead. (Dr. L. Kemp)
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**Nurse's memo (N. Banerjee, 6 Oct)**
Three animals this week have refused Room 3. It is a pattern. Dogs plant their feet at the door. Cats arch and fluff. A rabbit went rigid in its carrier and would not come out.
None of them show signs of distress in any other room. The animals do not growl or snarl. They simply will not cross the threshold. They look into the room, at the exam table, the scales, the window. They look at one corner. They go quiet.
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**Case notes (Room 3, 8 Oct)**
**Greyhound, 8 yrs, female (Duchess).** Owner carried her in. Dog trembled. Placed on table. She fixed her eyes on the corner behind the door, where the cupboard stands. Did not blink. Pulse 160. Temperature normal. I examined the corner. Nothing there but a cupboard, a bin, and the radiator.
The dog stayed pointing at the corner for forty minutes. When I moved her to Room 5, she fell asleep at once, in the way of a dog that has put down a heavy load. (Dr. A. Pryce)
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**Case notes (Room 3, 10 Oct)**
**Horse, Welsh cob, 12 yrs (Taffy).** Not seen in the building. The owner reported a colic. The mobile service attended. Notes entered here at the owner's request because she had phoned the practice's landline first.
The caller asked whether the vet would please check Room 3. She had a feeling about it. She said her horse had stood in the yard for an hour looking at the window of the building. I asked which window. She said the one on the left of the porch, on the ground floor. Room 3.
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**Staff memo (Hollin Vets, 12 Oct)**
Room 3 is out of use pending investigation. Please do not use it for consultations. Please do not use it for storage. The door is to be kept shut.
*Handwritten at the foot, in marker: Do not let the practice dog in there either.*
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**Case notes (Reception, 14 Oct)**
**Practice dog (Pickle), 5 yrs, Jack Russell.** Found by Nurse Banerjee at 07:30, sitting outside Room 3, tail low. He had been there all night, according to the cleaner. He was staring at the door handle. When called he did not turn his head. His eyes were fixed on the handle, and he was shaking.
I opened the door to look. The room was as it always is. Pickle ran past me and went straight to the corner behind the door. He sat down and wagged his tail. He looked up at something about the height of my shoulder, and he made a small happy noise I had not heard from him for a long time.
I called him. He didn't come.
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**Partners' meeting minute (Hollin Vets, 17 Oct)**
Item 1: Room 3. Dr. Pryce reported that Room 3 was formerly the surgery of the founder, Dr. William Hollin, who practised from 1946 to 1983, and died in the room. The founder's last case was a retriever, put to sleep at the owner's request. The owner was Dr. Hollin himself.
Item 2: Dr. Kemp proposed that the door of Room 3 be sealed and the wall plastered over.
Item 3: Dr. Pryce proposed an alternative. The animals know something we do not. She suggested that we ask the animals.
The partners voted to seal the room. Dr. Pryce abstained.
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**Case notes (Room 5, 24 Oct)**
**Labrador, 6 yrs, male (Biscuit).** Seen for recheck. Lameness resolved. The owner asked whether we had made any changes to the layout. He said the dog had pulled him all the way up the path to the building, which was unusual, and had stopped at the plastered wall where Room 3 had been, and had sat down, with his nose to the plaster, and wagged.
I said we had sealed the room. The owner said: "He's not trying to get in. He's saying hello."
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**Staff memo (Hollin Vets, 31 Oct)**
Please do not allow animals to sit in the corridor outside the sealed wall. Please keep the corridor clear. Please do not feed the practice dog from that end of the building.
*Note from reception: every animal that passes the wall now stops. Dogs, cats, even the rabbits in carriers. They face the plaster. They are very quiet. They look up, at a point about the height of a man's shoulder, and then they wag, or purr, or press their noses to the paint, and the owners have to pick them up and carry them past.*