Coffee with Cats: New Vet!

Louie is in his Sherpa on the way to his new vet. We finally had enough of Capitol Hill Vet's rudeness and inconsistency. The final straw was a receptionist pulling attitude when I questioned a change to the procedure of his annual blood draw. (Either they'd been doing it wrong all along or were about to start. Either way was troubling.) I asked to speak with the vet and she hung up on me a minute after she put me on hold. More substantial reasons/grievances follow.

They requested we bring Louie in while he was having a seizure.
A "courtesy call" to see how he was doing after his vaccination--after I'd called about his latest seizure and they couldn't fit him in. To make it even more aggravating, I was in the process of trying to corral him into the carrier to take him to a pet hospital across town when my phone rang.
After receiving a voicemail about making an appointment, I popped in the clinic since I was in the neighborhood. The receptionist had no idea what I was talking about (so was rude as per usual). They must not use any sort of customer tracking system.
They asked if I'd like an estimate for the charges, then no one would explain to me why the actual bill was higher.
They gave me elaborate instructions for collecting urine at home using these plastic pellets in an immaculately scrubbed litter box. What a pain! Then they told me the sample wasn't pristine enough and I'd need to bring Louie in so they could do it. If only I'd known that was an option!
When testing his urine for an infection, they charged me to board him since he didn't urinate immediately. They then ended up using a needle to take the sample even though by that time he did urinate. Of course, they charged me for both the boarding and the extraction.
A curmudgeonly vet tech chastised me about the crappy pet sitting service (that I found through a pamphlet displayed in their window!) that didn't leave notes about the cats' behavior while we were gone.
Last time I took in Louie for a blood test, they shaved his neck and took blood from his jugular! This was pretty high on the list of grievances, just after asking us to bring him in during a seizure. We live close, but not that close.

Of course, the risk with making a substantial change like this is that whole frying pan to fire thing. But I figured I got rid of the crappy cat petting service and ended up with a much better one. And really, a new vet couldn't be any worse.

After the visit, Louie emerged from his Sherpa. Overall, he seemed less traumatized and he still had all the fur on his neck.

The only drawback is the lack of parking near the Union Vet Clinic, unless you're willing to pay a flat rate to park at the lot further up the block. The Egyptian guys who run it were willing to charge me half the flat rate to park for an hour. They also made sure to share their distaste for cats.

There were a few more shady character milling about in this neighborhood. A couple guys asked what was in the carrier and then couldn't stop giggling to each other about pussies. But the vets have clever names, like Dr. Katz. We got to see Dr. Cartlidge.

And the receptionist had a cat with seizures too! Finally, a place that understands us.