"Alright, class!" Mr. Verocira shrieked over the chatter of the class room. The teacher turned off the lights and with the flick of a switch, turned on an old projector. Max's eyes lit up to see a small injured coyote.
"If we see an injured animal, what do we do?"
Max and a young girl in the back corner in the classroom raised their hands.
"Yes, Ava?"
"You help it!"
"Wrong!" Mr. Verocira grouched "Personally, I think you're a cruel person, Ava. You own an exotic pet, a poor defenseless parakeet! And now you think you can heal an injured animal? Oh please! You shouldn't even own pets to begin with. Animal's aren't ours, Ava, they're individuals just like you, not some kind of slave."
Max nodded in agreement. Ava was whimpering.
"Max?" Mr. Verocira asked
"You leave it alone, 'I want help' never left its mouth." Max answered confidently
"Correct. You're a smart kid. I'd doubt you'd ever have a pet." Verocira exclaimed, very proud of his young animal rights activist
Max began to take guilt in the fact that he had a dog and his mother was a veterinarian.
The veterinarian's office was quiet. There was no workers today besides D.J. Fuller due to the major influenza epidemic, which should only last a month or two. D.J. sat at the counter, with the soft sound of a siamese cat meowing loudly, which was being boarded in the other room. Her office has started a rule to stop any cosmetic animal surgery with ear cropping being the only exception. They also refused to wing clip, formerly they'd recommend it, but since it has shown some psychological effects, they have stopped doing it.
The door opened, D.J. sat up in her seat. Finally a customer. A woman wearing overly formal clothes walked in with a Rough Collie puppy. It was wearing a muzzle and a shock collar. It was tricolor, pricked ears (which according to the breed standard it was completely unacceptable), and has dewclaws.
"Fix my dog!" The woman shouted in a Russian accent that weighed as much as an elephant.
"Fix as in 'fix' or...?"
"No! That's exactly what I don't want. Make it look like this picture."
The woman showed D.J. a picture of a rough collie that meets the breed standard perfectly. D.J.'s eyes widened and she gave a nervous smile.
"Plastic surgery, or any alteration besides dewclaw removal, ear cropping, and tail docking is illegal."
"Yes. But i think you can do it. with the help of my friend. If you don't do this, I will sue you and find a way to shut down your company. If you were wondering, my friend is a lawyer, a doctor, an engineer, a mailman, an uber driver, an artist, a zookeeper, and a plastic surgeon."
"How is that possible?"
"Trust me, it is. I'll call my friend, he'll be here in an hour." The woman grabbed her purse and left, slammed the door, but left the dog.
She didn't know whether to believe the woman or not, but she shouldn't take a chance.
"Okay! Class dismissed." Verocira said in his grouchy tone and clapped.
Everyone got up and left. Max walked down the hall, and out the door. He was walking to where Stephanie would pick him up, but something caught his eye. There was a mutilated baby hawk right next to him on the sidewalk. He glanced over to look at it. He thought it was dead, but it was visibly breathing. He stopped walking and crouched down to look at it.
"Max? What are you doing?" Stephanie lowered the car window.
Max grabbed the hawk and got in the car. He'll be fine, as long as Mr. Verocira doesn't find out.
