When it came to my Dad, nothing was too heavy handed. What if something happened to Dad and she decided to keep us out of the loop, or not be honest about his condition? The woman probably figured that being a vet, and knowing biology made her more qualified to decide on things without my or Charlie's input.

I told her firmly "Tell Dad that you don't want to be his medical proxy and that you feel I would be a much better choice, being his son and all"

"Know what Don? I'd rather risk my career than do that to Alan. I promised him that I would do this!"

"Okay.." I shrugged.

"Well, I gotta go sort this out; I'll see you in a bit." With that she left.

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Gingerly, I went to see Mr. Grot. When I got to the reception area, he stood there, all six feet of him, and glared at me.

"Why don't we talk in my uh..office" I said, and lead him to it. He angrily followed me and began his tirade the moment he sat down.

"I saw the damnedest thing the other day while on the beach in Santa Monica..." he folded his hands. "The dog I paid you to put down. !"

"Really?" I stood my ground.

"Don't go telling me that I've got the wrong dog." he threatened. "I plan to report you to the Vet board, and maybe even sue for fraud, and distress!'

After a pause, I asked. "Do you have any proof, or witnesses that the dog was agressive enough to be a danger to others?"

"Me, and uh...a buddy"

"Do any of your neighbors think the dog was too agressive?" I asked firmly.

"They did say he barked a lot"

"Did any one make complaints?"

"Nothing official" he said flatly.

"Look, your dog just needed some training."

"You put me through unnecessary anguish cause I thought my Dog was dead!" he raised his voice, but I didn't' believe him.

"I've seen lots of anguished pet care givers; you weren't one of them" I countered, and added. "How much sympathy are you going to get with a jury, when the new owners talk about how wonderful the dog is, and when you don't have enough evidence of the dog's aggressiveness?"

"I was upset at losing the dog!"

"No you weren't!"

"Would you have rather I waited until it bit someone?" he retorted.

"The problem was that you weren't willing to take the time to train him" I said. "If you wanna sue someone, get into a car accident"

"I'll talk with a lawyer and get back to you" he got out of the chair and left, closing the down behind him. With a sigh, and put my head down on the desk. Thankfully, a friend of mine was a tax lawyer, Maybe she knew someone, just in case...

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I decided to talk with Natalie some more another time. With a sigh, I went back to work. What Dad had done troubled me, and I guess it showed because Megan came to see me when I went to the break room.

"You okay?"

"I'm fine"

"Are you sure?"

"My Dad gave his girlfriend power of attorney" I admitted reluctantly.

"Really?" she looked surprised.

"Yeah. It makes no sense!" I shook my head. "She's not a part of the family!"

"Have you told your father this?"

"He sprung the news on me, and I tried to talk to him, but then I was called to work!" I said."What was he thinking?"

Before we could talk more on this subject, David came up to us with some lead, and we started to work again.

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Nat seemed troubled when she came home.

"You okay?" I asked as we kissed.

"Hard day at work" she sighed.

"Oh?"

"Disatified client. See...a few months before I met you, this man wanted met to put down a healthy dog,which he claimed was too agressive. For the sake of the dog, I gave it a sedative instead and found new owners. Turns out the original owner saw the dog"

I was shocked. "Why didn't you just turn him away, or try to convince him to give it up for adoption?"

"He wouldn't hear of it, and he might have found someone else who would put the dog down for real!" Natalie argued.

This bothered me a bit. "What if the dog had been aggressive for real? Did you need it to bite a person?"

"Alan!" she protested "I know dogs, and this one wasn't the overaggressive monster the owner made it to be"

This was criminal! How could she do this? "Isn't this fraud? After all, you took the owners money to put down the dog."

"Come on! The new owners have taken the dog to obedience school, and he's doing great! I did what I did for the dog! Don't you understand!"

"I understand your intentions ,but still..." I shook my head.

"Alan, don't you realize how often people decided to put down their pets for frivolous reasons?"

"I still think that maybe you should have tried harder to talk to the owner" I commented. The problem with Nat was that didn't relate well to people and so wasn't the best persuasive speaker. I began to imagine how I would have felt about a doctor lying to me about Margaret's treatment or condition. "Maybe you underestimated the owner?"

"What? Alan!" she started to get angry. "How can you even say that if you weren't' there?"

"I hope you don't make a habit of this"

"What are you saying?"

"I need to know that you won'thide the truth from the boys if I were to become incapacitated." I said seriously. Don't get me wrong, Natalie was a good woman, but sometimes she got carried away.

"Of course not! That's apples and oranges!" she looked me in the eye. "I've always intended to keep them in the loop. They're your sons! How could you doubt me?"

"I don't doubt you, it's just that..."

"What?"

Instead of answering, I went to the kitchen realizing that for now, the argument wasn't going anywhere useful.

"Where do you think you're going?" she demanded. "We're not done here!

"For now we are!" I insisted.

She stormed off

TBC