IT'S a funny old life, this veterinary lark.

I know that every job has its ups and downs but there are times when the veterinary ‘downs’ start to stack up and things get to be heavy going.

Fortunately, there is almost always an ‘up’ just around the corner to balance things out.

The secret is to draw a line quickly under the bad things so that they do not interfere with the good. This may seem, to the upset client, a rather impersonal way of dealing with things but it is a vital technique, designed to allow your average vet to continue to function.

Take any normal day. It might begin with a geriatric friend who has succumbed to old age and who you help to pass away peacefully and painlessly. His owner, who is well known to you, is very distressed. Frankly, so are you.

For a moment you cast your mind way back to when he first came in as a youngster; a ball of wriggling nonsense you just knew was going to be great fun.

Next in is a new puppy, bouncing with glee, their owner brimming with pride at the latest member of the family. You owe it to everyone to cast aside the gloom and enter into the spirit of the primary vaccination.

But it is still very hard when you see the first client watching you smile at the second as they leave the surgery. Sometimes it does feel like a betrayal.

Then there are situations that just make you wonder what you have to do to please some people.

A few Fridays ago, a lady brought a stray cat in to us. It had been lying at the side of a busy road and had not moved when she approached. It was thin, cold and quite elderly.

Happily, a scan with a reader showed it had a microchip and a quick call rapidly produced the owner’s name, address and phone number.

Despite trying throughout the night, we were unable to contact them but it didn’t matter. The cat was comfortable in our isolation ward, being waited upon hand and foot by our veterinary nurses. Some experienced TLC, a decent feed and central heating had cheered it up.

Saturday produced an answer to our call but the owner, far from being excited at news of her cat, was too busy to pick her up. By Sunday, with the vets and nurses having plenty to do, we and the cat were getting a bit fed up. The owner was too busy to come down. Couldn’t we drop it off for her? She didn’t have a cat basket. We would lend her one. Excuse after excuse.

Finally we agreed to keep her cat again but advised that we would charge for boarding.

Finally, late on Monday afternoon, the owner arrived. We lent her a cat basket, which has yet to be returned.I was castigated noisily and relentlessly for having taken the cat in the first place.

I should, apparently, have just dumped it back where it was found. Sometimes it gets you down.