Vets, return policies and taxes

 ***Baasha***

We will have had 5 vet visits in 2 weeks: 3 for Baasha, 2 for Mercer. Baasha needed his eyes checked as you already know, and then he started rubbing his mane out and succeeded in completely rubbing out the middle section of his mane, down to the inflammed looking skin. I know the vet's number by heart (and the only other number I know by heart in Germany is my own!).

So at 9:30 PM he shows up and says it's summer eczema, what I hoped to never see on a horse of my own, this is  what makes that neighbor pony Shiela rub her body on the ground all summer long. In America we call it sweet itch - an allergy against an insect bite. The vet thinks it's a type of mosquito.

This is an old photo, but today you do not have to lift his mane to clearly read his brand: (

This post got long so I put the rest under the cut, which is really inconspicuous down there isn't it?





Baasha will be brought in the stall in the afternoon, he will be sprayed even more diligently with bug spray and equispot drops, and now he has a new treatment called Margosa Extract which I hope helps. Oh, and I should probably buy him a scrim sheet so he can look ridiculous all summer long.


Right now the horseflies are making both of us bloody on a daily basis. They are evil hunters - they calculate their attacks. They have knives in their mouths, and don't care that you feel it when they bite you. Now I really prefer finding a tick on myself.

***Mercer***

Mercer woke up Saturday and did not ask for breakfast - she just wanted to go outside and play. I have gone through force-feeding a cat who suffered from Hepatic Lipidosis and I called the vet right away; I do not want to experience that ever again, and besides, Mercer is not the kind of cat you could force feed, you'd need a tube.

After tomorrow I won't be using our small animal vet again. He started to give her two shots before telling me what he was doing. That is just wrong - a patient has a right to know about and refuse any treatment and even though I stopped him and tried to get him to tell me, he proceeded and said he had to hurry cuz Mercer was getting impatient. My husband said since the vet wouldn't let you decide beforehand on a treatment, I should decide whether or not I wish to pay for it. *hrmph*

Now the vet wants us to come back because the shots he gave her (a vitamin shot and an antibiotic) require a three day time period.

Mercer eats, but doesn't finish her food. I saw her eating a mouse yesterday but it's not normal for her not to be hungry in the morning after being locked in the house all night. Otherwise she's acting fine. She weighs 3.1 kilo which is more than last year.

Then I found out my man needs the car all day tomorrow so I thought maybe the cat vet could come to us since it's so close. He said it would cost an extra 25 Euros! The horse vet comes from a whole 'nother city and only charges 10 for a farm visit. So I called a cab. They would want 22 Euros - get this, for a 5 KM roundtrip.

So I asked the neighbors and they told me how much they hate that vet and what a ripoff he is, and how unprofessional, but that they'd take me. I won't be going back but feel like I must get a followup at least. Frustrating.

***Returns***

I remember back in America I bought some dried Mangos at Safeway and had to return them because they didn't taste good to me. My man was so worried he refused to stand in line with me to make that return. He said, "You're returning a product because you don't LIKE it?" Yes, that should not be a problem. And it wasn't, the checker gave me the money right back. (For an even better return policy go to Costco - you don't even need a receipt, and there is no time limit!)

So today I went back to Lidl to return a salad dressing that had a broken safety seal. I sure got treated differently! After waiting in a big long checkout line the lady looked at me like I was trying to take money out of her personal account, not Lidl's. She was very suspicious of my reason and checked out that broken seal in detail. Finally she seemed satisfied and waved me over to another checkout line, "You'll have to go talk to her." I thought, Geez, you need a special checker to make a return? But I went over there. Then I got the same glare, the same attitude that I was trying to take money out of their pockets personally. She printed out a slip for me that I had to sign (at this point I was thinking I'd have to give my fingerprints like at evil Bank of America). Then she said I could not have my original receipt back. Agh, I wanted that for my grocery records. Oh well. I drove the 20 minutes or so to get home, understanding why my man was so worried back at Safeway.

Then he said we need that receipt! He'd bought me an under-cupboard radio for my kitchen that day at Lidl and it has a 2 year warranty with receipt. Agh! I'm like, "If you call Lidl, I wanna listen!" And he did, and it was all good. No one can deny his confident eloquence.  We'll be expecting that receipt in the mail.

***Taxes***

We spent way too long at the Finance Office yesterday - the exact equivalent of the DMV in America. Take a number in a stuffy old room and wait. The most interesting thing to read was the first aid poster and we read every word. When it was finally our turn they said we screwed up. They told us we needed a form that we had already asked at the door for, but the receptionist said we didn't need it. I was expecting the vet so I was getting stressed. Finally we got the tax form we needed and took off running out of there to go sit in traffic on the Autobahn.

I looked over my man's tax form and had some questions.

The first one I knew about - he pays a church tax of XXX Euros per year. Click the link if you are not familiar with government church taxes. The tax lady asked which church for my surcharge and I said "None." I would only be affiliated with free churches anyway, and those don't connect with the government like protestant and catholic ones.


The second one was vague. I asked my husband, "What is a Solidarity surcharge?" Aha, this is one I'll have to pay too. It's XXX Euros per year that he pays for the reconstruction of East Germany. All employed West Germans must pay into it.