When we were living in Germany there was a tramp who used to sit outside the supermarket where we shopped and ask people for small change. If we had time we sometimes stopped to chat to him or buy him a coffee or something to eat.

He always had a dog with him. The dog was well behaved and well looked after.

One day the dog wasn't there so we asked him and he told us, with tears in his eyes, that the dog had been run over and was now in the hospital.

The next week we saw him again and the dog was back, but completely stitched up and bandaged. We told him we were happy to see his dog was back. He broke out in tears again and said yes, the dog was all he had in his life. He told us the vet had stitched everything up and taken good care of the dog in a long and difficult operation. When at the end of it he had come to pick up the dog he had asked how much it would cost, saying he was a poor tramp without much money. The vet had said,for you it's 5 DM.

So there are still vets out there with their heart in the right place.