Recently, I experienced a most distressing and discomfiting situation; even more so for my beloved dog, as you will see. This experience needs to be shared and action taken to ensure no other Baldwin County resident faces this same dilemma.

On Saturday, Feb. 15, I needed to get my dog to a vet ASAP.

My vets are not open on Saturday; in fact, almost no veterinarian offices were open on Saturday. Those that were showed very brief operating hours on their websites, and all the websites that I visited blatantly stated that no emergencies would be accepted from new patients.

I was referred to an emergency vet in Mobile, from Fairhope a 35-minute (on good days) drive for me.

Along the route, my dog’s condition worsened, and when I finally arrived at the Mobile location, the attending staff determined that she had suffered internal bleeding from a ruptured spleen, an event itself caused by a virulent, fast acting and, sadly, incurable blood cancer.

Had any of the routes from Fairhope to Mobile suffered their numerous and standard traffic tie ups, my dog would have suffered horribly and died right in front of me, and I would have watched helplessly at the ordeal.

Baldwin County needs an emergency vet office that is open on the weekend. The location could be centralized, perhaps around Silverhill or Robertsdale, or perhaps two such offices, one in the Fairhope area, one near Foley.

Aspiring vets and vet techs from area schools could help staff the facility, all under the auspices of county vets who could take turns in discharging weekend duty.

No pet owner should have to travel that distance to obtain relief and treatment for his/her pet, and no pet owner should ever be placed in the awful situation of watching a pet suffer and die while trapped in traffic.

Come on, Baldwin County!

Please may all veterinarians unite behind this cause to ensure that needed emergency service is dispensed in a timely manner to county pet owners and their beloved charges.

Robert M. Echols

Fairhope