In my years as an undergraduate college student, struggling to make ends meet, I lived next door to a woman with an old, Labrador mix named Bubba. By initial impression, he seemed to be a very normal, happy and well-socialized dog. However, one day, during my daily greeting from Bubba, I noticed some blood around his mouth. At the time, I was a biology major trying to wade through prerequisites for admission to veterinary school and I hadn’t yet been exposed to the world of clinical veterinary medicine. So, when I saw the blood around Bubba’s mouth, I didn’t pay much attention. I had seen blood in my own dog’s mouth on occasion after chewing on a toy or a bone and it never amounted to much. So, my uninformed mind had little to worry itself about. I later learned from Bubba’s owner that he had bled like this since he was young. However, the owner had never taken Bubba to a veterinarian for a diagnosis and to this day I still don’t know what was wrong with him. Though the memory of Bubba had ...