you are doing awesome Pammie!!!  (I know you spell it Pammy but my ie endearment is just stuck on me! ;-) )   I am in TOTAL agreement with you about the receptionist!!! IN FACT the reason I switched my doctor of 100 years was BECAUSE of the TERRIBLE receptionists that he had. I was soooo tired of showing up to my eye doctor appts or any specialits and despite me calling and saying to the receptionist are you SURE you put the referal through??? 
"yees...we did"... then getting there and no referall. it was to a poin that I would call them...
"did you put the referal through?" 
"Yes" i would then call the eye doctor...
"did you get the referal?" 
"No." i would call back the receptionist...
"They didn't get the referal can you put it through again?" 
"Ok..." i would call the eye doctor the next day...
"Did you get it??" 
"No."  so I call back...
"They didn't get the referal... PLEASE put it through my appt is tomorrow!" 
"Ok. I'll do it right now to be sure."  
...day of appt... I get there. "I'm sorry, but there is not referal here." 
"AAAAHHH!!!!  THAT was the very very very LAST time I went to that doctor. Before that he referred me to this throat specialist tha****ING ON ME! The man was just creepy as all get out and MARRIED! had the ring on the finger and everything. kept telling me my eyes were beautiful and that i didnt need to loose any weight and that i was so pretty and he was all leaning over me... i kept thinking .... this guy is gonna put me to sleep to take out my tonsils then and do WHAT? becuase he was saying ... dont worry i will make sure you feel no pain at all!!!  you'll have a good experience with me... WHAT? he kept going on and on...I was SOOOOO creeped out!!! I walked out of there feeling all dirty and creeped out. haha...felt like i needed a shower and the guy didn't even barely touch me... only my ears but that was just AAAACK!! im shivering thinking about it just the weird way he touched my ear creeped me out.  anywhoo... I saw a younger girl with her mom going in and just the way he looked at her AAAHKKK!  It FREAKED me out. I wanted to run up to them and beg them to go somewhere else...but hopefully they noticed. Can't imagine them not noticing. anyway...I was SOOO mad at my doctor for recommending me. I told them that I was DONE with them. the guy hit on me and was saying uncomfortable things and that i was going to another doctor all around. needless to say i had a very nice chineese doctor that perfomed the surgery and was comfortable with him. THe darned operation well... i was an adult so it was awful....and the most painful operation i ever had... BUT i wasn't molested... hahahaha!  good grief. i rambled on that one... sheesh.... i need to go work on my novels... ive been way long winded here.   im there with you though on the receptionist! they HAVE to be good. or else its a no go!   ((hugs!))  and I'll tell you something else about receptionists... if it wasn't for my receptionist for the doctor (who was an awesome female doc) i wouldn't have gotten this wls approved. They were OUTSTANDING! they called and called and vouched for me and did almost all the work. I loved them!!! i remember thanking her like a thousand times for being so nice and helpful.  They are a big time deciding factor for me. and I always had male doctors and while they were good, they never listened and quite understood like a female doctor did. I had my 1st female doc and she was awesome!!! then my insurance dropped her and a bunch of other docs for no real reason really and i am going to another female doc and i just love her. its weird my doctor looks and acts like my weight loss surgery doctor... my gosh Pammie stop me I can't stop writing and rambling!!!!!  OK .... (hugs!)  and if you ever want to read a sampling of one of my books just send me a message ;-)  I have a preview of one on my myspace page, but if you dont have myspace just let me know and i can send it to ya. :)     

Thanks for your responses, guys.  I think I'm going to try to give it some time.  Rufus gets along OK with the cats, but they aren't crazy about him head-butting them.  Neither is my dad's dog for that matter.  It's going to take a long, long time to find another dog that will tolerate Rufus' head humping anyway.  I'm going to have to find a dog that will bite his pee pee when Rufus tries to head hump. 

To quote a famous line from that little comedy starring Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan:  "I'll have what she's having..."  Let there be light, Elizabeth is back! Maureen