Every phone call at the veterinary clinic sounds like bad news before I answer

Dear Delyara, I work at the reception desk of a veterinary hospital. I used to like the phone. Appointments, vaccination reminders, nervous owners asking whether chocolate really is dangerous. Lately, every ring makes my stomach tighten. We are short-staffed, emergency slots are always full, and people call crying because an animal has collapsed while I am the person who has to decide whether we can fit them in or send them somewhere else. Yesterday, a man screamed at me because we had no immediate appointment for his dog. I understood why he was frightened. I also had six people waiting in front of me and a nurse whispering that an emergency cat had stopped breathing. When I got home, my own dog barked at the doorbell and I burst into tears. My boyfriend thought something had happened. Nothing had. That is the problem. Stress has made ordinary sounds arrive carrying every crisis from work. This morning, the clinic phone rang before we officially opened. I stared at it for three rings before answering. A woman only wanted to change an appointment. I felt relief so intense that I nearly laughed into the receiver.