A Cautionary Puppy Tale

If you are a new homeowner and you have a dog and central air, you will want to pay close attention. Actually, regardless of ownership, if you have a dog/central air combination pay attention. Otherwise, you an move on, but I could use the sympathy karma.
Oh, both dogs are FINE.
If you have this combination I advise you to build a fence or other barricade around your central air unit post haste in order to keep the furry little creep from peeing/urinating on the thing. And you should use any method of persuasion, up to and including spraying the dog with a garden hose to discourage the behavior until the fence is built.
Remember how my central air wasn't working during that heat wave a few weeks ago? We thought it would be a simple matter of a tune up and a recharge here's a hundred dollars.
Well, the guy came out and explained that the outside bit, which I thought just protected the engine, is actually the evaporator coil and is vitally important to the proper functioning of the unit.
Samson has been peeing on it since the day we moved it. We have yell at him not to but they are often outside unsupervised and do what they want even when they are supervised.
This has led to corrosion which allowed all the coolant to leak out. The guys said we had to replace the evaporator coil and left to work up an estimate.
When he called back several days later, he said our unit is from 1995 so Carrier doesn't make replacement parts anymore, meaning we'd have to replace the entire unit to the tune of $3,000.
He said they would take another shot at finding a new or used coil. We haven't heard back yet.
If Hubby had a desire to kill Samson when he got this news, he did not mention it.
So keep your fingers crossed for me that they find the part.
What I really want to know is why the guy that serviced the unit two years ago did not warn us about this?
I am relating this story because I sure as heck wish someone had told US three years ago and saved us from this situation.
And I know there are people out there who desperately need/want central air and don't have it, and there are other people who don't have it and want it. The problem is that once you do have it you have to maintain it because A) you get acclimated to it very quickly and B) it totally affects the resale value of your house. Not that we are intending to sell anytime soon, but there is no point in not fixing it when we'll either have to fix it to sell the house or have the buyer take the cost off their bid.
Ick, well, I just ruined my own lunch thinking about this again. I think I'll go pet some yarn.
Stupid dogs.