I am just your average, friendly neighborhood veterinarian! Whenever people ask me when it was that I knew I wanted to become a veterinarian, I always tell them “I was created in the womb to be one!!!!” You see, I can’t ever remember NOT wanting to be a veterinarian!
From my youngest years I have found comfort in “communing” with animals. We always had cats, dogs and assorted pocket pets……as a teenager I once had upwards of 100 mice – a school science project that got out of control. I would have been quite content to keep them ALL – but Mom said “No!”……so I successfully placed each and every one of them in a new home! Both of my parents were uber supportive of my affinity for animals. Dad would take myself and my two sisters on nature walks…..we watched ants build their nests and collected caterpillar cocoons to take home to wait and see what they would hatch into. At the age of 15, my Mom convinced our family veterinary to let me volunteer to work in his kennel………..and the rest is history!
I have worked at East Bay Animal Hospital since I graduated from LSUSVM and moved to Largo, Florida in 1996. I took a short sabbatical from general practice in the early 2000’s and dabbled in aquatic animal medicine……..but circumstances launched me into becoming the owner of EBAH in 2008, and what a ride it has been!!!!
One of the most rewarding things of being in one practice for over 2 decades is that I am now treating the pets of my original client’s children and even more recently, their grandchildren………that just amazes me! You see, each fur-baby I treat comes with at least one human & many of those people have become like family to me. The pets that I love have enabled me to be the “other family doctor” for going on 3 generations of families. And THAT is where most of the anecdotes and adventures for this blog will come from – by chronicling my interactions with the species homo-sapiens that have graced the doors of my veterinary clinic over the years!
As I said before, “animal doctor” is what I have self identified as since early childhood. I pray this blog will enable me to share some insights into the crazy world of this critter-fixer…… I hope to entertain and educate you at the same time……..about pets, about people, about our Mighty God, about life in general…….