The Best Vets

This letter arrived in the mail last week. It was a wonderful surprise. 

When you love animals, you can’t help but wonder how veterinarians are able to do some of the things that are required of them. Anyone with the right training can become a veterinarian. But there’s more to it than that.

When Lee Roy the Border Collie was a pup, he fell to the ground from a second-floor fire escape and had the wind knocked out of him, I called the west-end Hamilton vet and rushed him in. By the time we arrived, Lee Roy was his old, energetic self again. In my panic, I accidentally extended his leash as we entered the office and he made a beeline behind the reception counter to visit the people there. He barely got within sniffing distance and a woman at the desk started screaming that he wasn’t allowed back there and to, “GET HIM OUT!”

I was stunned. This was a place where animals came for help, right? We changed vets.

Lee Roy’s new doctor was a kind woman who had also become a chiropractor.  Dr. Linda always talked to him and scratched his ears before any exam or treatment. Going to the vet was never a chore because Lee Roy and the doctor were happy to see each other. On the horrible day when she had to euthanize him, I had forgotten something and returned to the room where his body lay.  Through my puffy, red eyes, I found her holding him, weeping. She’d cared for him for more than a decade and loved him, too.

Everyone at Byron Animal Clinic loved Spice. Vet techs would come in to the exam room just to say Hi and hear his rusty purr.  He had a big personality and loved to be in the middle of the action. This donation in his memory, to the place where we adopted Miss Sugar, warmed our hearts. And it reminded us that we’d chosen the right doctors for his care.