By the age of six, I knew that I wanted to be a veterinarian. Our family traveled a lot since my dad was in the Air Force. About 6 years before he retired, he and my mom bought an old farm in the Ozarks of Missouri. My life was filled with wonderful dogs, cats, geese, chickens, goats, cattle and one ornery Shetland pony! It was a dream-come-true for me. I spent all my waking hours outside or in the barn with all the animals.

As I grew up, I read all the books on animals and veterinary medicine that I could find. I was fortunate to be admitted to Texas A&M's College of Veterinary Medicine, where I tracked small animals and exotic animals.

After I graduated, I worked in Austin, Texas, at a busy 24/7 emergency and routine preventative medicine practice, seeing dogs, cats, and exotic pets. For the last 10 years in Texas, I also volunteered at one of the local zoos as their veterinarian. I was thrilled to do this, so I would go out to the zoo after work or on my days off to take care of the zoo animals, and occasionally the zookeeper would have to bring in one of the zoo animals for emergency treatment. We saw all sorts of emergencies, and I usually did anywhere from 2 to 8 surgeries a day and took care of very sick hospitalized pets along with also practicing preventative medicine. I also did volunteer work for various charitable animal groups in Austin.

In addition to this, I would make house calls for chronically sick or fatally sick pets to help them out of their pain at their home surrounded by their loving families in a surrounding that was familiar to them where they felt calm and protected. Each family could design this as they liked. I felt very honored to be able to help their beloved family members out of their pain and suffering. I feel this is a very important gift that we can give to make end-of-life easier for families but even more important for their beloved pets.

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