Happy Veterinary Technician Week 2021!
If you have had a pet whose life has been touched by a vet tech, you know they deserve everything good. Please take this week - and all the other times throughout the year - to overwhelm the vet techs in your life with kind words and all the snacks.
I have been blessed to work with over FIFTY veterinary technicians in my career so far. Here is a list of those vet techs and why I love them.
(All photos are in dog and cat vision which is similar to red-green color-blindness for us.)
……….
Rhorig Animal Hospital techs - helped me with my high school science paper, brought ice cream to the kennel kid (me) who got sad seeing sad cases.
Pet Clinic techs - took care of every little pet we brought in as kids then 18 years ago when I was a grown ass vet without a hospital in town yet, took care of Oliver Cat and then, this past summer when I found myself in the same situation, took care of Joy the Puppy.
Joy the Puppy
Panama City Animal Hospital tech - taught me all the weird conditions this Midwest vet-to-be knew nothing about like tick paralysis and flea anemia.
ISU ICU head tech Amy - taught me to draw blood in vet school and, as central to my entire career as that is, even a million times better, let us adopt the best cat in the world, the blood donor Max the Cat.
Max the Cat
Columbine Animal Hospital - Becky, Lori, Sara - walked a baby vet (me) through jumping right into ER medicine and 80 hour weeks.
Companion Animal Veterinary Hospital -
Shawna - the best friend from Day One, walked with me through raising newborns and toddlers (not in the job description).
Lesley - also a dear friend and kid raising helper.
Lesley and Ebony
Janeen - skilled and smart and wonderful to work with.
Laura - We learned the beginnings of conflict resolution together. I am sorry I started out so terrible at it and promise I still work really hard on it to this day.
Banfield at Oakview -
Jeni - compassionate and kind and a very strong leader.
Andrea - gets all the things done with excellence and skill.
Kim - great tech and friend. RIP. I miss you Friend <3
Sara - taught me what it looks like to deal with chronic pain and still kick ass years before I needed it.
Erika - the best friend through every life stage, I am unwilling to go through any further life stages without you.
Erika and baby Joy!
Carrie - sweet and skilled and excellent with people and pets.
I would invite all the kids, and Carrie and Erika would do all the hard work of tours!
Banfield in Papillion -
Mallory - great tech and friend and now Boy Mama.
Mallory demonstrating that kittens can be pocket pets if you believe hard enough.
Angela - great tech and friend and still, I feel, on the same wavelength. Almost talked me into my first tattoo.
Janna - awesome perspective on all the things, only person we leave our pet kids with IF we leave them at all!
Kaelea - great technician and artist. She made a beautiful Ernie Dog ornament for me for Mom <3
Cindy - driven and passionate, now a vet.
Banfield in North Omaha tech team - tough crowd, taught me to work with a rough and tumble clientele, and I loved it.
All Creatures tech team - have taken care of each of Amanda’s Bearded Dragons with skill and compassion.
Angus <3
GD -
Caleb - compassionate and principled, days are always better in the same room as you, one of the best friends I will ever have.
Kelly - so many things, among them, taught me to love complex dental work and to look forward to anesthesia and surgery knowing our patients were always in safe hands.
Allison - taught me all the things about friendship between a dog and a cat and a person and a person.
Frank and Allison and Joy and I volunteered every summer with Camp Kindness. Frank was Joy’s best friend <3
Shelly - tough and skilled and loyal. You are stuck with me forever.
Shelly recovering our ratty patient from anesthesia post-surgery.
Liel - awesome tech and person, also stuck with me.
Bri - great at all the things.
Jessi - there for me for the patients we got to work with together and for that last month and for that last minute. I will always be grateful.
Becky - always on the same wavelength, even now. We learned together how to turn our compassion and passion into on-the-ground grief care and hospice care.
Becky with a sweet Husky from Taysia Blue Rescue <3
Koni - perfect combination of sweet and tough.
Angie - taught me behind the scenes nuts and bolts.
Trey - willing to run complex cases with me and learn even more about exotic vet care with me. Held patients when they were scared.
I worked friends into my comic, “When I Grow Up I Want to be a Vet.” I feel I captured Trey’s hair well!
Erin - steady and incredible and a wonderful friend.
Brookie - passionate and amazing, I will always be trying to draw you back into medicine with my mind powers.
Brookie and Cash from Nebraska Humane Society after his bilateral luxating patella (unstable kneecaps) surgery with Dr. Merkley. They adopted each other about a minute later!
Amanda - gentle and wonderful, now using those skills to raise the sweetest family ever.
Jenny - organized and compassionate.
Jenny - strong leader always on the floor with the team.
Laura - fun and wonderful, still here when I need an encouraging word.
Rhea - amazing and insightful and a fiercely loyal friend.
Taylor - strong as f.
Adrienne - amazing tech and Mama.
Nellie - gonna be an awesome tech because of who you are.
Emma - also an awesome tech-to-be with all the people skills.
April - strong and determined and only becoming more amazing.
Carolyn - witty and skilled and fun to work with.
Mary - great and steady and compassionate, will most likely not punch you - that is a protective front.
Street Dogs -
Molly and Lexi and the team - amazing and efficient and very skilled. They serve Omaha’s homeless and near homeless community with grace and compassion.
Elizabeth - The only time we get together is non-Pandemic era vet meetings, but I love it.
Techs at all the specialty practices - It is not scary handing precious patients over because I know they are in your care.
Urgent Pet Care techs - saved Joy this past summer and countless patients over the years.
The sweet technician at Urgent Pet Care let us visit Joy while she recovered from pancreatitis.
VCA MidWest Vet techs - I am gonna skip right over all the lives they save and help (for now) and say these techs walked our family through 14 months of cancer care with Luna and still when I call remind me that they loved her and check on me. Thank you forever. Love you.
A wonderful technician at VCA MidWest Vet took pictures of Luna while she was hospitalized for urinary system complications.
Luna being cute again (still).
Omaha and Bellevue Whirlwind Summer Tour of 2021 -
Techs at ALL the places - took me right in like a part of their team though I was, as always, awkward AF in every possible situation, said things like “We are so glad you’re here” and “FINCH it’s you!” which made the whole scary thing wonderful.
Liz at Morgan Pet Clinic - got me a job offer remembering the one minute long ago we knew friends of friends in the field, picked up where we left off.
Twin Creek Animal Hospital -
Jordan, Tabi, Ashley, Liz, Sarah, Emily - You have made me feel like a part of the team from the minute I got here, kind and compassionate and wickedly adept, you make me remember every day with every patient and every surgery why I love this career so much. Thank you. If it were not so early, I would say I love you (which I do).
Sarah and one of the two newest Dreves pups!