Self portrait in front of the new door!

I stopped by the space today and...guess what?..the storefront door is on! Yay! I couldn't get to the back to check out that door (the building was locked) but we did have a potential scare that the back door was going to be relocated. That would have entirely messed up our treatment room plans which would have been bad considering our casework and counters are already on order! For now, that hiccup appears to be averted. They have cut and dug out the concrete for our scale and drain pipe for the toilet but it doesn't look like the pipe is in yet. They still have to put in the HVAC connection and electric panel before they deliver the space but we have a front door now which gets us that much closer to keys! Sad to say with it being February tomorrow - Leap Day does not look like a realistic goal for opening. Instead we have chosen April Fool's Day as our "working" opening date. Fitting, isn't it?

Dr. Edens examines Bellybutton - cool sweater!

In other news, Katie (our veterinary nurse) and I volunteered for Portland Animal Welfare Team yesterday. We were joined by another vet/nurse team and did exams and treatments for homeless and low income people's pets. Everyone that came through was very appreciative and very concerned about their pets.  Many of the pets came in wearing coats - even the cats. One woman brought her kitties in a stroller and had made them each little homemade sweaters out of her own sweater sleeves so they wouldn't get cold! We had a good time and were really presented with some interesting challenges - like examining cats outside - that really got my heart pumping! We examined one cat named Garfield with impacted anal sacs. Now if you don't know, anal sacs are the scent glands in cats and dogs and are located right inside the anus. They are supposed to empty normally with each defecation (that scent is why dogs smell each other's stool - they don't like the smell of poop, they want to know who left it there.) The two tiny anal sac ducts exit at about 4 and 8 o'clock inside the anus

The stroller Bellybutton and his sister arrived in

and they can easily get plugged with any inflammation in that area. Well I can tell you from experience that no pet likes to have their anal sacs expressed but cats really don't like it. So here we are outside with a leash around Garfield in case he tries to leave, Katie has a hold of him, dad is kind enough to hold his tail and I need to insert a lubricated, gloved finger into his rear end and empty the sacs which are impacted. Things went really well considering and Garfield was SO good. After a nice clean up and vaccines, we sent him home with instructions for warm compressing to keep the ducts open and a change in food. 

Earlier in the week I also attended my going away party from Murrayhill. Laird and Pam with their front office coordinator, Teresa organized a fun party at Uptown Billiards. There was pool and darts and beer and a vegetarian spread (hand picked by Teresa). So many people came and it was fun to hang out with everyone. Laird, of course, gave a heartfelt speech and a special departing gift. Whenever anyone leaves they get the same gift and I was looking forward to mine - an autographed picture of Laird, 007 style in a suit! It's priceless and I will definitely make a special place on my desk for it. (Although truth be told I did tell him the cautery unit that's sitting in storage would have made a nice new clinic gift as well.)

So things are moving forward. We have heard rumor that we could get the keys late next week! Believe me...you guys will be the first to know! 

Me with my lovely parting gift - A signed photo of Dr. Goodman

“Patience is waiting. Not passively waiting. That is laziness. But to keep going when the going is hard and slow - that is patience.”

Not much to report on the space, sadly. No doors yet although we have heard a rumor that they are on order and should be on soon. I do like the idea of soon. The concrete has been cut for the scale and for the pipe to run the toilet. They now have to place the pipe and fill in some concrete and then our concrete grinder can come in and work on the floors. (Luckily we don't need possession of the space to get that started - yay!)

Me with my head through the HVAC hole into our space

Close up of the garage door

The sink for the hall arrived the other day - it's a beautiful red textured glass vessel bowl for me to wash my hands in between appointments. The waiting room furniture is in and waiting for delivery. I have purchased the exam room furniture. (Mango wood - how weird is that?) This week we also ordered the interior doors for the space – they are beautiful wheat core doors from Humabuilt. The lights from Schoolhouse Electric are in and waiting for delivery. A bank of kennels has shipped and is in storage waiting for delivery and I've gotten calls from various equipment companies wondering when they can ship. And then of course there's the lovely digital radiography unit that's waiting for delivery and set up date - definitely need electricity for that one! I have the autoclave and duel flush toilet in the garage and various pieces of equipment being stored in the attic. It is a bit like a holiday with packages arriving daily.

Oh yeah, I put together my surgical packs that arrived - they are really cool! I have played with my dental kits and watched the DVDs they came with too. I’m keeping busy and secretly hoping for keys.

Still waiting….  

Wow! This has been MY busiest week ever - lots of stuff happening although still no keys in my hands.

Monday - Michael and I went over to the space to meet an HVAC contractor to get a bid. The apron is poured and finished. The workers were putting up the garage door for the space on the end and it looks really cool. (They were planning on having ours on by the end of the week). Michael was meeting with people and getting lots of bids throughout the week and hoping to have those ducks in a row by next week. I've been also getting a lot of encouraging emails from previous clients - it's been great. I really enjoy catching up with people and filling them in on the latest.

Opal's chandelier - look familiar?

One client, Judy and I were emailing back and forth reminiscing about her dog Opal that she lost at 17! I loved Opal - she was such a special old lady and just had so much charm. She always came in with fancy collars and she was the real lady of the family. I told Judy that Opal would have loved my clinic. She would have especially loved the chandelier that's going in the waiting room. Well, Judy checked out the blog and saw the picture of me holding the chandelier and emailed me a picture of the chandelier she and Opal picked out for their room. She told me that Opal used to love to lay on her back and stare at it - it's the same chandelier! 

Male Bufflehead

Tuesday - A beautiful day - cold but not raining and the sun was out. If you stood in one place the sun actually felt warm. I couldn't miss out on the opportunity so DeeDee and I walked up to Mt. Tabor for exercise and inspiration. I called it work because I was thinking about the clinic. I must secretly tell you guys that I love walking up to Mt. Tabor and seeing all of the people with their dogs. I watch them all and imagine them as my clients and patients! We had a really nice walk around the lower reservoir where I always like to check out what birds are in there. We saw a lone seagull hanging out on the water and a few Buffleheads. Buffleheads are the cutest waterfowl - they're small and striking and so fun the way they disappear under the water and pop up again. I also saw a couple of crows at the edge of the water enjoying a bath. No mallards this time. We came across a couple of robins on the lawn hunting for worms and a small flock of juncos speeding around. There were lots of people out enjoying walks with their dogs or kids (or both), runners getting exercise, an older couple holding hands and an occasional bicyclist and Parks and Rec. worker. The view of the city from the top reservoir was great - so sparkly in the sun! I love Mt. Tabor Park - to me it represents community and that's one important reason we named the clinic after it.

Wednesday - Shopping - but not the fun kind. I went looking at ceiling fans for the clinic -didn't find anything perfect...yet. Also went out looking for furniture for the exam rooms. I had found the perfect pieces at Denali in SE Portland but they are moving warehouses and won't get the orders in until March. Being an optimist, I am hoping that March would be way too late. I went quite a few places on the West side of town and found some really nice peices and a place that even customizes but it's pretty expensive. I'll continue the search next week. While I was on that side of town I stopped by Murrayhill to say hi and pick up some dog cookies for DeeDee. It was so nice to see everyone. My going away party is scheduled for next Sunday.

Marley - MTVC First Official Patient

Thursday - Worked relief at Rose City Veterinary Hospital. What a crazy day but so nice to be back in practice. The hospital is beautiful. They remodeled last year and it was a beautiful facility to work in. The clients were great. So nice to see people from the neighborhood. And the staff were so nice to help me out. I didn't know where anything was or how to work within their system and they were patient and good humored about it. I have a few more relief days scheduled there. After work I went on my first housecall. I had it planned earlier in the week and when the owner of Rose City called to say he hurt his back and wondered if I could cover for him - I was happy to. But I still wanted to do my one and only housecall. So after work I stopped by to see one of my favorite patients, Marley. She has a growth that is getting larger and her mom was really worried. I examined Marley - felt the large lump and did a fine needle biopsy of the mass. Turns out it is a benign lipoma - yay! Officially, Marley is the first patient to be seen at MTVC!

View of the space with the garage door on

Friday - another relief day - this time for Feral Cat Coalition of Oregon. I examined 20 cats and helped spay and neuter them. It was so much fun. I examined the cats in the bathroom of the warehouse. These cats are owned and fall under the "pre-feral" category and were done through the Cat Nip Program in conjunction with Multnomah County. It was fun to examine these nice owned cats - usually at FCCO all of the cats are feral and can't be touched! A lot of them were young and they were nervous but it was nice and quiet in the bathroom and Wilma (who was helping me) is very skilled at keeping cats calm and handling them if they are not. Once the exams were done I was on the truck and scrubbing in. I worked with Dr. Hale who is an expert spay/neuter surgeon and it's always a good time when we work together in the surgery suite. On the way home I drove by the clinic and found that the garage door is on! But the regular door is not yet. Rumor has it that those go on early next week. Michael says they finished the dividing wall so the space is looking more complete! Before we take full delivery of the space we need to have the HVAC to the space in working order and they're on that too, so hopefully soon! We should be ready to get in and get building as soon as we take delivery of the space!

I'll keep you posted and promise more pictures of the space soon. 

Sorry to keep you in suspense but get ready to jump up and down with me! Yesterday they poured the concrete! Well, they poured the concrete for the sidewalk and still

Now we have a sidewalk!

need to finish pouring the apron...isn't that a nice term? That's the area that intrudes into our space and slopes towards the street. I'll call it the apron and then it doesn't seem so ugly and in all actuality the slope is not too bad and will be hardly noticeable. So apron it is! And pour it they will - this week!

Ok, so now we have concrete...how about an opening date? Hold your horses everyone! First things first. We need some keys to the space and before we get keys we need doors. The rumor is that the doors will be in by next week and we may...just may have keys by the end of the week!

Have you ever seen prettier concrete?

But keys alone does not a clinic make. The keys are the real starting line - that's when we get to build. I am very sure there will be headaches and hiccups to come but I will just feel a little better knowing that we can start building and look towards an opening date. I've been getting lovely emails, comments and calls wondering when that day will be...

I'm shooting for Leap Day - February 29th! 

I picked up our new client gifts this week from Modified Custom Screening right here in our SE neighborhood on Division. They printed 500 totebags for us with our logo and hopefully will have many more to do in the future. I've been taking mine on all of my shopping excursions. The night I picked them up, with 7 large boxes filling up my car I stopped at New Season's and realized I didn't have a bag...no, wait...I had 500 bags! So I broke into a box and brought one of my totes in to the store to carry out my things.

Me and the new tote bag

The genesis of the tote bags for our New Client Gift came as Michael and I were speeding through the desert in SE Oregon this summer heading to Malheur Wildlife Refuge. We were working on the clinic talking about colors and uniforms, advertising and things we would need for the clinic when we came upon the New Client Gift idea and started brain storming. I thought of things like coffee travel mugs or water bottles - something people would use on a regular basis and Michael came up with the tote bag. We had just started bringing our own bags to stores and were so sad when we had to accept a plastic or paper bag because we forgot ours. We would sometimes even just carry our items out without a bag if we could - when visiting Arizona this did not go over well as the checker kept pushing the bags on us for 2 items - she couldn't believe we wouldn't take one! And so it made perfect sense to choose a tote bag - it's a gift that people really could use. And now with our beautiful logo, these tote bags are stylin'!

Now I can't wait to open and have some clients to give these great bags to.

Latest update - the plan is to have the concrete in the front poured on Tuesday (I am jumping up and down and squealing as I write). Once the concrete is done, they can measure for the doors. Once the doors are on we will have a locking space to take possession of and then we can start building! I will definitely keep you posted. 

Happy New Year everyone!

I ended 2007 with my last day working at Murrayhill Veterinary Hospital. It was a great day, filled with friendly clients and great pets. I even had some time to make all of my final phone calls, get everything squared away and reminisce a bit with the staff. I am really going to miss working there. What a great clinic and truly the inspiration for me to start Mt. Tabor Veterinary Care.

Me and Carmen in Room 3 at Murrayhill

On the drive in that morning I paid attention to all of the things I liked to note on my way into work - the Hawthorne Bridge and the river, the way downtown looks different every morning, a quick peek while speeding down I-5 to see if the mountain is out. I noted the fog going over the Terwilliger Curves and the beautiful field off of 217 that sometimes even has cows grazing in it and in the summer smells like green peppers (Why is that? In 4 1/2 years I never figured that out!). I also appreciated the center island landscaping on Teal Blvd. that changes throughout the year - I could never pick a favorite one. I took a look at the pond by the clinic to look for migrating waterfowl - yesterday there was a small flock of American Widgeons - that's the first place I ever saw those birds and ID'd them thanks to Christy Lee (a technician- birding friend - turned vet student). I was also careful this time turning into the driveway - there was a lot of black ice on the road and one time last winter I had a little too much confidence in my Subaru and snow tires and took the turn a little hard and nearly ended up wrapped around the light pole. 

My last day cake - chocolate with chocolate and more chocolate!

As I said the day was really nice. It started with this beautiful cake from Beaverton Bakery and Candace was so sweet to have designed the cake using our business card design. It turned out great! I didn't cut it right away, instead deciding to wait until after work to have it with the bottle of Cava I had brought in. Well, true to the spirit of veterinary medicine (and many last days that I have experienced - my last day of vet school I was on call for Ambulatory Service and had to go out at 1 a.m. to pull a calf!) Shawndra, one of the receptionists, had her parents bring her dog, Wrigley down that was not doing well. He had been feeling crummy and vomiting since the day before. He had vomited some pieces of plastic toy...uh oh. The staff was great - we quickly got radiographs and a catheter placed and started rehydrating him. The x ray was awful - lots of foreign material in the stomach and in the intestines. He needed surgery. I cut the cake first for everyone to have and to give me a little energy in the surgery suite - it was DELICIOUS!

Me out in front of Murrayhill in my surgery gown in the snow

The great thing about last night was that everyone was happy to stay and help and I had my old Monday surgery team there - Cindy and Debbie to help. How nice to be together one last time to help out Wrigley and Shawndra.  The surgery went well. We removed lots of hair, material and plastic pieces all wrapped up in a mat out of his stomach and intestines. He woke up well and even walked himself to the car. Hugs and handshakes were given all around and I drove home feeling great about my time at Murrayhill and knowing, although I will miss seeing everyone everyday they are only a 30 minute drive away.