Today is the Chinese New Year, taking place on the second new moon after the winter solstice. The Dragon is the only mythical creature in the Chinese Zodiac and for the Chinese people, Dragon is the luckiest and most auspicious of all of the animal signs. Chinese holiday traditions include forgiving past conflicts, hosting elaborate feasts, setting off fireworks and giving children money in red envelopes.

Bernie with his Water Dragon toy from his friend Wallie

Gung hay fat choy is the traditional new year greeting meaning “Best wishes and congratulations.” We wish you and your furry family an abundant and transformative 2012.

DeeDee also finds the Water Dragon to be a good friend.

It’s that time of year!! I would like to invite everyone to come down to the Belmont Street Fair on Saturday, September 10^th  for our 4^th annual Teddy Bear Surgery event. In the past years this event has become more and more popular with local children. When I first conceived of this event I really thought kids would find it “lame” since it paled in comparison to any video game they could play. To my surprise, it has been well received since the beginning with even young teenagers participating.

Teddy Bear Surgeons save the lives of bears.

This year the bears are up to their usual mischief eating crazy toys and needed to be saved by budding Teddy Bear surgeons. Kids get to anesthetize the bears, dress in surgical caps and masks, remove the toy the silly bears ingested, seal them back up and then recover their patient.

We are prepared for 600 this year! Last year we saved near 350. Check out the blogs from previous years to get an idea of what it's like! 

This year we are asking for donations of $2 per surgery to raise much needed funds for a local organization, Paw Team.  This organization provides volunteer veterinary services for low income and homeless people’s pets and is in danger of shut down due to lack of funds. They recently sent notice that they needed help and we thought this would be a great way to help raise money.  Check out their website to find out all of the great work they do and see how you can help.

Remember, the clinic will be closed for business on Saturday, September 10^th and you can find us at the fair from noon-8pm. We look forward to seeing you there!

We will be closing early this friday 3/25 and will be closed on Saturday 3/26 to participate in the SOLV Beach Clean Up and our Staff Retreat.  Please be sure to pick up any food or medications needed for the weekend Friday by noon. We will be back open for business our normal hours on Tuesday 10am to 8pm. We apologize for any inconvenience.

In case of emergency please contact Dove Lewis Animal Emergency Hospital 503.288.7281 or Southeast Portland Animal Hosptial 503.255.8139 for care.  

Krissy and I both spent years in school to become veterinarians because we love the animals we work with (and their people too). We've created a clinic atmosphere to minimize the fear and our clients have really responded to that. Some of our patients however don't care that the surroundings are comfortable or that we have pockets full of cookies. Some become blinded by fear and think only "Oh no! It's the VET!!" They tense up, hide behind their human companions, pant, shake and cower. One particularly wonderful patient that both Krissy and I worked with was a large male Pit Bull that looked incredibly imposing until you approached him to examine him. I actually had his 95 lb body leap over my shoulder once to get away - he reminded me of the cartoons of the elephant with the mouse! Dogs become fearful of the vet from scary or painful experiences. They can even be mild. A vaccine poke that was unexpected can become a source of anxiety later. 

Do I really need to come out?

Veterinarians are not a mean bunch but our patients can lump us into that catagory pretty easily (much like some of us view dentists from childhood experiences). We are sad when patients are afraid and we do have our share of success stories - usually involving tons of food and gentle human companions or sometimes kind sedation. There are still some that no matter what hate our guts. They are afraid. They won't be touched, they will bark, growl, snap and do everything possible to prevent the hands (and sometimes needles) of the vet from touching them. This makes a full physical exam and annual wellness care difficult. Early conditions that can be found through these means are not detected and the entire experience is stressful for everyone. 

How do they know?

Thankfully Dr. Valli from Synergy Behavior Solutions is offering affordable classes  to help Fido work through their fear of the vet in GET SET FOR THE VET. Sign up quick! The first class is this Saturday the 29th  and the second in the series is scheduled for February 26th. Get more information on Synergy Behavior Solutions and their classes here. Many of you know Valli from her puppy classes and from her doing relief work at our clinic. You will love her fun style and her incredible knowledge as a trainer and veterinarian. She's had her share of  patients viewing her as the "bad guy" and will provide practical exercises to help you and your dog. 

Do you have any stories to share about how your pet feels about going to the vet?

We will be closed Saturday, September 11th in order to prepare for our big day of Teddy Bear Surgery at the Belmont Street Fair on Sunday. We apologize for any inconvenience. 

Please join us on Sunday from 10am - 5pm at our booth at the Belmont Street Fair - we'll be located in front of the Tao of Tea. It's such a fun event and we'll be doing things a little differently this year. Come watch child surgeons save the lives of our teddy bears by performing abdominal foreign body removals all day! See you all there!

Certificate of Donation

This weekend we went over to Firehouse 9 on 39th to donate two sets of Oxygen Masks to the station. 

The Chief examines one of the masks

Since we've been open the clinic has participated in the Mom Cat Tom Cat Special event organized by a coalition of animal organizations. The event goes on every year between Valentine's Day and St. Patrick's Day as part of the National Spay Day event. People in need of financial assistance can have their cat spayed or neutered at a discounted rate. The clinic takes all of the proceeds collected from the program and lets the staff choose how to spend the money. This year we donated the pet oxygen masks to our local fire station. 

Demonstration on how to make a leash muzzle

On Saturday Dr. Bussmann, the staff and I (as well as our brave volunteer, Chutney) presented the masks to the Firehouse. It was a lot of fun. We went over how to use the masks. Chutney was so brave to let us put the mask on her! We also went over CPR on pets, how to tell if the animal needs oxygen, how to hook up the oxygen and the Ambu-bag (breathing device), and even how to restrain pets using a leash and the fancy bag that holds the masks.  

Chutney bravely demonstrating the Oxygen Mask

The place we purchased the masks from is called Wag-N Enterprises and they do an excellent job of providing not only the masks and a leash and bag, but also a DVD for the firemen and easy to access instructions on how much oxygen to use for each size mask and a quick guide to pet CPR. 

Krissy and I pantomiming how to use the bag for cat restraint

I want to thank the staff for all of their great work on the Mom Cat Tom Cat Special and the excellent idea to donate the masks to the fire department. Also, thank you Michael for the great pictures! We hope your pet never needs to use the masks but we feel a lot safer knowing that our local station has the means to provide care to your pets as well as they do for you.

You may remember the sweet blog entry Michael wrote about my Spot Magazine Award for Veterinarian of the Year. Well, it's voting time again. Spot Magazine offers the opportunity for you to fill in a form to vote for all of your favorite Pet related businesses for their 2011 Top Dog Awards. 

VOTE!

Click on the link and vote. Make your voices heard. We appreciate you considering us for your favorite Veterinary Clinic! 

Most of you who read this blog already know who the best vet in Portland is... but it's nice to get a little validation. And so now it's official - Kristin was voted "Best Veterinarian" in Spot magazine's annual Top Dog issue! It's very rewarding and satisfying to see all of her hard work and efforts being recognized. 

Since modesty forbids her to brag too much, I figure it's my job to let everyone know :)

I've met a lot of veterinarians over the years, and while of course many are excellent, none of them can quite match Kristin's unique combination of strengths. Of course she stays up to date on what's current in medicine, and she works tirelessly to solve problems. Obviously she loves animals, and has a lot of compassion. Like many of her peers and friends she's focused on keeping things moving, always improving herself, and never letting the ball drop.

But any veterinarian can stay late, diagnose an illness, bandage a wound, or prescribe a medication.

The thing that sets Kristin apart is that she genuinely cares about both her patients and her clients, and sees that relationship as an indivisible unit. Clients need to understand the process, their options, and the overall plan - and they need to be listened to, engaged, and understood. If they're not educated and involved then half the work a veterinarian does can be lost when the patient leaves the building. Kristin effectively turns her clients into "Deputy Veterinarians", "Field Nurses", and "Patient Advocates", so they can bring their personally motivated effort and love for their pets into the process.

Without that philosophy, she might only be the second best vet in town. But she's not - she's the best. Did I already mention that?

There's an awards celebration downtown at Hotel Monaco this Thursday at 6. Everyone's invited, and we'd love to see you there - dogs are welcome too!

Congratulations Kristin!

a few outtakes from our Best Veterinarian! photo shoot

We hope you had a bountiful thanksgiving. We had two! And some of our staff had 3 or 4! (Lots of family to spread the joy.)

A turkey at farm sanctuary

Our first big meal was a vegetarian Pot Luck for our staff where we took our meeting time and had a wonderful meal (I am thankful for all of the good cooks we have) and shared pictures of our pets. Nettle gave us a beautiful pictoral tour of Farm Sanctuary where she worked for awhile in Northern California. You can read about thier new turkeys here. The hardest part as you can imagine was getting back to work on a super full stomachs and really just wanting a nap!

On Thanksgiving Day each of the staff celebrated in their own ways. Michael and I went on a hike to Oneonta Gorge with some good friends and then prepared a great feast with friends and family. It was delicious. DeeDee and Mojo and Cousin Reggie (Aunt Jean's dog) had Duck and Potato filled frozen Kongs that lasted through the entire meal. What a treat!

Share with us how you celebrated this bountiful holiday. Were your pets involved?

Belmont Street Fair Booth

Wow! What a great turnout we had for our second annual Teddy Bear Surgery at the Belmont Street Fair. We had crowds of kids waiting to save the lives of our bears.

Nettle assists the surgeon

We set up our mobile surgery unit at our booth. The surgeons would come and pick out a patient - a pesky sick bear that had swallowed some candy whole WITHOUT removing the wrapper, get outfitted for surgery with a cap and mask, anesthetize the patient and then preform delicate surgery to remove the offending foreign body. Then they would expertly close the patient up with a shoe tie bow and recover the patient to take them home. 

Removing the obstruction

It was so much fun. We had some repeat surgeons from last year showing off their skills. Some kids really hammed it up, rescuing their teddy bears from complications all while talking on their cell phones! Some of the smaller kids needed some assistant from their surgical team but everyone had a great time. 

Dr. Krissy Bussmann assists a surgeon

This year we even had Teddy Bear Surgeon tattoos for the kids which was an excellent addition.

Dr. Kristin Sulis and Dr. Krissy Bussmann sporting their Teddy Bear Surgeon tattoos

We ran out of bears just after 2:30pm and with two and a half hours to go we held back a couple to refill.  We are rethinking some improvements for next year so be sure to come by and check us out! 

Our booth at the Belmont Street Fair

I want to thank all of our staff for coming out and making this event so successful. Special thanks to Barb Sulis for working all year to create the bears! (See her handiwork from last year's blog).  She looked pretty overwhelmed thinking of how many we will need for next year!