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! 

Hello All!

We are very excited for the Belmont Street Fair tomorrow. We will have a booth in the main area where we will be conducting Teddy Bear Surgery again with twice as many sick bears! This year we have temporary tatoos so come visit us from 10am - 5pm! Our booth will be near Laughing Planet and after you visit the booth you can ride the free Trolley (with live music) up to the clinic for a tour.

The clinic will be officially closed for appointments tomorrow but we will be around if you need us.

An the Centennial Celebration we had a contest...guess what breed Benny is! It was a lot of fun. Benny's mom, Laura Mazy (a wonderful local photographer and art director) made the cutest poster with some breed choices.

Anyone that guessed one of Benny's breeds correctly made it into the drawing to win a Wisdom Panel MX Mixed-Breed Analysis. There were many excellent guesses and we have our winner who was notified last week - we can't wait to see who he brings in!

So...do you want to guess?

Benny's panel came back with only 2 intermediate level breeds - Labrador and Schipperke! The rest is undetectable but he's all Benny to us!

**Special Event!!** Join me Thursday night 8/20 for a glass of wine and a talk about Pets and Money at Oscar Albert from 6pm-8pm. Attorney Amy Davidson will be discussing Pet Trusts, Financial Planner Mackenzie Martin will teach you how to Budget for Pet Care and I will be discussing Wellness Care and Pet Insurance.  Pets are welcome!

We were closed on Saturday to attend the weekend celebration of Mt. Tabor Park's 100 year anniversary. It was a fun weekend filled with activities and booths and even a pet parade. 

Our booth up at the park

We had so much fun talking to people, meeting their dogs and handing out STAM treats. 

Dr. Krissy Bussman and her dogs

The parade was on Sunday afternoon and although there was a bit of confusion on where to start, once we got marching the crowd had a great time. We saw many clients and patients there and even handed out bandanas with our logo on it to pets we didn't know. 

Lady enjoying herself in the parade

Thank you to everyone that helped make the day a great success! 

Some of our group: Nettle, Kristin, Deb, Melissa, Katie and Krissy

You can see more pictures of the event here.

Mt. Tabor Park is celebrating it's 100th Anniversary this weekend and we are joining in. We will be closed for our normal hours on Saturday in order to participate in the park's festivities. On Saturday and Sunday we will have a booth up at the park and on Sunday we are participating in the Pet Parade! (See map below!) We want to invite all of our clients and their pets to join us for the parade at 3pm on Sunday. Pick up your t shirt and bandana early at our booth near the summit and then meet down at Resivoir #5 at 3pm for the parade. We'll be marching with a marching band! We hope you can come and celebrate this city jewel, enjoy the concerts, car displays and participate in many of the special events (including the parade!!). We'll see you up at the park! For more information check the Mt. Tabor Centennial Celebration website. 

Click on the map to enlarge

Please join us Saturday, June 13th from 2pm to 6pm for our first anniversary open house! Details, including a map, are below... we hope to see you there!