Pets R Family & the Spirit of Giving

PetsRFamilyVets.com    │   3035 County Road 210 W, St. Johns, FL 32259

Giving Comes from the Heart, Which is the Soul's True Compass

The pet industry, on its face, seems that it would be such an amazing effort to be part of based on the true joy of animal care.   What could be more fun than to cuddle with a cute little kitten, or to romp around with a playful pup?    And it absolutely is all those things!  But it’s also an amazing dedication to giving.   Giving that takes a truly dedicated heart, mind and soul to accomplish the extreme challenges the industry brings.  And we aren’t just talking about giving in relation to the beautiful pets that fill our days.   We are also talking about giving of ourselves to the people we serve every day.   

Imagine going to work each day, and the patients you are caring and providing for, cannot speak to you.   Meanwhile these beautiful loving patients have sometimes serious issues that require an all in effort to prevent extreme suffering even death.   Now add to that the hurt and suffering of the parents of these patients, along with their mood swings, judgement and fears.   These are the challenges of the Veterinary Industry every single day. 

 We are in a unique situation, as are so many care giving industries, where we are the advocates for our patients, even through their suffering.   That is why so often, professionals in the Veterinary Industry, suffer along with the pets and clients.   It is a transference of the challenges that a voiceless patient experiences.   And those feelings are big and they are real.   

So many of us began our focus on this industry as an honest passion to care for Gods beautiful creatures.   And that passion drove us to Colleges, Universities and institutions where we spent many years studying (8 years to achieve a Doctorate in Veterinary Medicine) to learn our craft of animal medicine.   Often times, many more years were spent in a specialty or particular line of study.  But it was the true love and dedication to giving of ourselves and our talents to help those who cannot help themselves, that drives us all to be those advocates.  In the midst of beginning to practice animal medicine, we realize that this is the pinnacle of our passion.   Caregiving, saving lives, and providing better health for our furry friends is a noble and wonderful calling.   

Meet our Doctors: 
Dr Kayla Hutton,
Dr. Scarlet Motycka, 
Dr. Kathleen Deckard,
Dr. Natalie Hashey, 
​& Dr. Alysha Salapack

​And it is this calling that requires a giving spirit, a giving heart and a drive to “help them all” that is the root of our industry.  

This passion and heart that drives so many of us every day does truly come at a price.   Our industry is riddled with burnout, suicide, compassion fatigue and a shortage of dedicated leaders and true practitioners of high-quality medicine because of the heavy weight it bares.  It’s an industry that requires a solid support system to provide for each others needs.   Our people have to learn how to cope with not only the challenges of loss of life of a patient, and lack of complete control over the needs of the pet, but also the results of human abuse and pet parent anger and frustrations toward those in the industry.  

Often as we approach Christmas, we think of giving and caring as synonymous with our hearts special attempts to provide gifts and offerings to others.    However, in our industry, the true spirit of giving, is a daily dedicated approach to our chosen passion of loving our patients beyond a simple offering.    We give our hearts and minds every day to provide a happy healthy life to an innocent animal, who is simply counting on us, to do our very best for them.   We give our very best to the pet parent who is suffering along with their beautiful pet, as we comfort, support and educate them in the process of caregiving.   And we give to each other, as we support, guide, administer to, and love, our co-workers who need our group help, to overcome the weight on our souls as we go through each day of work.   

You see the true spirit of giving, comes from the heart, which is the soul’s true compass.  So in the Veterinary Industry, and certainly within our amazing staff at Pets R Family Veterinary Hospital, we believe that the spirit of giving lives in us every single day we are alive.   

We wish all of our amazing clients and each of you in our Saint Johns Community a blessed Christmas season.   And may the spirit of giving of ourselves be the commonality we see in us all. 
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Caregiving, saving lives, and providing better health for our furry friends is a noble and wonderful calling