Last month, I commented in this column that situations that are meant to happen generally come about in an orderly and peaceful way - and sure enough, they have!  Temporarily at least, we have a wonderful new Doctor here at Knollwood, and we will be moving to a new schedule in November.  Not one of the reduced hours schedules that I asked for your opinions on last month, but an expanded schedule that will have us open every weekday and on Saturday, too.  Here's what happened: 

A week or so after sending my September column to our Webmistress Kelly for publication, a resume crossed my desk.  It was a heck of a good one, and I contacted the Doctor who had sent it, that same evening.  I wanted to schedule an interview, I explained, but I was heading out of town that very week to lecture at the AHVMA meeting.  Did she want to come in to meet me and the staff upon my return?  Dr. Jessica Tartof explained that she was interviewing quite a bit that week and the next, and asked if she could come in before I left.  She and I agreed upon a brief after-hours meeting the last evening I worked at the hospital before my departure.  It turned into a two-plus hour session.

Dr. Tartof was initially quiet and intense, but very knowledgeable - her veterinary experience, both small animal and equine, was remarkable - and she impressed the bejeebers out of me.   She liked our practice very much, too.  I told her when we parted that I would like to arrange a second meeting upon my return later in the month.  I was still at the post-meeting retreat in New Hampshire after my lectures, when she contacted me - but I was in a location so remote that my phone didn't even work, and I didn't pick up her message until I was back at O'Hare.  She had been offered a job, she explained, and they wanted an answer by the end of the weekend.  But before she made a decision, she wanted to know whether I had thought anymore about that second interview. 

We met again that next morning on Sunday, and after another couple of hours of talk, I knew that we had the Doctor we needed and wanted.  Dr. Tartof asked for a few hours that afternoon to think over my offer, and accepted it.  She's now in her second week of work with us, has already made raving fans out of some clients who usually don't like anyone except me, has taken over our complete surgery caseload, and is very much liked and respected by our entire staff.  I know that you will like her, too.

You can read about Dr. Tartof and her veterinary background on our "Meet the Staff" web page. She's pictured there with one of her dogs, Piper, an Australian Shepherd. I think that most of you know that all of my dogs come to work with me every day, and now you'll get to meet Piper, too.  She'll be coming to work with Dr. Tartof.  Piper is a young dog, and completely blind, and while she manages very well - she even does agility work - she needs a little extra attention right now.  She's already decided that my new guy, Jack, is a good friend, and that she needs to be very respectful of Lizzie.  It's fun to see the two supposedly "physically challenged" dogs - my three-legged Jack, and blind Piper - being the most active and playful out of all the dogs!

Our plans for the future at Knollwood?  Starting the beginning of November, we will go to a full weekday schedule, plus Saturdays.  No  "reduced-schedule" stuff like I was talking about last month, when I thought I was going to be the only Doctor!   I will take four weekdays (Mondays through Thursdays), plus the first Saturday of each month.  Dr. Tartof will take Wednesdays and Fridays, plus alternating Tuesdays or Thursdays, as well as the remaining Saturdays.  This will permit her to maintain an existing once-a-week equine emergency position she enjoys.  We will overlap our schedules on the days we share, allowing her, an early bird by nature, to start early and me, a night owl, to start later in the day.

We will add at least one and possibly two surgery days each week.  Wednesdays and Fridays will be surgery days, and we'll add the alternating Tuesdays and Thursdays that Dr. Tartof works, depending on your needs and preferences.  We should have plenty of room in our surgery schedule for all who want to take advantage of our Fall Dental Special (for details, see the lead story on our home page, "Happy Toothsgiving!").  That means we will need a few more staff members from Nurses to Nurse Assistants to Hospital Assistants, so please tell any friends with veterinary experience to check out the Employment Info section of this website. 

Looking towards the future, Dr. Tartof hopes to take the veterinary acupuncture course when it is offered in 2010.  She still maintains a strong interest in equine emergency medicine, so her future plans are unclear.  Mine have always been crystal-clear about what I want to do, so I know that I'll continue to do some lecturing while managing the practice and continuing the work I love to do most - seeing you and your pets.   In the meantime, we hope you'll drop by to meet Dr. Tartof  while she's with us, and have a chat with us.  Fall is a nice time to slow down a little, to touch base with friends, and to reconnect with what's important in life.  I got to experience a little of that at the AHVMA retreat in New Hampshire, for a few precious days.  It helped me to relax and to re-evaluate what's most important in life.  And that would be continuing to do the work I love to the best of my ability, for as long as people want me to continue it. 

In closing, I'd like to share with you a final picture from those taken at this year's AHVMA retreat.  If I look relaxed - I WAS!!  Anyone who remembers the movie "On Golden Pond" knows this area of New Hampshire.  It's beautiful, remote, and utterly peaceful - and was a wonderful way to end the AHVMA meeting and to plan the beginnings of this new stage of our expanded practice at Knollwood!

Dr. Mitchell