Dedicated veterinarian walks 3 miles through snow to treat a seriously ill cat

NEWS AND COMMENT: The American news media, yesterday, reported on the actions of a dedicated female veterinarian in Birmingham, Alabama.

P.S. Take a look at the frontage of the clinic in the photograph below and you will see two separated front doors, one for cats and one for dogs. Clearly, in this clinic they separate these animals in order to keep the peace and to provide a calmer environment for both while they are waiting to be seen. A great idea and it's a recommendation by veterinarians who are specialists in treating cats.

Image: MikeB from images taken from the clinic's website.

Blueberry, a five-year-old cat was brought to the Caldwell Mill Animal Clinic in Birmingham, last week. Her owners had noticed that she was feeling unwell with an unknown illness. At the time, weather conditions were severe as I understand it with snow on the ground. It was icy and inhospitable.

Blueberry stayed at the clinic over the weekend but Dr Nicole Martin was at that time unable to diagnose the illness. On Tuesday Blueberry deteriorated.

Two vet techs arrived at the clinic through the snow to check up on Blueberry. They took X-rays and these were sent, I believe, over the Internet to Dr Martin. At this stage, I believe, Dr Martin was at home 3 miles from the clinic and was doing her work remotely at this instance.

Dr Martin realised that she had to go to the clinic through frigid conditions and along icy roadways. She believed that there was "no other option other than to walk". It was clearly unsafe to drive.

She discussed the matter with other members of the staff at the clinic and as she was the closest to the clinic it was decided that she would walk from her home to care for Blueberry.

As she hiked over those three icy miles to the clinic she thought about saving Blueberry's life.

She said: "We’ve been with her for days at this point, realizing how much we loved her and, once we saw the X-rays of what was making her sick, it was just in time we all got together to help save her life."

The story ends there as reported by 12WSFA. Like me, I expect that you want to know what happens next but you won't know because I don't know. 

But I am 99% sure that Dr Martin managed to remove what appears to have been a blockage in her digestive tract and that Blueberry is doing fine. Let's hope I am right.

Comment: I love dedicated vets 👍. 

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.