Randlett joins Critter Sitters & Gunnison Vet Clinic team

Bailey Randlett and Thomas Venard take a seat with doggies.

Behind the Critter Sitters & Gunnison Vet Clinic’s entrance table is a front room, no longer essentially for other people, however for canines of each form and measurement, able to luckily greet the following walk-in. The home windows lining the entrance of the construction fail to remember Hartman Rocks and the rolling hills and mountainscape past the Gunnison Valley, a view that hasn’t modified a lot because the hospital was once inbuilt 1964. 

For the previous 3 many years, Critter Sitters & Gunnison Vet Clinic has been entrusted to veterinarian Thomas Venard, who has been working towards veterinary drugs for nearly 50 years. While he has watched the trade alternate, his willpower and love for the occupation has simplest persevered to develop at the side of his consumer base. Although he refuses to completely retire, the hospital welcomed Bailey Randlett as a brand new affiliate veterinarian to lend a hand enlarge the variety of care and products and services to be had for puppy house owners throughout the Gunnison Valley and for the ones simply passing thru. 

Venard, a local of japanese Colorado, began his occupation as a military veterinarian, touring internationally from Italy, Korea, Germany and the U.S. to supply cell veterinary products and services to infantrymen’ pets. He purchased the apply, situated west of the city, in 1991 from Curtis Starkebaum, additionally a former military veterinarian, who for just about twenty years was once the one animal physician on the town. 

Starkebaum or “Doc” centered totally on massive animal care, tending to ranchers’ horses and farm animals neatly into the frigid winters. Venard attempted massive animals for some time. The hospital was once supplied with corrals and a catch pen to permit him to paintings on animals safely indoors. 

“I was 45 years old and was getting kicked and everything by horses and still wanted to be able to go to my kids basketball games,” he stated. “And I said large animals are not for me.” 

During that very same time, the veterinary trade was once diverting its consideration to smaller animals like canines and cats. 

“We knew a lot more about large animals, horses and cows then, medically, than we did dogs and cats,” Venard stated. “Now it’s totally the opposite … the cat, the dog, the bird, the ferret have become part of the family, they’re a family member. So we have to provide a whole lot of different services than we used.” 

Along with a brand new focal point on preserving the four-legged members of the family wholesome, Critter Sitters & Gunnison Vet Clinic temporarily become a circle of relatives affair. His daughter, Jamee Venard Smith, co-owner and supervisor, went to college for early training, however loved running along her ma and pa. Her youngsters have been raised on the vet hospital the place shoppers and coworkers become like circle of relatives, looking at generations come and move. 

“It’s pretty special to have that,” Smith stated. “I never thought I’d have that, growing up in the army, every three years we moved. I think that’s part of why I stayed here, to have that home feeling.”

As the years stepped forward and Venard grew older, the quantity of products and services the apply presented bogged down. He stated he’s excited to have Randlett sign up for the team, welcoming again extra diagnostic and surgical products and services, at the side of common preventative care  — ensuring pets have what they wish to keep glad and wholesome neatly into previous age. 

“My hands don’t work like they used to,” he stated, his palms vigorous however starting to be afflicted by arthritis. “I’ve semi-retired. Now I’m ready to semi-retire a little more.”

Randlett, a graduate of Western Colorado University, will break up her time between Montrose and Gunnison. She grew up in Payson, Arizona, which she stated has grown so much since she was once a kid. When her father handed when she was once younger, the neighborhood stepped in to lend a hand her circle of relatives recuperate. She discovered a an identical sense of neighborhood in Gunnison.

“My goal was just to come back and continue to help the community — giving them another option for their veterinary needs and bringing in the next generation of veterinary medicine to Gunnison Vet Clinic.”

(Bella Biondini can also be contacted at 970.641.1414 or bella@gunnisontimes.com.)