KENT—Surrounded by friends and neighbors, Dr. Amy Attas received a warm welcome during her talk Thursday, Aug. 1, about her newly published book “Pets and the City” at the Kent Memorial Library.
Attas told the 36 people gathered in the library reading room that she was honored so many had turned out to hear her. Attas was introduced by her husband Steve Shapiro. They have lived in Kent part-time, splitting their weeks between here and New York City for 25 years.
The book is a memoir, sharing how Attas became a veterinarian and how she launched her mobile veterinary practice. It also is chock-full of stories about her celebrity clients and their pets. Some clients are named and for others the names have been changed.
“I was that kid who always wanted to be a veterinarian,” Attas said. She didn’t come from a family of vets and she didn’t even have a dog until she was five years old. “The other little girls were playing teacher with their dolls. I was playing vet with my stuffed animals.”
“Even the family pediatrician gave me used hypodermic syringes. Don’t worry. He took the needles off,” Attas said. “But I was clever and figured out that if I inserted a straight pin and filled them with water, I could give an extremely convincing injection to my stuffed animals.”
She attributes her vocation to being inspired by reading “All Creatures Great and Small” by James Herriot about his adventures as a country vet in northern England during the 1930s. His descriptions of the animals’ medical problems and their treatments hooked her and she became “enthralled with veterinary medicine.”
It was not easy for her because she discovered as a 13-year-old that she had issues when she saw blood. After fainting several times, she was persistent and worked her way through the difficulty. She later went on to graduate from the University of Pennsylvania with a master’s degree in animal behavior and a veterinary degree. She credits Penn for teaching her the skills and basic science she needed to become an “animal doctor.”
“I didn’t become the veterinarian that I’m really happy with until I started my house call practice,” Attas said of the business that celebrates its 32nd anniversary this week. “I was drawn to become a veterinarian because I loved animals.”
“But doing house calls, practicing veterinary medicine in the intimacy of my clients’ homes, made me realize that I really love the people interaction as well. And I have been privileged to see the cycle of life for both the the pets and the people,” she said.
Reading a chapter of her book, “Sweet Butter,” she told the story of a golden retriever, Butter, that was companion and help-mate to Ellen, who had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis 15 years before she met her. The dog had learned to do what she needed for assistance. She observed the dog putting his head in Ellen’s lap and adjusting his body so his front leg lay across her legs.
“Butter’s leg across me keeps me from falling out,” keeping her in her wheelchair, Ellen told her. ”He does something similar at night. He sleeps across my body so I don’t fall out of bed.”
When Butter’s health deteriorated, Attas painted a scene of how her entire team went to Ellen’s home to say goodbye and Ellen lay across Butter and “I took Butter to sleep.” At that point Ellen was a quadriplegic but Attas knew Ellen needed a companion. She found a little black cat named Nelson from animal care and control in Manhattan. He had been declawed so there was no way that he could hurt Ellen.
“He stayed in bed with her until she eventually passed, and then we helped Nelson get another forever home,” Attas said.
She shared other examples of the bond that forms between pets and their people. Her friend Diane Meier prompted her to tell the story of Mrs. Blunt, which is the same story she shared as a graduation speaker for Penn’s vet school.
She told the graduates, “even though you’re graduating with a degree in veterinary medicine, your degree is so much more than just caring for dogs and cats because they come to you with people attached,” Attas said. “And you’re trained to have fabulous powers of observation. And sometimes those powers should be directed toward the people because sometimes they need our help, too.”
Mrs. Blunt was in her 90s and had a senior dog, Maggie, with a lot of medical ailments, including heart and kidney disease. The dog needed to be hospitalized and died while in the hospital. Attas went to her home to deliver the news to Mrs. Blunt.
“I watched as this woman literally deflated before my eyes. I thought, this can’t be the last contact I have with her. I’ve been making house calls to her for years,” she said, so Attas returned a few days later. It took quite a long time for Mrs. Blunt to answer the door.
“She was in her nightgown. Her teeth were not in. Her hair wasn’t brushed. She didn’t look like she had bathed, and I don’t think she had eaten for days. And it was clear to me that Maggie was her reason to live. She had to get out of bed to take care of Maggie,” Attas said.
She decided she had to find her a senior dog and she put the word out to every rescue organization she knew. It needed to be a tiny, friendly older dog in good health. She found a little poodle named Pierre. Mrs. Blunt wasn’t interested but Attas convinced her to take the dog for a day or two.
Attas returned the next day and Mrs. Blunt was dressed with her hair brushed and her teeth in. She told Attas, “You did the right thing. This dog needs me.”
After her talk, Attas signed books for those attending and the House of Books sold copies of “Pets and the City.” She also sold t-shirts that featured the cover of the book and proceeds of the shirt sales were donated to the Kent Memorial Library.
