My GVH Story and the Love of Bulldogs

After many years of working and living in beautiful, sunny Southern California, my wife and I made the decision to sell our condo and move back to Pennsylvania to be close to family. I had planned on taking a year off to adjust to the east coast lifestyle and get settled. Much to my surprise, my loving wife had other plans.  

She thought she would help me by uploading my resume onto several veterinary hiring websites. I did not know she had done this and the phone starting ringing from prospective employers. As any job seeker would do, I went on several interviews but none of them really fit.  Since nothing really grabbed my attention and I had hotel points that were about to expire, we decided to spend a few days at the beach in Delaware. This is where my journey with GVH begins….  

On the drive down to the beach I got a call from Diane Hanlon, the Business Manager at Gilbertsville Veterinary Hospital and we agreed to meet for an interview on the following Monday. On my way to the interview I thought to myself this will only take a few minutes and  then I could get back to enjoying my time off.  I was wrong.

When I met with Diane the meeting started off like every other interview, with introductions and your standard interview questions. Then Diane asked me if I had any pets of my own. I replied “yes, a Bullmastiff and 2 cats, they made the cross country trip with me”.  Diane replied, “that’s great, I have a bulldog”. Being a Marine and a bulldog connoisseur, I said “oh yeah what kind of bulldog?” Diane responded, our “ “Mary Grace” is an Alapaha Blue Blood Bulldog.”  I knew and worked with this breed of bulldog in California and knew how rare they were.  Before I could catch myself, I said “No you don’t, are you sure?”  Great, I just questioned the person who would decide if I would get hired or not.  Diane said “no seriously she is a blue blood bulldog” and pulled her phone out.  We swiped through many pictures of her dog then spent a while talking not about me or GVH but about our dogs, bulldogs, cats and California. The interview ended and I went on my way.

When I got home my wife asked me how did it go? All I said was Diane, who interviewed me has a Blue Blood Bulldog, isn’t that great! Again, my wife asked how did the interview go?. Again I replied, Diane has a black and white Alapaha Blue Blood Bulldog and her dog is gorgeous. I was so focused on Diane’s and my excitement for our pets that the rest of the interview took a back seat. Sure, the other stuff like skill level, salary, hours, and benefits are important but I didn’t get into the veterinary field to focus on those things. I wanted to work with clients and their pets and to have the experience like I had with Diane (the excitement and love for animals) during the interview on a daily basis.

I knew then that this veterinary hospital was different, and I wanted to be a part of that. The culture was a focused on the bond humans have with their pets. It was that simple. Everything we (the staff) do at GVH, is to celebrate that bond with our clients and their pets, and to offer the best medicine we possibly can. It was that way when I started over seven years ago, and it’s that way today. I have had the pleasure of meeting so many wonderful clients and their pets over the years and look forward to meeting many more as my journey with Gilbertsville Veterinary Hospital continues.

By the way I never did get to enjoy a year long vacation from working. Hey wait a minute! Looking back my wife’s master plan worked, she found me a job and then she took a year off instead!!! True story.