Animal Care Centre building a new home

Times Reporter    

 

Anyone driving west of town along Highway 1 may have noticed construction happening next to Big Country Drilling. Some may know what it is, and others may have been curious about what could be going into the newly constructed building. The Animal Care Centre of Strathmore came to Town in 2007 and since then has grown to the point of needing a new facility. 

The new building will allow the Centre to offer both large and small animal services, grooming, doggy daycare and a larger retail space. 

“For example a horse that’s ill and needs to be hospitalized we’ll have stalls to keep them in the hospital. We’ll be able to have stocks to contain a horse to properly examine it and do procedures on it,” said owner and veterinarian Jodi Viste.  

“It just allows us to be more efficient with our services, rather than being tied up far away from the clinic we’re more centralized. We will be offering a (pet) food delivery service because of the location out of town. That’s kind of a neat thing because my mom is my bookkeeper and my dad he’s retired and so he might be the one driving the delivery van driving food around so it’s kind of neat to work with my family and make them part of this business as well.”

Strathmore has grown quickly and so has the animal population. Since opening its doors the Centre has continued to grow. Viste is grateful the community has supported them and allowed them to grow. 

“Part of the reason we went to the west side of town is because of the large commuter population in this town so we wanted to facilitate them being able to drop their animals off on the way to work in Calgary. It will be nice to be located near the stockyards,” said Viste.

“We’re also gaining a lot of clientele from Calgary as well which we’re really happy about because we can expose the Town of Strathmore and encourage people to come out here.”

The Animal Care Centre of Strathmore splits the on-call duties with the Strathmore Vet Clinic. One week the Animal Care Clinic will field the calls and the next the Vet Clinic. Being able to have this sort of relationship with the Vet Clinic is another thing Viste is grateful for. 

Currently there are 16 staff on hand to help with your vet needs. Four of them are registered animal health technicians and the rest of the staff are either veterinary receptionists or veterinary assistants.

Viste said it’s a great team, they enjoy working together and have a lot of fun, which is something she hopes is portrayed to the clients. 

“The best thing about our career is no two days are ever the same, it’s a fun job. To be able to work on such a variety of animals is so fulfilling,” said Viste. 

When she was younger she had dreamed about doing this but didn’t think she was going to be able to get in, so it was literally a dream come true for her. 

“I just want to be able to continue servicing the community as it continues to grow. Strathmore is a great town to be in and we have a young staff right now but our staff is going to continue to grow and have children, and we just want to keep working and providing services. Wherever the community takes us is where we will to go,” said Viste.

The new facility is expected to open this summer. It’s located on a five acre parcel of land and there is room for expansion in the future if needed.