I’m a diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine, I’m a diplomate of the American College of Zoological Medicine, and the American Board of Veterinary Toxicology because I had a strong interest in poisonous plants. Read More
So your degree is in veterinary medicine?… Read More
Doctor of veterinary medicine. Read More
And you have any other degrees?… Read More
Well, I didn’t actually decide that until I was in the Navy at the tail end of World War II. And I was in the medical corps, in the hospital corps of the Navy. And I liked medicine, but I didn’t particularly like human medicine, and I was a farm… Read More
And once you made the choice, did you start applying to different places or you knew where you wanted to go?… Read More
How did you make that entry?… Read More
Well, I was still a farm boy and the Utah State Agricultural College, which it was called then, beckoned me, and I was able to get in there, I couldn’t have done that with the grades that I have out of high school at this present time because I wasn’t… Read More
And I did, I learned as much as I could about snakes and then forced myself to handle them to the point where I could handle any snake eventually. So now you’re growing up on the farm, you have exposure to domestic animals. Read More
Were you ever exposed to a zoo when you were growing up or to a circus when you were growing up or different types of animals?… Read More
I don’t ever recall going to a circus. We didn’t have money to do that sort of thing as a rule. I hunted as a youngster with my brother and my father. We spent time with animals, there were squirrels of various in the sundry sorts, coyotes, there were mountain… Read More
Well, when did you decide then that you wanted to work with animals and become a veterinarian?… Read More
Well, not really. I didn’t like snakes because we had snakes on the farm, and I learned of this phobia that I had of snakes because in the haying process or bringing hay in, we would make little stacks of hay, we’d cut it and rake it into piles, and… Read More
We’re jumping ahead just a bit here, because you’ve opened the door, did you, as a veterinarian overcome this fear?… Read More
Absolutely, I had to, I was shamed into it by my children who like snakes. And as a result of my own phobia, I knew that I was going to have to make sure that my children didn’t experience the same thing. Because I don’t believe you’re born with a… Read More
Can’t say that I remember when I felt that connection, we had farm animals, we had dogs and cats, we had poultry, in fact, we had chickens as one of the major products that we had. We raised turkeys for a period of time. And so I just essentially grew… Read More
And they said, “Would you like to go for a ride around town?… Read More
We’ve got a wagon and these mules.” And so I said, sure. They hitched up the horses and hitched up the wagon that was in a barn and we went for a ride. And when they got back, they couldn’t put the wagon back in the barn. And they tried… Read More
Were there any animals that you disliked?… Read More
And so most of my high school years, I spent working in an auto mechanic shop and an airplane engine shop, so that I had tremendous experiences with mechanics, my brother was by then a machinist, and so he had that background. I learned from him, and learned how to… Read More