Well well well.. I don’t know what’s more exciting- the fact that Anna and I (Izzy) have been set loose to write blog posts, or the fact that NMVC is turning 1! Happy Birthday to us! So, in honour of our anniversary, you all get to read our ramblings and have a little glimpse into what goes on behind the scenes at the vets (my plan for a giant confetti canon in prep was apparently a non-starter).
Looking back over the year we’ve had some great moments as a team. I’m sure my attempt to summarise them will do the year no justice but I will give it a good go. The earliest thing I can think of that absolutely has to have a mention as it still gets mentioned among the team at least once a month, would be when poor Lenny came in and had 56 hairbands removed from his stomach!
Back in May we had our open day and fun dog show, which was a lovely opportunity to meet lots of lovely clients, as well as for you all to have a look at what goes on “out the back”. We ate cakes. We laughed and joked with you all. We snogged your dogs. They were all “Best in Show” to us.
Towards the end of summer we were joined by Nat, taking our Needham exclusive vets to 2, and our average age on the vet team up by approximately 10 years.
Helen launched her puppy pre-school towards the end of the year, which is still running regularly and is providing us all with lots of super cute puppy photos! As well as providing owners with some great advice and training for their new family-members. (Among more recent graduates of puppy-preschool is lovely Evie- who you may see behind reception occasionally as she belongs to our very own Karen!). Starting the pups of Needham Market off on the best possible foot to become well rounded citizens for you all to love living with.
Then Christmas came and Kirsty made the practice look amazing and festive ready to host our first (hopefully of many- watch this space) client information evening. She says they were more tasteful decorations than Bury. We agree. Needham needs to have a little class about it compared to the riffraff over there!
In February I took far too much entertainment in introducing Chloe our fabulous Nursing Assistant to Mildred my chicken (I think she is still having flashbacks and hasn’t forgiven me yet). I would also like to add, Anna met Mildred at an earlier point in the year, and Anna did get pooped on. Mildred is a great judge of character. Chickens are awesome.
Between all these notable moments we have enjoyed many a cuddle with lots of our patients (and some very lucky patients even have been serenaded by Keira who has dulcet tones that may mean we now refer to her as “The Beyonce of Needham Market”!) as well as lots of laughs as a team. We’ve also enjoyed many a takeaway lunch from all the many local establishments that Needham Market has to offer. Seriously, 10/10 for food selection. We have loved eating our way around the village and shopping local! Lottie has also done an amazing job of keeping everyone (and when I say everyone, I mean myself, Anna and Keira) on task and ensuring that we provide first class and excellent care to everyone!
Some fun and mostly very irrelevant statistics from our first year, for any of you stats nerds:
- 5 star google reviews: 42 (thank you! These mean more than you could possible imagine!)
- Record for prep-room stall race: Simon with a time of 14.95 seconds!
- Pets staff (ok, mainly Anna) have wanted to take home: approximately 1047392 (basically all of them!)
- Number of strays acquired by staff: 1
- And the most surprising one of all… Number of times I have shown up to the wrong practice for work: 0
Anyway, hopefully Carly and Jenny don’t read this and realise they’ve made a horrible mistake setting us loose here and we will be back with some more quality content soon!
Anna & Izzy
