As we begin Veterinary Technician Week, we ask that you take a minute to watch this powerful celebration of the caregivers who might just love our pets as much as we do. Their work is often thankless and anonymous, and they bear our worries with incredible strength. Please treat them with the same compassion they show our pets every day.

“…Because of you, love is unleashed every single day.

Because of you, empathy refuses to be caged.

Because of you, our best friends are alive and thriving

and eating an appalling amount of goose poop

and hacking hairballs into our sock drawers

and starting lifelong wars with vacuums

and greeting us at the door with more gratitude

than we’ve ever been greeted with before…

Poet Andrea Gibson created this tribute to all of those who work in the veterinary community for VMX2020, an annual conference hosted by the North American Veterinary Community in January in Orlando, Florida. These are excerpts from the piece, “A Poem for the Veterinary Community.”

“…Thank you for being fluent in compassion,

even when its 3am and you’ve eaten every meal that week

while on your feet, racing quick from exam room

to exam room.

There is nothing more difficult

than trying to teach a veterinary professional how to sit.

May you never bark at your own reflection

when you treat yourself to needed rest.

Your wellbeing is as vital as your welldoing,

And what most would need nine lives to do,

You do in one…

If you are a client of the CSU James L. Voss Veterinary Teaching Hospital, a donor, alumnus, friend, family or colleague, please join us in thanking Andrea Gibson and the dedicated, unsung people who nurse our animals.

“…May you see your reflection,

and see your community standing with you.”