If you have had a pet, you are likely to have experienced a loss.  The loss can leave a large hole, sometimes we feel it immediately other times it takes a while for the full impact to strike.  In our pet bereavement group we have had many people join from around the country.  Each person has a very personal story that is completely individual but a common thread within all the stories is the loss and pain- the love is always there.  When a pet passes we sometimes don’t have a good outlet to release our feelings.  We have set up this page to allow people to send in photos of their beloved pets and a quick story to share.  Please feel free to send us photos and a vignette about your pet.  Please send them to

By now many of our clients and friends have heard about the recent passing of our hospital mascot, Oliver.  Oliver was a large part of our hospital team and brought joy and comfort to the staff every day of his life.  Oliver started as a patient of ours with severe arthritis and fractures to both hips.  Years ago, Dr. Buchanan performed surgery on both of Oliver’s hips with a procedure called a femoral head osteotomy.  In this procedure both of the tops of his femurs were removed due to fractures from an abnormal blood flow to the joints.

Oliver went home to live with his family for many years but started to have trouble in his environment and found his way to live in our office.  He really was a clown, he owned our hospital and the hearts of those who knew him.  Oliver had a voracious appetite, in fact we can not even begin to total the cost of all of the food and supplement bags that he would “sample”.  In fact, if we were unpacking a pet food shipment, we had to make sure he was in lock down in his cage.  There are many stories of Oliver eating food right out from under people, even stealing food out of your hand if you weren’t careful.

Oliver had a devil may care attitude – often we would have an aggressive dog in the hospital and Oliver would just saunter over and plop down right in front of them.  He hated but tolerated dress up days- holidays were his least favorite time, a quick look at his face in the photos will confirm that.