As some may know, my family has cats. too many cats. four cats live in the house, and every year we find and adopt out an average of two stray cats. With all of these animals, we end up going to the vet regularly. We do not go to a "normal" vet clinic (one that looks and feels like a hospital); we go to a local, privately owned veterinary clinic, which looks like an old house that could use a cleaning and may or may not have a colony of more than two dozen monkeys living on the third floor. For my IDEA documentary, I am going to see if I can follow the doctor who runs the clinic for a few days.
Let me just say, there is so much material about this place, Animal Planet could do a whole series about it. The vet has around 8 dogs of her own, I think, and every morning they jump out of her car like one of those clown cars. They are not small dogs, either. There are at least two full size greyhounds. It is never, EVER boring in the waiting room. There is always something to keep your mind busy, whether its an escaped puppy running up and down the hallway, or a cat in a carrier howling bloody mary. And then there's this parrot in the room opposite the examining room, and he hears everything that goes on. the door to that room is always open, and it sounds like there is a dog, cat, soap opera, and laugh track in that room at any point in time, all thanks to the talented parrot.
One other thing is that apparently the vet takes care of more than thirty monkeys. I do not know this for sure, and I have never asked her. The closest thing to concrete evidence I have is that a family friend said she asked the vet about the monkeys, and got a positive response. Again, I'm not sure, but that would certainly be interesting for a documentary (at least I think so).
We are on very good terms with the vet herself, and she appreciates our efforts in finding homes for stray cats. She lets students do volunteer work at her clinic, so I have a feeling that she will not mind my doing this project. I will try to be as minimally invasive as possible, but that may not be possible. I would need to get a film crew, but I have a feeling my friends would not want to help for more than one day.
P.S.
I think that maybe a certain photo class taught by a certain Mrs. Woodruff should get extra credit for volunteering as film crew.
