Collin reed
English 101
Interview paper
4/24

Victory

The Alpine animal hospital is located down route 66 past the car dealerships and across the street from goodwill. I’ve been taken my cat there several times and Dr. Donald S. Mac Kenzie is her current vet. I have had the chance to get to know one of veterinarian assistances Victoria Prim and understand what role she plays in the hospital as well get sense for her goals for the hospital.
It was 5:45pm on some Tuesday and I was on my way to pick up Victoria from work at six. I had several questions written down but wanted to approach them in a very casual manner. Like normal there is no one parked in the lot as I pull up. I would later learn that they don’t make appointments after 5pm they leave a specific time “window” for emergencies and on call assignments. I walked through the two sets of doors and see Victoria sitting being the desk bag under arm and ready to leave. Behind the counter a dog that was recovering from animal abuse arose, a gray worn out old pit bull. He begins to snarl and growl at me, he doesn’t quiet let off a couple barks but the look in his eye was prepared. Confused at the dog’s reaction I walked right back out of those doors and waited for Victoria. Victoria responded to my confused look with “Its because you’re a guy, she was abused by several men and now how a phobia towards them.” I thought to myself how strange it was for a dog to be sexes and what kind of environment would cause that.
We made our way to my car and I asked Victoria some background information about her and her job. Victoria had been working at Target for two years and had a front desk job at NAU for 14months before getting the job at Alpine. Witch after landing the job quit both of her other jobs immediately. She started out working the front desk of Alpine working with mostly phone calls and scheduling. She currently still does all those things but now works hands-on with patients, with her main focus of keeping them as comfortable as possible.
“What role do you play when taking care of a new patient on a normal day?” I asked bluntly as we got into the car. I was met with a sarcastic facial expression as if I had just said some thing dumbfounded. Victoria responded with “We don’t have a lot of normal days, each day can vary dramatically and honestly kind of sucks.” It felt like not the answer I was looking for but with jokes aside I began to understand what she was taking about. Her day starts out with arriving 2 hours before the vet shows up to set up the office for the day and prep for the morning appointments. She then sits behind a desk taking phone calls; deals with clients (owners), cleans & shaves an animal and feeds some of the dogs on site. This is what Victoria would call “the leisure days that come at the oddest of times” she notes that it is the emergency patients “the ones without an appointment” that Victoria said where the worst.
There are two main issues one faces when handling an emergency that has just walked through the doors, first is to assess the animals condition and prepare the doctor for the patient, second “is you have to deal with the crazed owners” as Victoria said. Like with a child a Vet must get consent from the owners before performing any, no matter how simple of operations and procedures. This is one of the jobs Victoria must take on every day. “It can be hard for people to come to a decision in such a panic, they aren’t always thinking clearly,” she says with her eyes doing a slight roll. It was clear that Victoria much rather spend her time with the animals and not so much the people.
As we got out of the car the mood began to change when we got to Victoria’s place, and she was with her friends and her girlfriend, the tone was set to much more relaxed beat. Victoria seeming forgetting about works went on with such normality it was comforting. I had mostly heard gripes and complaints from Victoria about her work, but what person doesn’t complain right after a long days work. I asked “what is your dream job?” A slight pause of thought passes, “I want to work with animals, make good money or at least enough for me to live comfortably and I guess other than that not much else.” This seemed to line up perfectly with her current position but 5 minutes before while sitting in the car she was telling me how thankful she was not to spend another minute there. A common problem so might have with their dream job. “So does that mean you are working your dream job?” I replied. I seemed confused that some one as young as her would be sitting with their dream job maybe even jealous. I get nothing more that a shrug of uncertainty and a face to match. Victoria noticed that I was clearly not satisfied with the answer and forced the response “I don’t know if it is my dream job or not.” Which had me thinking on what really was a dream job to people.
Victoria works 8 hours a day, 5days a week with no day the same as the last. She is grateful to be able to serve the animals when they come through the doors and still helpful enough to tend to the grieving owners. Either by sitting on a phone all day or by cleaning the most current emergency she seems to be “liven out her goals.” Will no doght later redefine her dream job for a later day.