Sammy

Hi Sammy! Do you have any nicknames?

My nickname is Sammy, short for Samantha. I’ll go by Sammy or Sam but I avoid using the name Samantha. My full name reminds me of when I was little whenever I got in trouble…

In your words, what is your job at Frontier?

I recently finished school, passed my VTNE (Veterinary Technician National Examination), and received my license as a Certified Veterinary Technician! Part of my job is nursing care and the other part is technical work. I preform wound care treatment, take blood samples, administer vaccines, and help patients recover from surgeries and sedation. I also do lab work, take radiographs, dispense medications, and much more. Soon I will be trained in outpatient care, which entails dentistry, surgical assisting, and anesthetic monitoring. Above all my job is to be an advocate for all animals!

Why did you decide to work at Frontier?

I was recommended to work here by a fellow co-worker, who I was friends with before I was employed here. I was interested in entering the veterinary field as an assistant to gain some on the job experience and training while I attended school to become a technician. I came in for my formal interview and then later for a working interview, and I immediately felt like I could make my career here. My fellow co-workers are super friendly, patient, and very helpful in training me. The environment in this hospital is warm and welcoming, and I felt secure bringing my own pets here for check-ups.

Do you have any pets?

I have a number of pets! Four cats and a hamster, to be exact. Jada, Bebe, Maple, and Aspen are my girl kitties, all sassy in their own way. Jada is a four-year-old brown/grey tabby whom I rescued from a barn when she was just four weeks old. Bebe is a seven-year-old brown tabby whom we adopted from Bonnie Hayes Animal Shelter in 2013. Maple is a six-year-old tortie whom my boyfriend adopted as a kitten. Aspen is an ten-year-old calico whom my boyfriend and I adopted, also from Bonnie Hayes, in 2015.

Jada has a cat-perch attached to our window that she lays on for 90% of the day and loves watching birds. She chitters at them when they’re chirping really loud. Bebe is a quiet girl who stays in the room most of the time. When new people come over she hides and it takes months of coming over consistently for her to get used to them! Maple is kind of a chunky girl who needs to lose a few pounds, but back in her day she was quite the bird hunter before we decided to keep her an indoor-only cat. Aspen loves people way more than she loves other cats. She can’t go a second without attention and purrs as soon as you touch her. They all get along…for the most part. They mostly tolerate each other, but I’ll take tolerating over killing each other!

Zoidberg is my boy hamster whom I love very much. I adopted him from the PCC Vet Tech Program while I was in school still. He loves running around the room (when the cats are shut out) and he especially loves digging in his sandbox! On holidays I dress him up in little felt costumes but he kicks them off of him in two seconds before I can get a good picture. The cats leave him alone, and the most they do is sit by his house and watch him run on his wheel.

Tell us a little-known fact about you!

I was a wrestler in high school! I was on the team all four years, except I had to sit out for half the season during Junior year due to a knee injury. I came from a small school in Vernonia, Oregon and was the only girl wrestler during my senior year. I wrestled mostly boys since other schools in our league didn’t have many girls to match up with me, although they’d set up a match just for us if there were another girl on a different team. During my senior year I went to a Women’s State Championship and got 3rd place in my weight class. Wrestling is a very demanding sport, so I was pretty ripped in high school.