Saying Goodbye

Chamblee, a much loved friend and team member, says goodbye...

When I came to The Village Vets almost four years ago, I had no idea the impact this "front desk" job would have on my life. I had just moved back to Atlanta, and I didn't want to go back to my job of 13 years in a large law firm. I wanted to do something that I was passionate about. I was passionate about animals, so I thought a job in a veterinary hospital would be a good fit for me. Boy was it! I knew The Village Vets, prior to joining its team, through the dog rescue work I had been doing for several years. It was because I knew The Village Vets to be very "rescue friendly" that I chose it as a place to settle down. Even so, I couldn't have imagined how much I would come to love the job, the people and, of course, all the thousands of dogs and cats I'd meet. My team members are like family. Many clients have become my close, personal friends. Each and every animal I love as if it were my own.

But the most rewarding part of my job has been working with rescue groups and clients to help homeless and abused dogs, cats, puppies and kittens. Seeing these animals coming from terrible situations to becoming healthy and being adopted to loving homes is possibly the greatest blessing of my life. I am certain there isn't an animal hospital anywhere that does more to help people help homeless and abused pets. I am truly grateful to the doctors and managers of The Village Vets for making homeless pets one of its top priorities and to each and every client I've helped to successfully rescue a dog or cat in need. Nowhere else would I have had the opportunity to help so many people help so many animals. It hasn't been an easy decision to leave The Village Vets and my home [Georgia] of 40 years, but I am ready to start the next chapter of my life in Colorado. For as many dogs and cats as I've helped to rescue, there are tens-of-thousands more in Georgia I cannot rescue, and that has become an increasingly unbearable reality for me. I hope to make my new home in a region of the country where pets are not abandoned and killed by the hundreds-of-thousands every year like they are in the Southeast. My last day at The Village Vets will be May 25th, and I hope to see many of you between now and then. Please keep Georgia's homeless pets always in your thoughts and prayers. Adopt or foster a dog or cat in need and always spay/neuter. Farewell for now and thank you all for your friendship and your love for our four-legged companions. 

Chamblee Abernethy

I looked at all the caged animals in the shelter --- the cast-offs of human society. I saw in their eyes love and hope, fear and dread, sadness and betrayal.And I was angry. "God," I said, "this is terrible.  Why don't you do something?" God waited until he was sure I was listening and then He spoke softly. "I have done something," He replied. "I created you."    

Copyright Jim Willis 1999