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From India to Mexico to St. Croix, Cholette Ness, LVT, has traveled around the world helping animals in need throughout her 24-year career in veterinary medicine. But it wasn\u2019t until she started working with the unhoused and low-income communities of downtown Seattle that she finally \u201cfound her place\u201d and sense of purpose with Seattle Veterinary Outreach. For her unrelenting drive to help the animals and people who need it most, Ness is a Clinic Champion.<\/p>\n
Ness developed her love of animals at a young age while visiting her grandparents\u2019 cattle ranch in Montana. She watched in awe as her grandmother would throw bales of hay off the side of the truck with what seemed like superhuman strength. Ness would help her grandmother as they brought the calves in during the winter and bottle-fed them in the kitchen.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s just how I grew up. I don\u2019t have any siblings, so my dogs were always my companions,\u201d says Ness. \u201cI think it\u2019s in my blood; it came from my grandma.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n After studying veterinary assisting at Pima Medical Institute in Washington, Ness worked in several different roles as a veterinary professional, including small-animal companion medicine, exotics, teaching, research, and rescue work. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not that I got bored at regular clinics. It\u2019s just I always felt like there was more out there. You go to a clinic and the owners usually have the means to take care of their animals. I always wanted to help the animals that really weren\u2019t being helped,\u201d says Ness. \u201cI started going to [Cancun] Mexico and being a part of spay\/neuter clinics there. That\u2019s actually how I met my husband. It was the hardest, hardest job I\u2019ve ever had. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt was hot and dirty and exhausting\u2014and it was amazing. I loved it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Ness also assisted in St. Croix following hurricanes with the ASPCA and later became a professional responder for the ASPCA, working on dogfighting, cockfighting, and hoarding cases. Her professional journey even took her to South Asia, where she volunteered for a week with Wildlife SOS in India to help care for elephants and bears in their conservation and care center.<\/span><\/p>\n But it was back in Mexico where Ness saw the precursor of what would be her ultimate purpose: connecting with people in need through veterinary care. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201c[In Mexico] we would set up in a school and get off the bus early in the morning to find just lines and lines of people with their pets,\u201d says Ness. \u201cThese people can\u2019t really afford anything for themselves. They stand there all day in the heat with their pets just waiting for their turn for surgery and some of these people would bring us food every day. They hardly had any money, but they were so grateful that they would come and feed us. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cAnd that\u2019s where I realized, wow, I\u2019m not just here helping animals. These people are so grateful that they\u2019re feeding us every day. And so that\u2019s where it started for me. That\u2019s when I realized: yep, this is what I\u2019m supposed to do. Because I\u2019m making an impact more than I ever thought I could. This is what I was made for.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Ness has continued that mission as part of Seattle Veterinary Outreach (SVO), an organization that connects Seattle\u2019s underserved communities with health care, mental health resources, and social services and provides free veterinary services for their pets. They do so by deploying mobile clinics and seeing patients in different areas of need throughout the greater metropolitan area. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cCholette is passionate about providing services to people and pets in need,\u201d says Hanna Ekstrom, DVM, founder of SVO. \u201cShe is empathetic, organized, <\/span>and understands that sometimes one needs to work with what is available to help the pet, even if it is not what you might choose to do in a more academic setting.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/todaysveterinarynurse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2022\/01\/clinic-champion-logo-300x188-1-e1669654844339.png\"){kind=logo}
<\/span> Every day, veterinary nurses\/technicians make a positive impact on their clients, patients, coworkers, and greater community. But the stories behind each and every one of these professionals are often overlooked due to the selfless nature of working in veterinary medicine. <\/span>Today\u2019s Veterinary Nurse<\/i> aims to shine a light on some of these stories with its Clinic Champions series. Each issue, TVN<\/i> and Midmark will honor a veterinary nurse for their contributions in community service, scholarship, advocacy, or innovation. This series will highlight unsung heroes who make a lasting impact on their patients and community. <\/span>At the end of the year, 1 of the 4 honorees will be recognized as the Clinic Champion of the Year. This individual will receive a trip to VMX 2023 in Orlando, Florida, including registration, hotel, and airfare. <\/span>To nominate a veterinary nurse\/technician, visit bit.ly\/ClinicChampions<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n
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