Dr. Heather Murphy, DVM | Beating Cancer Twice, Motherhood, & Vet Med

Leilani and Jillian sit down at the 2025 CanWest Veterinary Conference to chat with the incredibly inspiring Dr. Heather Murphy, a Calgary-based veterinarian from Glamorgan Animal Clinic.

Dr. Murphy, a 2016 UCVM grad, shares her unconventional and deeply moving 10-year journey through veterinary medicine. At just 23 years old, during her first year of vet school, Heather was diagnosed with stage four breast cancer. She opens up about the reality of undergoing surgery and chemo, and even heading straight to class after radiation treatments. Unbelievably, just a few years into her clinical career and three months into her first maternity leave, Heather had to navigate a second, entirely different cancer diagnosis. 

Heather is the definition of perseverance. In this episode, she discusses how staying task-oriented and focusing on future goals helped her push through when living in the moment was simply too hard. 

In this episode, we also cover:

• Early Career Realities: The steep learning curve of transitioning from a fast-paced rotating internship to locuming on your own,
• Clinical Highs & Lows: Why she absolutely loves a good ophthalmology case (and her fancy Tonovet), and why tricky diabetic cases are the ones that drive her up the wall,
• The Midnight Worries: The complex, hard-to-pin-down cases that keep her up at night, and how your subconscious mind never really clocks out,
• The Future of Vet Med: Heather’s hopes for making veterinary care more financially practical for pet owners, so practitioners can just focus on what’s best for their patients,
• Advice for the Next Generation: Why new DVMs and RVTs need to stop beating themselves up, remember their humanity, and prioritize taking care of themselves.

Whether you’re a new grad trying to find your footing, an exhausted associate, or a veterinary professional juggling parenthood and practice, Heather’s story of grit, survival, and a healthy dose of stubbornness is exactly what you need to hear today.

About Dr. Heather: 

Born and raised in Calgary, she is a dedicated veterinarian who graduated from the University of Calgary Faculty of Veterinary Medicine (UCVM) in 2016. She completed her internship at the CARE Center from 2016 to 2017 and now practices in Calgary, where she continues to provide compassionate care to her patients.

She lives in Calgary with her husband and their two children, along with their two cats, Binx and Hobbes. Outside of work, she enjoys spending time outdoors with her kids, making the most of everything the area has to offer.

Get In Touch:

If you'd like to get in touch with Dr. Murphy for potential mentorship opportunities or other inquiries, please email dontcallmecatty@gmail.com and we will connect you.

Transcript

Speaker 1 0:00

Just you can't beat yourself up too much about it. Just if something goes wrong, try to do better the next day and you know think about think about what you can do to improve things, but still don't you're human and I think we forget that a lot, especially in veterinary medicine. We try to be everything for everybody all the time and don't forget to be a person. And take care of you. Yeah. I'm still not great at that, but I would still recommend it.

Jillian 0:26

Welcome to the Don't Call Me Catty Podcast. We are here at the CanWest Veterinary Conference in Banff, Alberta, and we have Dr. Heather Murphy from the Glam organ Animal Clinic with us today. Welcome, Heather. Hi. Thanks for having me. I have known you for what feels like a long time. It has been. It has been long time. I think I met you second year med school.

Speaker 1 0:52

Probably about then. Around that.

Jillian 0:54

Until like 2013. All right. So I've known you, yeah, 13 years. So you've been in practice since 2016. 2016. Almost 10 years. Yep. I have seen Heather just be a dog and cat mom. And now you have two little babies. Yes. That are so cute. They're literally the cutest. Most days, yeah. I know. I'm an outsider. I look in and I'm like, look at the children. Anyway. So.

Speaker 1 1:23

And so for our listeners who haven't known you as long, tell us a bit about your journey, where you went to school, and how you got to where you're at today. Um, so I went to UCVM. Um, I was a 2016 grad. Um, so you went to UCVM, you're a 2016 grad. What did you do immediately out of practice? Um, I did an internship at the Care Center. That is where we met. Yeah, exactly. Oh, you two met oh you got it's like a reunion. So nice to me.

Jillian 1:53

You're so nice. You are literally one of my favorite humans.

Speaker 1 1:55

That is a very that is a very scary year, especially at first. You did great though. Oh, thank you. Yeah, you were a great intern. Yeah.

Jillian 2:03

So it made you want to be a veterinarian.

Speaker 1 2:05

Um, the funny thing is I just stumbled into it. Um, I I worked with somebody when I was at Heritage Park um just like during my undergrad. Um, one of my colleagues, I was looking for volunteer opportunities, and she's like, Well, I don't know what you're interested in, but I have a cousin that owns a vet clinic. Do you want to volunteer there? And I was like, sounds good to me. I didn't have a lot of direction. I was like initially thought I wanted to do med school, and I was like, this isn't fitting. Um, and I was hooked from day one. So what was it about it? Um, it's I I like to work with the animals and people at the same time, but it was also more hands-on than I feel like some other professions could be. And I don't know, it's probably the atmosphere in the clinic too. It was actually Glen Morgan where I work now. Um, that's where you volunteered. Yeah, full circle. Oh, totally full circle. I I had to I had to wait for for my opening and then I got in there. Yeah, you were in the city. Yeah, exactly. Okay, so you did the internship right out of that school. What made you want to do an internship? Um, I I didn't think I would wanted to specialize. I just wanted that, I just wanted to be thrown into it and I wanted to see everything right off the bat. Yeah, and that's that's really how I approached it. I just wanted to, you know, fit that first five years of practice into one um so that I could hit the ground running.

Jillian 3:24

And you did.

Speaker 1 3:25

Yeah.

Jillian 3:25

Like you are, for those of you that do not know Heather, like we're gonna talk about her story, but you are someone that I don't know, you just persevere like no one I've ever met before.

Speaker 1 3:35

Well, and the the reason I loved working with you is because you're so even keeled. Like it felt like nothing could phase you. Like you were you wanted to learn, and that surprises me. Really? Maybe I leave it all for at home. I don't know. I'll ask James. Yeah. Well, no, so you um, yeah, that's what I remember about you is you just like were really even keeled, and it seemed like you know, even the most dire emergency could come through, and you would just be like, okay, this is what we're gonna do, and I feel comfortable doing it. But tell us what how was the internship? What did like what were some of the great parts about it? What were some of the really big struggles? Yeah, yeah. Um I think the great part, the the best parts was just you got to talk through everything. You just had everybody was there, and it was a group effort all the time, and it was nice just to just add on to everything. If you thought you were doing your best for your patient, someone was always there to just push you that little bit further. And I found I liked that kind of atmosphere that was really nice. Um, probably the thing that kept me from continuously doing emergency or anything was things like the hours. I liked the challenges, but I am not a night person. I I did not do well with overnights and swing shifts and things like that. I I needed more balance. What was your favorite? Because you did a rotating internship. So what was your favorite um uh department? Um, I really liked procedure heavy departments, so I liked opt though a lot and surgery. Okay. Yeah. If I were to go back and redo things, I'd it'd probably be uh be an ophthalmologist or a surgeon.

Jillian 5:10

When we were when we were doing a quick interview with uh Dr. Fick over here, they were talking about their favorite device. And you brought up like an opthouse.

Speaker 1 5:19

Yeah, the tone of it. Yeah, yeah, I love it. I love mine. I convinced the clinic to get one. It's like my little did you get like the fancy one? Oh, yeah. Oh, okay, yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Jillian 5:29

Look at look at her eyes just letting me up.

Speaker 1 5:31

We're not going halfway on that one. No, okay. So so you did your rotating internship, learned a lot over that year, and then where did you go after that? Um, I locumed for a bit, and then um I went Crowfoot Animal Hospital for a couple years, had a baby, changed plans, um, and then ended up at Glamorgan Animal Clinic.

Jillian 5:51

Okay. Yeah. And there's another baby in there.

Speaker 1 5:54

Yeah. Well, is that yeah, yeah. A couple years later. Yeah. Yeah. Uh yeah. Okay. And um, so what do you think what like so you leave this internship and you've got all of this support here? Was it difficult to then step out on your own, or do you feel like you were really well prepared after that internship? Um, I because you I guess going from that to a locum where it's like more than just a practice, right? It's you go into multiple practices. Yeah, I have to say the practices that I chose to locum at, there was a lot of community there and everyone liked to talk through things. But yes, you were on your own a little bit. And there's things that you don't learn in an internship to a great degree is how often should you deworm a dog? And yeah, you know, flee and tick control that doesn't really come up as often. So there's also that learning curve of just the you know, day-to-day medicine or yeah.

Jillian 6:41

For some of the I mean, what I see a lot now working with students, even once they're like one or one or two years out, um, they want to start locoming right away. What would you recommend that? Like what's your advice doing it that quick out of school?

Speaker 1 6:56

Um, I don't think I would have done it if I hadn't done the internship where I had more confidence and I, you know, I also locumed at the care center for a little while after the internship as well. So I was familiar with everything. I don't I don't think I would have flourished if I did it right off the bat, right after graduating.

Jillian 7:12

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that that would that would have been tough for sure. So and I think it's hard watching students do that right now, like brand new baby vets. I'm like, oh no. Yeah, like I could not have been an advisor and just go and wing it. Like I I was an associate, two different practices, eight years of my career was as an associate, which you know, like you just gotta learn. But you learn from other people.

Speaker 1 7:37

I guess you get a variety, so you get to meet different people and how everybody else practices, but um, you know, as a locum, you're not always gonna have a full practice there. Sometimes you're the only vet on and there's no one else to rely on. So I don't I don't know how I would have felt about that. Yeah, that that would have been tough for sure. Um, how big of a so you did your internship and then you're locuming. How how important was it for you to have support from other staff like the RVTs at the practices that you've been at so far? Um it was it was important. Like I I feel that most places were good. They they send more R VTs at your way when you're when you're locoming because they know that you're gonna you don't know the system, you don't know what's going on. Um again, I was lucky I I mostly welcomed it two to three different places so that everything was consistent, so you got to know everyone quite well. But um Yeah, definitely a lot needed and more support needed for sure. Yeah. What would be your ideal ratio of like RBTs to DVM for you? Um I'd say at least one to one. One to one, that's all? At least, yeah. Well, I mean, otherwise there's yeah, I've worked with less and I've worked, I don't think I don't know if I've worked with much more.

Jillian 8:48

Really? Yeah. Oh she doesn't want to share her tool. That is all hers. Her tool. Whatever the optho gadget. I thought you had the RVT house like her tool. So that's like the optho tool. Gotcha. Yeah, so that's why she's like, it's mine, you can do everything else. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You do all of those. So one of the things, uh, I mean, you have not had a a traditional journey for for a young woman going through vet school. Do you want to want to talk about that a little bit?

Speaker 1 9:26

Yeah, what Jillian is referring to is um I was finishing treatment for breast cancer in my first year of vet school. Um, so I already started out vet school on a different different foot. Um and um yeah, that kind of it got me off to a weird start, but it worked out in the end. Yeah. What was it like getting that diagnosis? It was well shocking. I I was actually living in Guelph at the time. I didn't have any family there, no support there. So I got to go into a doctor's office all by myself and find out. So that was fun. Oh my gosh. Yeah, yeah. I moved home quickly after, but um, yeah, I I think my brain was swimming most of the time. Just like this doesn't happen. I don't understand what's going on. Yeah, yeah. And so how much time did you take off from school? Um, so I I pretty much took off in a semester. So I found out in January um of 2012 officially what was going on, and then I came back to Calgary and I was in vet school in September. Wow. Yeah. But I'd already applied for I'd already started the application process for vet school before I found out, and I just continued on. I sometimes attribute my don't give a fuck uh approach to the interviews. Um, in the sense that I I probably was more reserved. I would have been more reserved otherwise. And this time I was I just said what I thought. Right, right. How old were you? 23. 23. And how did you find out? Like, was it a self-exam? Yeah, I found it. Yeah, yeah. My bra was bothering me and I felt a lump and took me probably a good three to four weeks to get up the courage to have somebody look at it. Cause I also didn't have a physician. Um, and I'm lucky because uh it was a physician at the universities who's usually just seeing, you know, olds, contagious, yeah. Yeah, um I'm she took me seriously. So yeah, because I'm sure a lot of 23-year-olds would you know they would have said, uh, it's probably nothing. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, but she sent me for testing and um she took it seriously. So I'm really thankful for that. And what stage were you at at that point? Um I I think it's automatic I don't even remember anymore. I think it's automatically a stage four. I had it in my lymph nodes as well at that point. Oh, okay. Yeah.

Jillian 11:49

Uh so you started sorry, you finished treatment at the end of first year?

Speaker 1 11:54

Or at the beginning of first year. So I had finished, I'd done surgery and chemo and I started radiation in September. And it was at the Foothills Hospital, so at least I could go to Cuss right after class while you were getting radiation treatment. Yeah, I'd have radiation and then go to class. Wow, that must have been tough. Not recommended, but I was like, I was not, I'm not deferring this, it's happening. I I'm very stubborn, apparently. Yeah. And then how long was it until you went into remission? Um, so they pretty much said I was in remission after after radiation. So okay. Yeah.

Jillian 12:31

And then you so I met you in second year, third year, something like that. And we had to do things a little bit different for you. Yeah. And you graduated. And then what happened?

Speaker 1 12:44

Um, well, a couple years later, I got breast cancer again. Um during COVID. During COVID, yeah. Um, three months after my first baby. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. It was it was a technically a different cancer. Um, it wasn't a recurrence of the sick of the first one. So um, yeah, so did the fun all over again while I was on Matt Leaf. At least it coincided, I guess. You can think of it positively, I suppose.

Jillian 13:12

Yeah.

Speaker 1 13:12

Yeah. And how how uh like how long ago had you graduated? Um four. So I'm trying to think of what year it was. So it would have been 2021 when I got my diagnosis. So five years. Yeah. Okay. So you had you had been out in the industry for five years, you're now on MATLAB, your baby's three months old. And that must have changed things like you must have had to stop breastfeeding. Yeah, I couldn't. I I was having a hard time of it anyway because of you know, previous radiation and things like that. So um it um it didn't change a whole lot for me, but yeah, I pretty much just had to stop. Yeah, that that must have been tough. I mean, uh obviously you must have a great spouse that helped out with the you know babies and this was out. This was your first baby? First baby, yeah. First baby, okay. So you're a new mom. You're out there trying to take care of your patients, yeah, and you get diagnosed again. How did that feel the second time around? The second time around, I was well, I found it, so I already had time to wrap my head around it. Um I was I was just more frustrated than anything. I was just like, why do I have one more thing that I have to do? Um, but I tend to be very task-oriented, so there was the list of things I had to go through and I had to get done, and I just did them.

Jillian 14:37

What were the conversations like with you and James? Even from your first bout of cancer and going through treatment, and then you move past it, and then it comes again.

Speaker 1 14:50

Um, well, the first time around I had just met him. Okay. Yeah, so really, yes, I had known him for a month. That's like the opposite of the statistics, because don't they say that they warn women that they their partners might leave them if they're diagnosed with cancer? Absolutely. And then you have a partner who met you. Uh was it right before or while uh right before. Right before you're diagnosed, and and yeah, he stuck around. Stuck around. Uh we had a mutual friend. I made her tell him at first. Really? Yeah. Because I was like, I just met this guy, I don't know what to say to him. So I got her to tell him. And you know, it was I think we got to know each other better in some ways um because I actually got to spend time with him. I had free time. I was previously, it was either school or work. I just I wasn't good at making time for myself. So, in a way, I probably got to know him better and hang out with him more than I would have otherwise. Yeah, I mean, again, rose colored glasses. I know. This is Heather. That's it, that's a good spin on things for sure. Well, but then vet school happened and then I never saw him. So there was the flip side to that too. There's the flip side, yeah.

Jillian 15:55

But then when the second diagnosis came around when and you had a baby, what were those conversations? Because that's different.

Speaker 1 16:03

Yeah, it was just I don't know. I was just like, this is what we have to do. We don't have a choice, and um he's always he's always supportive. I I tend to take the lead, so he just whatever I needed, he did. Yeah, he did. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Jillian 16:20

And I can remember, so there was a we were at Can West here, oh gosh, five years ago, maybe. And it was you and Jen. Yep. Wheeler, and we decided we were gonna try and drink every drink on the menu.

Speaker 1 16:38

There were some interesting ones on there. I think you made up one too. I think I did.

Jillian 16:42

Yeah, no, Jen did some banana cocoa monkey lunch thing. I don't know. It wasn't very good. It was awful. It was bad. Anyway, Heather, like, I don't know. We've had some so much fun together, and you just you have this different perspective of life because you've gone through such different things that I think most people don't ever expect to go through. Like, I don't think at 23 you're gonna wake up and be like, I have breast cancer.

Speaker 1 17:07

Yeah, but but but you just you have to take what like throws at you. You can't just just have to keep moving. What else are you gonna do? Exactly. I don't know what else to do.

Jillian 17:17

You just have to keep keep going. Do you align that with practice, like while you're in practice? Like what's like a really hard pace? Do you think about uh that you just have to keep going?

Speaker 1 17:28

Yeah, diabetics are probably my least favorite. How about those? Yeah, they're tough to manage. Yeah, sometimes they're great and sometimes they're just driving up the wall. Oh dear. Yeah. What about? I mean, this is you've been through so much. I think you're the best person to ask this question to because people are gonna go through everybody's got their own struggles, basically. So what do you think is something that really helped you persevere through all of these things that you went through? Not one but two cancer diagnoses. I don't know. I think just having goals and having something to look forward to. Because if you focus, I know you should live in the moment, but if you also focus too much on the moment, that that can bring you down. So I don't know. I always I always like thinking about what the next step is because that just keeps me motivated. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, absolutely. And um, so we're well switch gears a little bit. Yeah, I know.

Jillian 18:25

Sorry. I know.

Speaker 1 18:27

Um, so we're at the Canwest Trade Fair. Um, how often are you going to conferences? Do you go quite a bit? Um, well, now with the kids, especially it's harder to go because if you're gone for too long, that's that's an issue. So I probably probably every three to four years at this point. Yeah. And are you doing any big trips? Um, I don't we don't have anything too big planned. Maybe something in the spring. Probably an all-inclusive. I like when somebody else cooks for me. Yeah, I love that too. Okay. And so what are you like, what are your favorite parts about going to conferences and what are your least favorite parts about the conferences? Um, it's nice, it's nice to catch up with people. Um it's a small industry, but sometimes it's amazing how long you can go without seeing people. Like we've caught up with some of my classmates today, and it's been a while. We dispersed really well. Yeah, because it's been nine years for you. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, you'll have your 10-year reunion. Yeah, yeah, exactly. It's wild.

Jillian 19:21

I know it goes by really, really quick. Yeah, yeah. I know. I like I think about where I was 10 years ago. And now, like part of my planning process with the students is to talk about your five-year plan. Like, what are your five-year intentions? Or three-year intentions. Because it's like we've given up on this whole idea of goals. And not even goals, it's just like, where do I want to be? So, like you've got you earned your DVM, now what? Yeah, right. So if we ask you what's your three-year intention, what do you want to accomplish?

Speaker 1 19:54

What do I want to accomplish? I don't know, that's hard because I'm like, whether or not it's gonna be dream or reality, maybe living closer to water.

Jillian 20:02

I have a friend and they said, what's something reasonable, reachable, and ridiculous for a three-year goal? Put me on the spot.

Speaker 1 20:14

I am I know you're good at that.

Jillian 20:16

I well, it's my job. Kind of.

Speaker 1 20:20

I think reasonable, one reasonable thing, I think spending more time with family, because it's easy to just get in the trap of working, go to school, daycare, rinse, repeat, and um trying to trying to get out of that a little bit more. Yeah, yeah. Um, so that'd probably be something fairly reasonable to work on. Reachable? Reachable. Probably taking more vacations. Another spending more time exactly. Good. Again, getting too focused on then getting the day-to-day done.

Speaker 2 20:54

Yeah.

Speaker 1 20:55

Um and then ridiculous. Ridiculous. Oh, just living somewhere tropical. Yeah, win the lottery. Yeah, win the lottery and live somewhere tropical. I like what I do, but I could also sit on a beach all day every day.

Jillian 21:08

You could practice veterinary medicine on an island somewhere. That's true. I mean when you want.

Speaker 1 21:13

Yes, exactly. That is very true. Bring the kids with you, yeah. Yeah, so maybe not so ridiculous. Yeah, that's okay. So diabetic cases are your least favorite to work with. What's your most favorite? My most favorite. What's your most favorite thing to treat? Well, I already kind of know it's gonna be something opposite. Yeah, I like I like eyes. I like no one else likes eyes. I like to debride a good corneal ulcer. It's always good. Oh yeah. Jillian's cringing over there. So bad. It's okay. Most people do. Sometimes the tech's holding them for me and they're looking in the other direction. I love it. I I don't like eyes that much either. I mean, I appreciate the people who do though. Yeah, because it's not my favorite thing.

Jillian 21:55

Would you ever do like uh like try and match and do a residency?

Speaker 1 22:00

I thought about it. It's hard because at this point I I'd have to move the family too, so it'd have to be right.

Jillian 22:05

They're movable.

Speaker 1 22:06

They are. I don't know, but you also have I we also have a lot of support here too. How old are your kids? Three and five. Oh, okay. So they're ha has the five year old started kindergarten? He did this year. Well, for a couple weeks. Right. Yeah. How are you guys handling the strike? Um, for us it's not much different. He's he's in after school care and at the school and they still go. So it for us the routine hasn't been too different. So it's been okay so far. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. That's good. Has it been for you? It's been a little bit more crazy. Um, no, I don't think so. I think I think it's um, yeah, you you fall into a routine, right? So yeah.

Jillian 22:44

It's been awful for me. My children are I don't have children. We all know this. For children, yeah. Yeah. Four legged.

Speaker 1 22:55

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Um, okay, and so uh are you so you've got your does your husband work in the industry at all? No, not at all. Okay, what does he do? Um, he's uh he works in insurance, so like an underwriter. Yeah, underwriter, yeah. Okay, okay. But you guys just met through a mutual friend. Yeah, yeah. So his our best friends were neighbors. Oh yeah.

Jillian 23:18

So fun. James is awesome.

Speaker 1 23:21

Okay, is he here? He has a great time. No, he's not here. Anyway, he's at home with the kids. Yeah. Okay. Are you coming to our bowling rent? I am, yeah. I know. Do you have a costume? No, I didn't know it was happening.

Jillian 23:31

So you don't have to have a costume, but so we have a we do have a question on uh we ask every yes. Okay. What is your win song, your walk-in song, and your funeral song? And I feel bad asking about a funeral song, knowing you've beat cancer twice. That just seems a little friggin' dark.

Speaker 1 23:50

That's not as morbid as you think it is. Yeah, you're talking to the person who can't who could probably sing a song but never name the title of it. Sing it. You just sing it. Oh god, no. I think that's the first thing you could ask me to do. I can't carry a tune to save my life. I can't either. I'm not beautiful. I need to karaoke together all the time. Uh I'm not gonna be able to. No, no, no. The only thing that's coming through my head right now is like frozen songs and everything that I have to kiss.

Jillian 24:19

Actually, though, makes sense.

Speaker 1 24:20

Or like let it go. Yeah, it really does.

Jillian 24:23

Yeah, that totally is Heather's theme song.

Speaker 1 24:25

There you go. There you go. Let it go. Yeah, go. I'll just embrace all the frozen. Well, maybe I'll maybe I'll ask you this instead then. So, what keeps you up at night in in your role currently? And uh, what is something that you're really hopeful for about the future? Um, so probably what keeps me up at night are the those cases that you just can't pin down and um they stick with you and you think about them all night every night, and it's okay to not know, but your subconscious tells you it's not. Yeah. Um, but sometimes you come up with an answer or something different in the middle of the night, so that can be helpful on the same token, right? Dream about the answer. I used to keep sticky notes beside my bed just in case so I could write it down and go back to sleep instead of thinking about it helps. Then you don't try to keep yourself awake for the rest of the night. You're trying to yeah, think about it. Yeah, and what's something you're hopeful about for the future of veterinary medicine? Um, I think just making it more financially practical for a lot of people. Because I think there's a lot of people that would like to go the distance for their pets, and insurance is expensive, veterinary care is expensive, but we also need to run the practices. So I think there's unfortunately there's there's a divide there. So, you know, maybe some universal health care if somebody wants to come up with that endeavor, that would be great. Oh god. Then we could just practice, just practice what's best for our patients. Yeah, you know what? I worked, um, I I did my practicum at the Australia Zoo, um, uh, but sp which was Steve Irwin Zoo, but specifically the the wildlife um section of it. Because it was Steve Irwin Zoo, they had like unlimited funds basically for us to work with with this wildlife that basically as long as it they could be rehabilitated into the wild, and that rehabilitation could take a year even, but as long as that was something that could happen for that animal, we could do whatever we wanted. So it was amazing. That sounds amazing. It was great. It was great. There you go. Maybe that's your uh reachable goal. Yeah, there you go. So move to Australia while the kids are young and not in school anyway. Yeah, there well that would check a lot of the box is maybe that's the way to go. There you go.

Jillian 26:30

Yeah, I I do uh, I mean, you're nine years out now. Do you have advice for the upcoming vet techs, DVM students with all your wisdom? All my wisdom, all your wisdom, because I have so much wisdom. You have life experience that most people will never have.

Speaker 1 26:48

Just you can't beat yourself up too much about it. Just if something goes wrong, try to do better the next day and you know think about think about what you can do to improve things, but still don't you're human, and I think we forget that a lot, especially in veterinary medicine. We try to be everything for everybody all the time and don't forget to be a person and take care of you. Yeah, I'm still not great at that, but I would still recommend it. Do as I say now. Yeah, exactly. Heather, thank you so much for being on the show. It was lovely to catch up with you. Thank you for sharing your story and being vulnerable. I know that you've said that you'd be open to mentorship and giving advice in the future, so we invite anyone uh who's listening or watching to DM us at don't call me catty and we can put you in touch with Heather. Sounds good. And she's the best. Yeah. Thanks.

Jillian 27:40

Thanks so much. Thanks, Heather.

Speaker 2 27:47

There you go.