Reflections

When he was a boy in Florida, Perry Crenshaw herded half-wild Brahman cattle with his twin sister and their pack of dogs. He graduated from the Oklahoma State University School of Veterinary Medicine. Now, working out of an emergency clinic in Sherman Oaks, he makes house calls to treat small animals.

I’m from the South. If you’ve ever visited the South, you know we’re friendly down there. I mean you can break down on the side of the road, someone will stop and help you and they’ll invite you home. They’ll feed you dinner and they’ll have you stay the night, maybe have you stay a week.

When I got ready to graduate from veterinarian school, I didn’t want to stay in Oklahoma, so I came out here. Back in the Midwest we’re fascinated by what goes on in Southern California.

If you ever had to work in an office, you get so tired of all those people, just one after another, coming in. I like getting out and driving. I go all the way to Camarillo and Malibu on the west, north to Newhall and Valencia, south to Long Beach and east to the other side of Pasadena. But a lot of my clients live in the central Valley.

There are nice areas in any of the little cities that make up the Valley. You’ll go into areas that were established in the 1940s, and you can see the Yuppies are moving in. All the houses and being remodeled and they’re going upscale. I like making house calls. When you go into an animal’s environment, they feel safe. The client sees the reduced trauma and stress it puts on the animal as well as themselves, and they are really glad to have me come out.

Most animals like me. They’re probably fascinated by my accent. And I’m not very tall. I guess it probably makes me less threatening than if I were 6-5 or 6-2 and weighed 250 pounds. I usually squat down and call the animal over to me. I get on their level. I don’t push it because I’m not in an office.

One client said, “My cat, he’s terrible, he’s horrible, he just bites and scratches at everyone. He only likes two people, me and my husband, and my husband’s dead.” The cat walks over to me and starts rubbing against my chest and the woman said, “Oh my, I don’t understand it, unless it’s the fact that you do kind of look like my dead husband.” The cat and I got along great.

You can generally figure that obese clients will have obese pets and not think they are overweight. One of my clients brought this cat into me and it was like a big football. I said, “Your cat is overweight.” She said, “Oh no, oh no it’s not.”

You try to get across to them that, by having this overweight pet, they’re shortening its life. I never tell the owner that they’re overweight and they’re shortening their life. But they’ll say it themselves, they’ll say, “Well, she looks just like me.”

Another client has a very classical looking Doberman, beautiful lines. It’s just like a little princess and the owner’s just a little princess herself.

When people look for a pet, they like certain things in that animal that they also probably like about themselves.

Animals are there to give affection when you want it. You come in and you’re in a foul mood, all they want to do is come over and give you kisses. They don’t judge you, you can look terrible or smell bad, they don’t care. All they want to do is just be there and provide companionship.

A lady came into the emergency clinic one night about two weeks ago with her little poodle that had been hit by a car. It was the sweetest little dog. It was in intense pain, but I didn’t have to worry about her biting me, all she wanted to do was please.

When I said we’re going to have to put her to sleep, the woman cried with such emotion it was like she was losing a child. Tears were in my eyes, I was trying not to cry with her, but you know you feel for her. I get emotionally involved with my clients and their pets. You have to. You know people appreciate that.