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Our Team
Receptionist/Veterinary Assistant
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Laura Dawson, Receptionist/VA
Laura is a former groomer who ran her own business in Markham. She has been a client of Town and Country for several years. When a vacancy at our clinic presented itself, she decided to apply. We are very pleased she did, as she is a wonderful addition to our team. Her warm and caring personality are sure to enhance your visit. She is happily married to Steve and has two boys. Laura is an animal lover like all of our staff. She has two great Danes, a cat and an adorable bulldog named Putty. |
Receptionist/Veterinary Assistant
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Keira Kyriakopoulus, Receptionist/VA
Some of our clients might recognize Keira as she used to own the local Mt. Albert pet store. Her friendly personality and extensive involvement over the years with animals are what endeared us to add her to our “We Care Team”. Apart from working with animals she has been involved with many pet contests for her community fairs and festivals. She married her high school sweetheart Nick, and has two lovely girls, Sara and Nicole. She is the proud owner of two “crazy” dogs, Copper, a beautiful golden retriever and Lacy, a cockapoo as well as Shadow and Smokey her two cats. |
Registered Veterinary Technician
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Heidi Snutch - RVT
Heidi is the latest addition to our team. In 2003, she graduated from Guelph/Boreal College as a veterinary technician. She comes to us with previous experience as both a technican and hospital manager. We implemented some of her valuable suggestions on how to further improve our client service. Heidi's caring disposition towards animals lead to her adoption of her 3 pets, "Mats" a yellow labrador, "Tigger" her diabetic domestic long haired cat and " Ginger" her youngest feline. When not working, she is busy playing competitive hockey and sky diving. Perhaps she will convince the rest of the staff to jump out of a plane on one of our staff get togethers.
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Registered Veterinary Technician
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Lindsay Paine - RVT
Lindsay is a graduate of the Georgian College RVT program. Lindsay came to us with 4 years of experience from the Veterinary Emergency Clinic where she worked full time since graduating in 2005. Like all our staff, she shares a love of all creatures great and small. She has two minature daschunds Sophie and Spencer as well as a rescued VEC cat named Sandi. When not working at either VEC or T &C she can be found playing baseball, soccer or just spending time in the great outdoors. Lindsay experience combined with her great personality makes her a perfect addition to our growing team.
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Veterinary Assistant/Future Veterinarian
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Brendon Laing - Bachelor of Science (Honours)
Brendon is our spring/summertime student employee. In 2009, he graduated from Queen's University with a Bachelor of Science (Honours) Life Science degree. Although young, he has years of experience handling and treating animals as his dad is Dr. Brian Laing. Thoughout his youth, Brendon often assisted with after hours emergencies and treatments of the special needs patients his dad brought home. His very proud parents, siblings and clinic staff are thrilled that he has been accepted into OVC's Doctor of Veterinary Medicine program and look forward to the new "Dr. Laing" in 2013.
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Manager
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Christine Laing - Manager/Jack of all trades
Despite some clients thinking Christine is new, she has been behind the scene for the past 23 years as Brian's better half. She is responsible for all the indoor/outdoor renovations and decorating as well as the management of the clinic. In her "free time", apart from skiing and scuba diving, she does every imaginable crafty hobby and loves doing construction work side by side with Brian. She can be seen more often at the clinic now that two of the "Laing" kids are off studying at Queen's and Guelph University.
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Account Receivable/Payable
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Gisela Weidelich - Account Receivable/Payable 
Gisela helps keep Peter and our books in working order. Apart from a love of cooking and baking, particularly during the Holiday Season, Gisela enjoys singing for the Springvale Baptist Church Choir. Peter and her can sometimes be spotted in town riding on their tandem bike. Since 3 of their 4 kids are off studying at University, Gisela has more time to devote to the clinic.
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Kennel Assistant
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Barbara Hamilton - Kennel Assistant 
Barbara started out at our clinic aproximately 3 years ago as a volunteer. We were so impressed with her hard work and dedication that we decided to hire her. She looks after the needs of our in house patients and helps keep our clinic clean. She is hoping to pursue a career in veterinary medicine. Barbara is the proud owner of a very spunky jack russell terrier named "Bandit" and a Saint Bernard named "Baxter".
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Ambassador
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Joan Neill - Ambassador
Joan is our biggest client with over 150 rescued pets over the years. She can often be spotted conversing and advising our clients in the reception area and her infectious laugh can be heard throughout the clinic. While still helping tutor children since retiring from her teaching career, she now devotes even more of her endless energy and compassion towards her " extended four legged family ".
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Mascot
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Harry
Harry is, is a domestic short hair cat of dubious parentage. He was found by a client with a femur broken in two places. His gorgeous eyes and friendly personality won us over. We pinned his shattered leg and he healed beautifully. He now walks without a limp. Harry's job is to greet clients and help take their pets minds off their worries.
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Weight loss Mascot
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Friskie a.k.a. Jared - deceased
Friskie a.k.a. Jared used to be owned by Sonja,a former employee. He lived on a farm with a number of other cats where the food bowl was always full. In two years Friskie went from a normal cat to an obese 25 pound fur ball. When Sonja moved to Picton she came to us and asked if we would take Friskie because if she stayed with her "he would eat himself to death". Our first reaction was to say no. How could we look a client in the eye and tell them their pet needed to lose weight when we had the "Mother of fat cats" sitting in our waiting room. It then occurred to us that Friskie could be our challenge, and when he lost weight he would be an inspiration to clients fighting their own battle with the bulge of their pets; much like Subways' Jared. We adopted Friskie in June and he taught us a lot about the difficulties one faced when trying to help an obese pet loose weight. Friskie eats a diet of Waltham's Calorie Control which comes in pouches with gravy. It has been a long, hard battle but in the six months that we have had Friskie he has melted down to 16.5 pounds. Our goal for Friskie is 14 pounds, so he is almost there. Friskie has changed dramatically in activity. He went from basically being a blob who hung out by his food dish, to wondering around the clinic and interacting with clients. Unfortunaltely he passed away on in 2009
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Clinic Pet
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Howard
Howard was our clinic cat and had been with us for 12 years. His main job was that of a readily available disease free blood donor. With the advent of Blood banks for animals, Howard’s job had been eliminated. Then he simply became our mascot. Sadly, he became lost when a window was left open.
Hopefully he has adopted a new home.
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Registered Veterinary Technician
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Wendy Cartwright, RVT - retired
Wendy had been with our team since 1986. Besides years of experience Wendy brought a deep caring and nurturing to our hospital, which benefited all our patients. We were sad to see her leave in the summer of 2007.
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