I finished my Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature at the University of British Columbia in 1992, and promptly became a full time Animal Health Technician. After working part time jobs as a dog groomer and veterinary assistant to put myself through university, I realized by the time I finished my degree that I was rather bored with all that business of picking apart literature instead of just enjoying it, and that working for a veterinarian seemed to be a much more appealing career.

My first job as a full time vet tech quickly opened my eyes to the real SPCA. One of the courier drivers for Central Vet Labs in Langley, a wonderful and kind lady named Jean Gregory, had taken it upon herself to save dogs and cats from the SPCA hospital. I will never forget the moment I revealed to Jean that I had once helped to find a home for a stray cat that was brought into our hospital - her eyes lit up with a twinkle, and at that moment I was added to her list of kind vet hospital staff all over the Lower Mainland who would accept a dog or cat, one at a time, from Jean's never-ending supply at the SPCA hospital.

I can still see Jeannie, charging into the treatment area, her eyes all a-twinkle, whipping open the fridge door in a mad flurry, scooping up all the lab samples, then turning to me with a big grin - "I got another one for ya hon! Do you have room?" Dear Jean - she would bring me dog after dog and cat after cat, one at a time, over a period of five years. All from the SPCA hospital. And every time the story would be the same. There were a few kindhearted staff at the SPCA hospital that Jean referred to as "the girls". Jean would arrive at my vet with a dog or cat, and say "Thanks so much hon, you're the best! The girls just can't bear to see this one go back across the parking lot to the shelter."

Well, I had spoken with some of "the girls" quite a bit, and they knew exactly what went on across the parking lot at the SPCA "shelter". They knew enough to do everything they could to prevent patients they had cared for from going there, even if it meant slipping the animal and its entire file out the back door to the wildly animated lab courier driver in her hot pink toque for a mad ride in her convertable Volkswagon Super Beetle over the bridge to the North Shore to meet me. Of course she always took them through the drive-thru first. And she would arrive at my work all out of breath, with a dog in one hand, and french fries for me in the other, and announce "He's a great dog, gonna be a wonderful companion for someone - I think he's a bit scared of the car though!"

Dear Jean, I wish she were here today. She knew the truth about the SPCA fifteen years ago, and, sad to say, not much has changed. Jeannie was also one of those rare people with the ability to use articulate and appropriate profanity. Her profanity was almost always directed right at the BC SPCA. And coming from a lady in a hot pink toque who was old enough to be my grandmother, it always made me shriek with laughter. I can only imagine what she is saying up there about this law suit!