Zibby is joined by New York City’s premier “house call veterinarian,” Dr. Amy Attas, who takes us into the exclusive penthouses and hotel rooms of the wealthiest Manhattan pet owners in her heartfelt and hilarious new book, PETS AND THE CITY. Dr. Attas describes her 30-year career and shares anecdotes from her most memorable home visits, including when a dog swallowed his owner’s blue pills… She expresses her love and dedication to her work and even shares some practical advice for pet owners.

Transcript:

Zibby: Welcome, Dr. Amy. Thank you so much for coming on Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books to discuss Pets and the City, True Tales of a Manhattan Housecall Veterinarian.

So juicy. Very exciting. Thank you. 

Dr. Attas: Very exciting for me. I'm very happy to be here. 

Zibby: So tell listeners, when did you decide to write this book? Has it been in the back of your head for a long time? And then talk about, which I know you do in the book, you know, how you got into being a veterinarian and how you ended up in this house call business.

Dr. Attas: So yes, there's been a book in my head for a really long time. In fact, some days I would wake up and think I'd already written a book and realize, no, no, it's only written in my head. And the genesis of it was that I would come home from work every day and say to my husband, you will never believe what happened today.

And when it kept going on and on for months, he said, you better go in the other room and start writing things down, because as much as you think you're going to remember things, You don't, and it got to the point where I could just write two or three sentences down, and then I would remember the entire scenario.

So I had been a vet for five years prior to starting my house call practice, but things were not the same in a brick and mortar hospital, you know, people would come in, I would see their pet, they would go home, I would know nothing about their lives, their families, their homes, you know, all the little things that make us who we are, we don't show them when we go to a doctor's office. So everything became an interesting story. Driving around in a car, driving through Manhattan, dealing with traffic jams and emergencies out on the street. The doormen of the buildings I go to, the entire experience of getting up to the apartment, and then of course being in the apartment.

And sometimes I feel like I'm invisible. You know, even though the people have called my office and scheduled an appointment and told me I've told them when I'm going to be there when I show up, it's like they forgot that I was coming. And I say that because the things I see when I arrive at the apartment, you would think people might want to hide that.

So I'm a little bit invisible. And as a result, I've been a voyeur of. Good things, embarrassing things, sometimes bad things, but all in all, it's been a very interesting experience. Now, add to that, that the animals are completely different in their own homes, and it just, you get to experience, the unique bond that occurs between people and their animals when they're in their natural environment.

So I've witnessed all of that and realized I really had some great stories to tell. My life was greatly influenced by the writings of James Harriot, the fictionalized memoirs of a veterinarian in the north of England in the 19 40s, 50s, et cetera. I read all of the books. I watched the BBC television series, and I was literally 14 years old when I said, that's it I have to get my first real job as a veterinarian. I distinguish real job from not real job because prior to that, I played veterinarian by injecting my stuffed animals with syringes filled with tap water. I would go to bed at night with very soggy stuffed animals. And I was like, okay, But really, at the age of 14, I was already in high school, I had skipped a grade, I was really in a race to become a veterinarian, and I went out to get my first job with a veterinarian.

Obviously, everybody said no. I mean, who wants a 14 year old kid hanging around the veterinary hospital? But one man said, why don't you come by for one day and observe? And I did, and I observed a little bit of an examination and a blood test on a cat, and promptly fainted when he handed me the blood tubes.

And then I just kept going back, even though I wasn't invited. And then as I helped a little bit and a little bit more, they kind of depended on my help and wound up working there all through high school, all through college. He was a mentor to me. He's still a very dear friend. So that was my first job in veterinary medicine.

Later on, I was an intern at the Animal Medical Center. For those of your listeners who don't know about this, it's, it's like a human hospital for animals. It's an eight story building. They have all kinds of specialties and emergency services, and they have an internship and residency program just like a human hospital would have.

So I did a competitive internship there and then started my first job in Manhattan. At a very high end park avenue hospital. I really learned a lot there, uh, both about veterinary medicine and about how the world works. I met some very, very interesting New Yorkers. And in that process, I was led to believe by my boss that he was going to make me a partner or even sell me the practice.

And then one day he said, you're fired. Take all of your belongings with you. I had built a very strong following in the hospital. And I believe that he had a fear like previous veterinarians work there, that I would leave and take all of those people with me. So therefore he thought just doing this on a day that he was planning on celebrating my anniversary, I would have no idea it was going to happen.

I didn't have any idea.

Zibby: It was quite, quite sick. 

Dr. Attas: And it's a story that I've heard over and over again from women professionals. So I don't think this is a unique story. The unique story is what I did about it afterwards. But in any event, it turns out that many of my clients followed me. I just didn't have any place to go.

So I was fired on a Wednesday afternoon. And on Thursday morning, because I had no hospital, I made two house calls. And then I made four house calls the next day. And then I thought, Hmm. I wonder if this is a potential new practice and 32 years later, I'm going to venture a guess that it's been successful because, uh, we, we are now a two and a half veterinary practice and keep it at that size because I think house calls lend themselves to being with a bit more personal. And people often say, are you a concierge veterinarian? I am not. I, I am just a veterinarian who gives every single person who's part of our practice as much time as they need, and same for their pets. Concierge implies only wealthy people and even though I do treat a lot of wealthy people's pets, everybody's welcome in our practice and our clients, clients are the humans, patients are pets, our clients run the gamut.

So that was the origin of how I started the practice. No business plan, no thoughts about how I was going to do it. I was trialed by fire and, uh, it's turned out to be a way of practicing veterinary medicine that even exceeds what I thought it would be. I love what I do and I'm happy to go to work every single day.

Zibby: How amazing is that? I mean, if everyone had that sort of clear vision of what they love early and that they could attain it and do it and pivot. You know, it's all, that's really great. Very good. 

Dr. Attas: I speak to a lot of young people who want to become veterinarians. It is an extremely competitive profession to enter.

Uh, students have to have extraordinary grades, test scores, experience. I mean, I, I think about it and realize I probably wouldn't get into veterinary school now if I had to compete about against the quality of the students that are applying. It is extremely difficult. But when I talked to them, many of them expressed the same thing that I felt.

It's not a choice. It's a calling and you have to just devote all of your energy into getting into veterinary school. So as I said, I, I still love it. 

Zibby: And what is your own pet situation right now? 

Dr. Attas: I have a very sad pet situation. I love pug dogs. I've always had them and they've always been rescues. And what I've done for my entire life is as one pet is starting to get older, I'll put the word out that I'm, I'm looking for A younger rescue pug.

I usually take ones that nobody else wants. Sometimes they have deficits. I've had two blind dogs. I've had, you know, ones that have some serious medical problems. Um, my last one had been abused and it took us some time to help her get out of her shell, but my current situation. Was that, um, I had two dogs.

One passed away at an age appropriate time. He also had a cancerous tumor and my Cleopatra, my black pug who had been a rescue was really mourning him and having a very difficult time. So The Pug Club Of New York put me in touch with a Club in Chicago. They had a dog that had recently come back to them who had been abused.

And I flew out to Chicago to bring her home with me. So now I had, you know, a 12 year old dog and a three year old dog. And that was wonderful when my 12 year old dog turned 16, she started having a lot of medical issues and she passed away of what we would consider, you know, at an age appropriate time, but here's the sad part.

My nine year old rescue got sick and she passed away three months to the day from when her older sister did. We're just having a really tough time. I thought I planned everything perfectly but for the first time in my life there isn't a dog in my home.

Zibby: I'm sorry. 

Dr. Attas: And me too. So, you know, I hear this over and over again, I write about it in the book.

People say never again because their hearts are so broken and I'm not saying never again. I know that one day they'll call me and say, Amy, we have a pug. It has a problem. Can you help us? And I'm going to fix it and I'm going to keep it and it will happen naturally. And I will rescue that pug and that pug will rescue me too.

Zibby: Aww. 

Dr. Attas: That'll be my story. 

Zibby: Oh my gosh. 

Dr. Attas: I'm sad. 

Zibby: I'm sorry. I'm sorry. You have so much love to give. I can just feel it oozing out of you. Oh, soon. 

Dr. Attas: Yes. Whenever, whenever the right time. 

Zibby: Lovely. What I was struck by in the book is how much you learn about people, not just pets, right? That is one thing as you're going to people's homes and human nature and all of that, having been to so many.

Having, having this crazy bird's eye view, not bird's eye, like up close and personal view of so many people in their native habitats, so to speak. What are some things you've taken out of that? 

Dr. Attas: So first of all, it was. That ability to see people in their own homes that I really felt was the genesis of writing the book.

A lot of books written by veterinarians are stories about animals. And then I gave this vaccine, I gave this shot, I operated, you know. And I think those are really interesting and I know people like them. But I felt that I had, you know, this unique insight into human nature. So, you know, the, the saying that you don't really know a person until you live with them, I feel like you don't really know a person until you're, you're, you're within their, in their homes and, and experiencing them sort of when their guard is down a little bit.

So my first reactions and meeting a person sometimes have proven to be completely different after I get to know them in their own environment. So crazy things like, you know, I'll go to someone's home. We often work in the kitchen. And I'm struck by the fact that, you know, the dishes are just piled in the sink and the garbage hasn't been taken out for weeks and it's like, Oh, you would never expect that from this person. Just a little details of things that you see around that make you realize that the evening's activities might've been very exciting the night before. I. I went into one client's home during COVID.

This was one of the sweetest things ever. Now, remember during COVID we're wearing full PPE. Our clients weren't even allowed to be home. They, we would speak to them over the phone beforehand, and then we would work with the animals and then we would speak with them afterwards. And I opened the door to the apartment and I was completely shocked for a second because they were like, 30 people standing in the living room.

And then as we walked in, we realized those weren't people. They were cardboard cutouts of all of the husband's friends. He had had a milestone birthday, and they couldn't have a birthday party. So they made believe they had a birthday party by having all of these life size pictures of their friends and the husband and wife just had some champagne and celebrated a birthday.

I mean, that was just a unique thing that we got to experience because we were in that home right at that moment. 

Zibby: It's crazy that we all lived through that, like the things that we did and the zoom birthdays and the, you know, some days I'm like, did that even happen? 

Dr. Attas: That was so like a bad dream, right?

Yeah. I started out trying to do zoom veterinary medicine and you just can't do zoom veterinary medicine. You know, the animals don't hold still. And there's so much I learned by touching and just can't touch a computer screen. So as soon as we figured out how to do it safely, we went back to doing house calls and we wore spacesuits for each patient and then discarded them because no one on my team wanted to catch COVID, of course, and I didn't want anyone to say after you came to our house, we got COVID, so we did it as safely as possible, but thank God those days are behind us.

Zibby: What do you do if you, if and when you see someone not treating their pet the way you would want them to treat their pet? 

Dr. Attas: Fortunately, it doesn't happen often that I see someone mistreating a pet in a malicious manner. You know, sometimes there are people who are not competent enough to treat their pets as well as I would like, and then we do our best to help them.

So I, I have elderly people who have elderly pets and I love that combination. I think it's very helpful for both of them, but sometimes it gets to the point where their pets need medical care and they just can't do it. And so we help them out. Um, I'm not saying I advertise for people who can't, you know, take care of their pets, but if I have been with you and been your veterinarian for years, and it's at the point now where you and your pet need our help, we go that extra mile to help them out.

So I have. The most wonderful team of veterinary nurses who will, you know, help out in the evenings giving fluid injections, B vitamin injections, whatever the people need, because we feel really strongly about both the people in the pets and want them to have the best medical care possible. I have, I can tell you stories about.

My nurse is going on the weekends to seniors homes to help them with their pets and calling me up and saying, you know, I don't like the way the client looks and in this particular case was a woman in her 90s. And as we started talking to him, my nurse was there. I was on the phone. We found out that she hadn't eaten that day.

So my nurse went into her refrigerator, which was empty. And she wound up going to the supermarket and buying eggs and orange juice and cooking her breakfast to reach out to her family. Now that's that's not in the role of what a veterinarian does, but it's in the role of what a person who cares about people does, and we're in their home because of their pet and ultimately caring for them too.

We have, and I have intervened in so many cases. I write about it in the book, about a client who is so distraught over the death of her cat, and this was a cat that I euthanized, but it was something that really needed to happen and should have happened weeks before, but she was a single woman with a lot of emotional issues and she just couldn't bring herself to do it.

And ultimately, when the cat was suffering and literally couldn't breathe, and we explained to her that it was cruel and I had no choice. I had to recommend that she do it right then. She went into a tailspin of, you know, emotions at that point. And I went through her medicine cabinet until I found what looked like pills that would be used by someone who were, had, was having emotional problems.

Called the doctor whose name was on the label. It was her psychiatrist. I explained what was going on. He got on the phone with her, was able to calm her down. And we stayed there until he felt it was safe for us to leave. So again, way more personal in her home. That she felt comfortable to have that reaction and we cared about her enough to see her through the crisis until her own medical professional could help her.

Zibby: Wow. So you are basically just a saint is the takeaway from this. Is your practice just blowing up since this book? I mean, this is crazy. It's coming out, right? So even the pre pub stuff, 

Dr. Attas: it is definitely blowing up. I think really was a factor for us when people realized, Oh my God, one more thing in New York city, I can get delivered the veterinarian.

So that was definitely something that opened people's eyes, that house calls are a really good thing for pets. I tell people when I come to their home for the first time, especially when I'm going to be taking care of a cat, Your cat is going to hate me because I do all the things that cats hate, but your cats can hate me a lot less than the vet in the hospital because they don't have to get in a carry bag.

They don't have to go in a taxi. They don't have to sit in a waiting room with barking dogs. Right? So for the most part, what I do is unpleasant. You know, I shine bright lights in them and I poke them and prod them and I trim their nails all things that they hate, but all the other ancillary things are much, much less.

And for the dogs, dogs are easy. You can buy them off with delicious treats when you're done and they're happy to see you afterwards. 

Zibby: Is there anything that you know, as a vet and having, these decades of experience that most people don't know about or should know about in terms of taking care of their animals or, I don't know, making sure they're healthy and, you know, Wonderful.

And all of that. 

Dr. Attas: Thank you for that question, because that is one of the things I've learned after decades of doing house calls. And that is how many hidden dangers we have in our homes that we might not be aware of. So, for example, beautiful days in the spring, people like, Oh, thank God I can open the windows.

Do not open your windows unless your windows are protected. An open window is an invitation for a pet to come over and start sniffing. You know, they can smell everything that's going on outside. Cats love to sit on windowsills, take a nap on a windowsill. And if that window is open wide enough and there's no protection, there's a danger that as part of that nap, as they're rolling over, they can fall out the window.

Or, in fact, see a bird that looks so close and I can just reach out and grab it, and of course they can't. So do not open your windows. If you must open windows, put screens in that are very tightly sealed in, in the window frame. So pets cannot see. fallout windows. And the same is true for terraces. You know, I do go to homes and I see terrace doors open and I explain to people how dangerous they are.

And then they'll tell me, Oh, don't worry, my dog can't reach the parapet wall. Well, they might not be able to jump onto the parapet wall, but they have furniture right next to the wall. So they jump up on the chair or table, and then they're just right at the parapet wall. They are dangerous. And I can't tell you how many times.

I have given that warning and people haven't listened, and then there are disastrous outcomes. There are certain plants that are poisonous, especially flowers like lilies. They are so dangerous for cats. Any bite of flowers. The leaf, the pedal, the stem, even drinking the water that the lily flower is sitting in is toxic.

So just, you know, be aware that things around our homes are dangerous. In the old days, when people had hanging telephones, the cord that hangs down is a potential choke hazard. So I was always, you know, picking up those cords and I do the same thing for curtain cords. Just think like a dog or a cat about anything in your home that could be a potential.

I mean, it's the same for kids. Right. We want to protect them from any potential danger. What's your puppy's name? 

Zibby: Her name is Naya and she's actually almost 10, but she seems like a puppy. Yeah. 

Dr. Attas: They're all puppies, but you do need to get a lighter colored couch so we can all see how pretty she is. She blends in on the black couch.

Zibby: That's true. Well, I wouldn't want all the attention to her if the couch were lighter because then people stare at her the whole time and get completely distracted and not talk about their books because she. 

Dr. Attas: And then you would see all the dog fur on your couch. 

Zibby: That too. Yeah, that too. Okay. What's one funny story to leave listeners with that I know you saw Joan Rivers and that was like one way you got started and you've had, you have so many anecdotes in here.

What's one choice story? 

Dr. Attas: So I had a very lovely Elderly Park Avenue couple as clients for many, many years. He always wore a three piece pinstripe suit. She was always in Chanel. Her hair was perfect. Pearl earrings. They were just the ultimate Park Avenue senior couple. And she called me one night completely hysterical that she'd walked into the bedroom and she found their nine month old puppy standing on her husband's night table and he was chewing and he had been chewing through all of the bottles of her husband's medication. So she, she was like, Oh my God, is this dangerous? And I, I couldn't tell her if it was dangerous until I knew what the pills were. So he had chewed through much of the labels and we had to get her husband on the phone. So we eventually do get him on the phone.

And as she's going through the bottles, he said, Oh, that pill is the one I take for my arthritis. Um, That pill is the one I take for my heart condition. Oh, that pill. And then he gets a little embarrassed. And he said, you know, sweetheart, that's our special nighttime pill. So of course, the last pill was his Viagra.

And we had to calculate how many pills the dog ate. And we had to do that by figuring out what day the prescription was filled and then how many pills were left. And I'm listening to this couple describe how many nights he took Viagra that past month. And I was incredibly impressed. But he had eaten quite a few Viagra and animal poison control gave us the list of things we needed to do.

And the poor puppy spent the night in the hospital. We were monitoring his blood pressure and keeping him on fluids to flush out all of the chemicals that were in his system. When the husband picked him up the next day, he kind of joked with all of us and saying, poor boy, he was neutered just two months ago.

It was a shame all that Viagra was a waste on him. So see, you never know the truth about people. 

Zibby: Wow. 

Dr. Attas: God bless. 

Zibby: My goodness. Behind closed doors. I once actually, when I was pregnant with I think my third child, anyway, I have four kids, but I think I was pregnant with my daughter. 

Dr. Attas: You have five. 

Zibby: You have five?

Dr. Attas: No, you have five. 

Zibby: I have five. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I have five. Yeah. With Naya. And I used to have a bulldog named Mabel, and she used to take a lot of medicine because she just had so many issues, and it was just constant, you know, wrapping up pills and American cheese, like, for her, and that's, like, what we did all the time.

Anyway, I was talking to somebody, kind of distracted, as I often am, like, in the kitchen as I was getting her medicine ready and I accidentally took it myself after I was like oh my gosh I just took my dog's medicine I just took her medicine and I start my husband and now my ex husband was like freaking out we were all it's like call the OB right away like what's gonna happen I was like I don't know so I remember calling My OB is so funny and wonderful and I called her and she was like, we looked it up what it was and it was totally fine.

Dr. Attas: But you wouldn't, maybe you won't get heartworm disease. 

Zibby: Yeah, exactly. Anyway, she told me to call her if I started barking. 

Dr. Attas: Exactly. The thing that's so funny about this particular dog, he wouldn't take his own medicine. And we, we see this all the time. People will call me and say they dropped their own pill on the floor and their dog ran and ate it.

But yet when it's time to give them their monthly pills, they won't take their pills. So I, I suggest, you know, just take your dog's medicine and go, oops, and drop it on the floor and watch them run and take their own pills. 

Zibby: Yeah, that's funny. 

Good idea. Well, Dr. Amy, thank you so much. Congratulations. And you know, thanks for all you do for our little friends.

It's really wonderful. 

Dr. Attas: I'm having a good time doing it. So. 

Zibby: All right. Amazing. Thank you. 

Dr. Attas: Okay. Bye bye.