As the original Firehouse Austin location turns seven this week, Dr. John Faught reflects on the changes and growth over the last seven years.
We love our clients and our patients
One thing I’m most blown away by is the amazing growth this hospital has sustained. When we opened our doors in April 2012, it was just me and a team of 4 vet techs/customer service reps running the show. Now we have 4 doctors and 20 people on site. And while I have amazing memories from those early days, my favorite ones are more recent. We have had such great doctors
Firehouse connects people
The brand has evolved as well. These days, most people know we’re not a sub shop! And people recognize our dog tags all over the country. One client told us about a vacation where her dog was running on a beach in California. A passerby (also a Firehouse client) recognized the Firehouse tags and they struck up a conversation about us. We love the thought of Firehouse bringing people together.
We take our work seriously, but we don’t take ourselves too seriously
A growing team has increased our fun times together.
-Below is a video we put together to remind the team of the words we’d prefer to use when describing Firehouse.
-And here’s the time when the team met their challenge and I made good on my promise to don a mariachi outfit and serve margaritas. Thankfully, no one requested a song!
Community partnerships
Just this week I spoke about the human-animal bond to a group of retired teachers. It helped me reflect on all the community partnerships we’ve developed in seven years. We love visiting local schools for science fairs (we once took a miniature horse with us!), all the teddy bear surgeries we’ve performed, the Westlake July 4th parades we’ve joined, and the local shelters we’ve supported with free medical healthcare so that all pets can have access to healthcare .
Thanks for being part of our journey! And thank you for becoming part of the Firehouse family!
Check out this video of Kelly showing us how to make a clay paw in 2013! Kelly was an original team member who started out as one of two technicians at Westlake. She then went back to school for her nursing degree and opened our Kyle location as Hospital Manager. Now, she is our Director of Operations – Kelly certainly has grown with Firehouse, and we’re so thankful to have her!