Animal hospital goes to the new dog and cat house

Reveling in five years of business in Niwot, Left Hand Animal Hospital will have an even bigger reason to celebrate this month. LHAH owners will be able to officially call Niwot home when they move into their very own building at 304 Franklin Street.

“For us, the move is a great thing, because it means we get to be permanent residents of Niwot,” co-owner Dr. Nancy Bureau said.” And we get to move just around the corner from where we are.”

The practice will take about a week to pack and move the offices from 2nd Avenue and will reopen in the new digs on Monday, April 22.

Back when Bureau and her business partner, Dr. Katie Thomas, were looking for a place to open their practice, they felt certain Niwot was “everything they would want” with a strong sense of community and the small town charm they were looking for.

Bureau said, “The longer we were here, the more we’ve loved it.” Which is why allowing their roots to go deeper led to buying and renovating a new location, which for 34 years had been the Neighborhood Learning Center.

Remodeling and expanding the building entailed relocating and adding walls, upgrading the plumbing and heating systems, improving the energy efficiency, painting inside and out and landscaping. What was a residence on the second floor has been transformed into an office and a meeting room.

With a nod to the nostalgia many feel for their time spent at NLC, Bureau said the window where kids stood to wave goodbye to their parents remains in the same place and the well-loved Big Bird mural is still there too, just behind another wall, so he can be uncovered later.

Bureau said LHAS has adopted the initiative of being a Fear Free practice, which makes veterinary visits calmer and non-anxiety provoking experiences for pets.

“Literally the whole building has been re-designed to accommodate that,” Bureau said. There are separate dog and cat waiting rooms and examination rooms and, if it works better for a dog, they can enter the building without going through the lobby. Not smelling other pets, eliminating scary noises, and avoiding interaction with other pets makes visits more pleasurable for everyone.

The roomier facility will also accommodate more patients needing acupuncture and physical therapy, Bureau said. They will continue to offer surgery and dental services, as well as full body and dental x-rays.

New outside amenities include a dog yard, more easily accessed parking spots, no curbs, and dog and cat-friendly outdoor plantings giving pet parents some ideas for their own landscaping.

The practice has served more than 2000 clients, some traveling a significant distance to be cared for at LHAH.

LHAH has a very steady, long-term crew of employees who will be making the move to the new hospital facility a bit easier.

“We have an amazing team of caring people who work with us. A lot of our team has been with us for years and years and years,” Bureau said. “Truly, they’re what makes Left Hand Animal Hospital special. We encourage each of them to bond and they do bond with individual pets. So pet parents know they can ask for particular people when they visit. “

Bureau has 20 years of veterinary experience; Thomas has been a veterinarian for 12 years. The clinic’s other veterinarians are Dr. Kayla Carlisle, Dr. Jess Johnson and Dr. Crystal Connor. All combined, Bureau estimated that the practitioners have more than 55 years of experience caring for animals.

Because the doctors consult with each other, they are able to draw on many areas of expertise. Bureau’s focus is on integrative management and acupuncture, Thomas’ specialty is surgery, Connor handles emergency medicine for the practice, Johnson offers mixed modality medicine, and Carlisle is an internal medicine specialist.

LHAH employees are known to show their community support by volunteering at various events. Some are greeters at Rock and Rails, and each year LHAH hosts the Halloween pet costume contest.

A tour of the new facilities and an open house will be planned after the move. When the date is set, the community will get word of it through emails and on their Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/lefthandanimalhospital.

“We’re super happy to be part of Niwot, and super happy to stay in the neighborhood,” Bureau said. “It really is important to us to be part of the community.”