Sacramento Magazine Excerpt from Rex in the City by Gina Spadafori March, 2006

This may be the Year of the Dog by the Chinese calendar, but in Sacramento, dog lovers will tell you that every dog has his day, every day. For those who love sharing their lives with their dogs, few places can compete. Within the Sacramento metropolitan area are countless dog-friendly business and recreational facilities, from specialized boutiques and bakeries to luxury boarding facilities, dog day-care centers and dog parks. When it comes to listing dog-friendly amenities in the Sacramento area, though, veterinary medicine would have to be at the top. Perhaps no area in the country offers a greater breadth and depth when it comes to pet medicine, with everything available here from the latest in high-tech care to the most ancient of healing traditions. But then, Sacramento has always had the best in its own backyard when it comes to pet health care, thanks to the University of California, Davis. The university's School of Veterinary Medicine attracts top veterinarians and promising veterinary students who tend to stick around even when no longer affiliated with the university. "It's the university that drives veterinary medicine in this area," says Dr. Signe Beebe of Integrative Veterinary Center in East Sacramento. "People have the ability to exercise all available medical options for their pets here. That's what anyone could wish for themselves." Dr. Alton Raymond of the Animal Wellness Center in Davis has been practicing in the Sacramento area since 1978, and he remembers a time when what some might call a more "practical" approach to dogs and their care was common. "Sacramento was at the time kind of a big farm town," he says. "It was hard to even get people to bring their pets in for vaccinations. The attitude of many people was, 'If the dog's really sick, put him down.'" That attitude is far less common today. Raymond and Beebe are among local veterinarians working to fill a niche in pet medicine. Both offer acupuncture and herbal medicine in their practices, and Beebe also provides physical therapy in a warm-water treadmill tank to help dogs recovering from surgery or debilitated by old age.

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