“Dogs and cats come into our lives to teach us about love. They depart to teach us about loss. A new dog or cat never replaces an old one, it merely expands the heart.” - Erica Jong

Marissa Wurtz may be our lead licensed veterinary technician at The Animal Doctors, but she wears a variety of hats. On any given day, she could be found giving vaccines to a sweet, fuzzy kitten, answering a client’s question on the telephone, monitoring anesthesia for a patient in surgery, greeting clients at the front desk, pouring over schedules and clinic logistics, interviewing prospective employees, and leading a team meeting. A member of the Uncharted Veterinary Community, Marissa has spent many hours gaining additional knowledge about veterinary leadership and management in order to better serve our team’s and clients’ needs.

While her family was originally from Long Island, Marissa grew up in LaFargeville, NY and attended SUNY Delhi to obtain her LVT degree. She also became certified as a professional pet sitter and owned a thriving and successful pet sitting business for many years. When asked why she chose The Animal Doctors, she said that we work and aspire to do things differently in veterinary medicine. A caretaker at heart, Marissa puts a great deal of energy into finding ways to consistently improve the work environment for the team, the members of which she considers her friends. Within veterinary medicine, she loves to organize things and to manage the care not only for the pets but the owners that come along with them.

Over the years, Marissa has become more and more a cat lover and has become very cognizant of the unique needs of our feline patients that enter our practice. She shares her home with two adult cats - Milo (a.k.a. “Milo-Monster”) and Hazel (a.k.a. “Hazelnut”) - and recently introduced a new orange fluffball into the mix, Butters (a.k.a. “Butternut”). Outside of work, she loves to entertain her cats and take them on adventures in their strollers! She also loves refinishing projects - sanding, painting, you name it! On a nice day, she may go for a walk in the woods or put some work gloves on and chop some firewood to stack and sell. A fun fact about Marissa is that she has her very own chainsaw and would like to eventually start chainsaw carving with it!

If you could leave one piece of information for every pet parent, what would it be?

Pets don’t really just get “old.”  They play and are active unless they have something wrong with them.  Seventeen-year-old cats play until they actually feel sick.