Dr. Teresa Speelman - Veterinarian Dr Teresa was born in Kentville and grew up in Louisbourg, Cape Breton. She always wanted to help animals. Continuing this desire she graduated from Louisbourg High School and continued to the Nova Scotia Agricultural College to study in the pre vet program. With acceptance into the Ontario Veterinary College she continued her studies in Guelph and graduated in 1983. After practicing in several provinces she decided to return home, to the “Valley”. The Greenwood Animal Hospital was started in 1990 by Teresa, with her as sole veterinarian. She loves to care for all animals but limits herself to cats, dogs, rabbits, and exotic animals, such as snakes, hedgehogs and, birds. Teresa also raised a family of three girls, all of whom are now going to University. Also, living with her are T Rex, the chocolate Lab, and Rafikki, the tabby, the boss in the house. In her spare time the she has two miniature horses, Charlie’s Angel and Gilbert. They are babies now but in the future you may see her driving them in a cart. Dr. Dave MacHattie- Large Animal Veterinarian Dave comes from a Nova Scotian family with the family roots in Antigonish and Stewiake. He grew up in Quebec and Ontario and always was planning on being a vet. “When did you decide to become a vet?” was a constant question and he always answers “I just always was planning to be one”. Most summers Dave traveled “home” to Nova Scotia to spend time on the three family farms with his mother, father and two brothers. Whether they stayed at Granddads farm, Uncle Sandy’s or Uncle Walter’s farm these were always the places were the admiration for farm animals seemed to come out and more so, he realizes now, the admiration for farmers. Dr. Dave graduated from the Ontario Veterinary College in 1983 where he was trained and educated in the medicine and surgery of all animals great and small but always seemed to prefer the great ones. Well in college Dr. Dave met his wife, Dr. Teresa Speelman and the two were married in 1981.Their first job was in Sydney, Cape Breton where their first daughter, Juli, was born. Through a transfer they moved to the Antigonish Veterinary Clinic where Dave’s desire to do large animal work was fulfilled. Their second daughter, Nicole, was born in Antigonish. In the difficult task of finding two jobs for two vets Dave and Teresa headed west to Arthur, Ontario where two vets were needed. Their third daughter, Jennifer was born here, in Fergus, Ontario and the family soon decided they wanted to head back home. The Annapolis valley became their new home, and the two jobs were “created”, Dr. Dave started the Middleton Veterinary Services office in 1989 and Dr. Teresa started Greenwood Animal Hospital in 1990. Dave is on the road most of the time visiting dairy and beef farms for emergencies or routine monitoring (herd health) or similar horse visits for emergency or routine vaccinations etc. Recently mink ranches have been added to Dr. Dave’s roster. There have been a lot of changes over the years since 1983, ultrasounds are being used for reproductive work, embryo transfers are common procedures now, endoscopy of horse’s lungs, ultrasounding tendons computerized dairy herd monitoring systems and the changes continue. “All these new techniques and technologies are looked upon favorably” says Dr MacHattie and “with my years of experience the new and the old often complement each other quite well, and I always look forward to some new challenge.” When there aren’t farm calls to do Dave operates a 25 cow, cow/calf beef farm, and plays with his old sports cars. Currently he has a driveable 1973 Spitfire he has been working on since 1982 and a 1970 Jaguar XKE waiting for some attention.