Cheryl Brady—founder and owner of Vet Care Express Ambulance, which is designed to help pet owners, emergency vet clinics, veterinarians, humane societies and other entities in situations where an animal is injured or severely ill, and time is of the essence for medical treatment—recalls the work she was doing before launching Vet Care Express. 
Brady also describes the process and array of challenges she faced in leaving a longtime corporate job to pursue her vision for a new vocation that, as far as she knew, had never before existed. She notes that her background—longtime animal lover, some time studying to be a vet tech, employment in the corporate sector, work as a volunteer firefighter—coalesced into the ideal experience and skill set to start a pet ambulance service. Brady recounts the earliest days of Vet Care Express in 2010, operating by herself in Bradenton, and traces the gradually growing success and expansion, to where the company now serves Manatee, Sarasota, Pinellas, 
Hillsborough, and Pasco counties. She provides a verbal guided tour of the ambulances and how they’re outfitted. Brady responds to my hypothetical question about a Labrador Retriever getting hit by a car, sustaining serious injuries, then outlining how that dog 
being transported to a vet or emergency clinic by Vet Care Express is better served, or may have better outcomes, than if someone were to place the dog in their car and drive to the same place. She also shares a particularly notable success story, involving a dog named Axel with an unusual disorder that required that he be transported by Vet Care Express to a facility for specialty surgery—and it was crucial that Axel receive oxygen en route. (www.vetcareexpress.com)
ALSO: I spoke briefly with Kerregan Layne, a 16-year-old activist who started a petition asking the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) to investigate the Baton Rouge Zoo, citing the fact that 21 animals have died there this year. Layne’s petition has gathered more than 140,000 signatures. (www.thepetitionsite.com/415/455/747/)
COMEDY CORNER: Jim Gaffigan’s “I’m A Manatee” (http://www.jimgaffigan.com)
MUSIC: Rebekah Pulley’s “Talking Animals Theme,” instrumentals
NAME THAT ANIMAL TUNE: We didn’t play Name That Animal Tune today.
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