A friendly black Lab named Jo, short for Jolene, greeted me as the office ambassador. I’d come to chat with Dr. Tami Rogers of Jacksonville Veterinary Hospital, and learn something about the woman behind the practice. Jo is her fur baby.
I wondered if Dr. Rogers had been one of those kids who rescued birds or if becoming an animal doctor had been a childhood dream.
“No, to be honest with you, I didn’t always want to be a veterinarian,” she confided. “I wanted to do marine biology.”
This made sense for someone who was intrigued by marine life, enjoyed scuba diving and envisioned working with whales and dolphins. Pretty much every kid’s dream, but she discovered it wasn’t super realistic.
“I moved to Oregon State from Idaho and I was really behind the eight ball. Kids had grown up in that area and were doing a lot of volunteering in that field, and it was incredibly competitive to do marine mammology, which is what I wanted to do. I was just so far behind and was looking at that thinking, I’m never going to get there without jumping through all kinds of crazy hoops. I wanted to get started on a pathway. So, I chose veterinary medicine and fell in love with it.”
Dr. Rogers has practiced in Jacksonville for twelve years. For anyone considering entering the field, she added, “Veterinarians are in short supply. There are nine clinics across the valley right now that are looking for another veterinarian and just can’t find people.”
I asked how she’d landed at this location. “I think that given our current climate and situation I’ve been very thankful to be in Jacksonville. I came to Dr. Frank (previous owner) about twelve years ago because where I was working in Medford, my hours were reduced to part time. I was newly married and had no kids and no reason not to work full time, so I just went knocking on doors and walked into every veterinary hospital in the valley from Grants Pass to Ashland and delivered my resume. I met Dr. Frank and he hired me one day a week for relief work and after about six months, offered me a full time position. My first full day on the job I went home and told my husband, ‘I never want to work anyplace else.’”
In addition to running a busy office, Tami has a family counting on her. She, her firefighter husband, Allan, and their two children live on 40 acres in Rogue River. “I have two amazing kiddos. I have a little girl, Maren, she’s going to be ten in August and starting fourth grade and I have a little boy, Maddox who’s six and will be starting first grade. They’re just great, awesome kids. That’s my true heart and my true passion. I do love my job, but everything that I do is for my family.”
The Rogers spend as much time as possible enjoying the great outdoors. “We’re really blessed to have a place for our kids to be and play, so we spend a lot of time on our property. We do gardening. We do a lot of camping and rafting. We’re big rafters in the summertime. Anything outdoors—hiking and stuff like that.”
The pandemic made for a challenging year for veterinarians, with clients waiting in cars for their pets until Dr. Rogers realized the missing element. That’s when she and her staff began braving weather extremes to come to patients’ cars and offer the level of personal service necessary during the trial. “I have amazing individuals who work here. My staff has worked their tails off over the last year.” Their office just reopened to indoor traffic July first.
How does Dr. Rogers feel about Jacksonville? “I’ve never experienced this before. I’m so thankful to be part of the Jacksonville community in this business. From day one people have just treated me so amazing, and I see that every day in the way they treat my staff and how they interact with us. It’s just an awesome place to be. I’m super blessed to have been presented with the opportunity to purchase the business a couple years ago. It’s just been wonderful, and I don’t ever see myself anywhere else.”