Village Veterinary Medical Center to host Pet Fair
The Farragut community can have fun spending a day in the shoes of a veterinarian when Village Veterinary Medical Center hosts its annual Spring Pet Fair.
This year’s event is slated from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., Saturday, April 30, at the center’s 11301 Kingston Pike office in Farragut. The pet fair, which is free and open to the public, will offer activities and demonstrations for all ages. Attractions will include children’s favorites, such as a bounce house, face painting, a Teddy bear clinic and kid-friendly activities in VVMC’s stations.
Newk’s Express Café and Gigi’s Cupcakes will cater this year’s event, and the big raffle prize will be a GoPro.
“The entire goal is to be a fun, educational day,” Karen Rohde, VVMC practice manager, said. “We have the entire hospital open with different educational, hands-on and kid-friendly stations to see what it’s like to be a veterinarian for the day.”
The center’s lab will be set up with microscopes, with which at-tendees can see examples of parasites and other organisms veterinarians normally find. A large Teddy bear will be used to show how endoscopy works, and another bear will be hooked up to surgical equipment in preparation for a mock surgery.
“It’s a different little event,” Rohde said. “We host it because we like to bring education to he public about what it’s like to spend a day in our shoes.
“We enjoy it and the public and vendors love it. We want to share what we do with the community.
“It’s a great day out,” she said. “A lot of people turn to us and say they didn’t realize what we provide. It’s fun for them to explore what we do.
“It’s a fun day when they can explore and be a kid again.”
The center’s entire staff also will be on hand during the event to ask attendees’ questions. The pet fair averages about 300 pet owners and others who attend each year, Rohde said.
“We have over 40 vendors confirmed to be here,” she said. These vendors include rescue groups, pet merchandise retailers and others.
“We like to keep the event pet focused,” she said.
Attendees also can watch an agility demonstration and a K-9 police dog demonstration, and children can even have their Teddy bears and other plush animals repaired at the Teddy bear clinic.
“If one of the kids need their Teddy bears minded or repaired, Dr. [Kristi R.] Lively will be doing that this year,” she said.
Rohde said some children simply want a BAND-AID while others want a stuffed animal completely repaired.
Since the fair focuses on being pet friendly, she said pets are absolutely welcome. The center also will offer a discounted microchip clinic at the fair.
“We will have staff on hand to microchip,” she said. The benefit of microchipping an animal is the pet owner has a permanent identification that remains in the pet if it is lost or stolen.
For more information about the event and the microchip clinic, call 865-966-8900.
