Love Is What Fuels It: Meet Dr. Amanda Frank

For many years, Amanda Frank was a veterinarian at the Hamilton Burlington SPCA, one of the people working behind the scenes to make sure every animal who came through our doors got the care they needed. She may not have been the face our adopters met at the front desk, but her work touched countless animals and the families who took them home.

"I loved walking into the animal rooms to see all the animals that I was going to work on that day, and just meeting them all and falling in love with all of them," Amanda said. That love for the animals was matched by the people she worked alongside. "I love the people that I work with. Some of my closest friends."

Even as what she calls a "faceless vet" to the people whose pets she treated, Amanda found meaning in the part of the story she didn't always get to see. "I liked knowing that I was doing a good job and knowing that the animals were in good hands with me, and then they get to go home and live the rest of their lives," she said.

Working in a shelter, she explained, creates a different kind of bond between colleagues. Our team sees animals who have been through a lot, and that shared experience brings people together. "We would see a lot of sad cases, and it bonded us in a way, through our massive love for these animals and massive heartbreak for what they went through," Amanda said. "But always just filled with so much love for all of the animals."

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Of course, the days weren't all heavy. Amanda remembers plenty of laughter in the exam room, from the names of the animals coming through to the funny little moments that only happen when you work with animals every day. Her love for them also followed her home. Over the years, she brought a few animals home, and while a couple of those adoptions didn't work out the way she'd planned, both cats went on to find wonderful homes. One of them, Monster Paws, now lives with a friend of hers, and Amanda is his vet today. "The moment I saw him here, I just fell in love with him," she said.

Amanda also wants people to know about the parts of our work that often go unseen. One of those is our Trap-Neuter-Return program, which helps reduce the overpopulation of community cats. "I don't think people realize how many stray cats there are out there," she said. Another is the quality of medical care our team provides, which is made possible by the generosity of donors. "I don't think people realize how much they rely on donations to help fund all of the quality medicine that happens here," Amanda said.

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And for anyone considering a career caring for animals, she has some honest advice:

"You have to have both a thick skin and a thin skin, because you have to love with all of your heart and be vulnerable and just feel all of the love for all the animals. But you also have to have a thick skin, because you're going to see so much heartbreak," Amanda said. "But it's the love that fuels the need to continue."

We're so grateful to Amanda for the care, compassion, and joy she brought to the animals and people of HBSPCA, and for continuing to champion animals in her community today.