YOUR STORY MATTERS HERE: Kate Bryant

As Dr. Kate Bryant told the tale, you could almost hear a familiar trumpet in the background, heralding another epic comeback by that famous fictional boxer.  Except she was talking about a real Rocky, an aging, struggling Dachshund with hind legs paralyzed.  His owner, an elderly World War II veteran, lived alone and didn’t have money for surgery. 

“We were treating Rocky with medicine and hoped he would recover, but he wasn’t doing well,” Kate said.  “The gentleman couldn’t bear to let him go because the dog was his whole world.  We had ordered a cart for his back legs so he could still have mobility, and they were coming in to have the cart fitted for him.”

Upon arriving at the office, the owner walked in carrying Rocky and grinning from ear to ear.  Then he put Rocky down on the ground.

“The dog came running over to me,” Kate said, “and I was like, ‘What happened?’  We never really figured it out, but Rocky could walk again and we were all so happy.”

As a professional veterinarian, Kate has helped to write scenes like that for nearly three decades, but she actually began her calling as a little girl growing up on a small farm in Butler, Ohio, population 1,000 and a 20-minute trek to the closet McDonald’s.  

The Bryant family of two boys and two girls – Kate was the youngest – had seven horses, a pair of dogs, and an undetermined number of barn cats.  Kate gravitated naturally toward taking care of the animals.

“The first dog I really remember was when I was 7, and it had a tumor on its leg that required bandages,” she said.  “My mom was a nurse so she could have done it, but my parents let me handle it.  I doctored that dog and changed those bandages daily for weeks.”

At age 12, Kate took her love and compassion for animals a big step further, becoming a vegetarian, even against her parents’ wishes.

“Coming from a little farming community, someone deciding to become a vegetarian went over like a lead balloon,” she said with a laugh.  “But to me it made perfect sense.  I didn’t like the fact that animals were born simply for the purpose of slaughter.  I liked the idea that animals would have a natural life, that they were meant to live, not born to die 18 months later.”

By junior high, Kate’s passion for animals had set her career path and she remained on course, first as a pre-veterinary medicine major at the University of Findlay, followed by veterinary school at The Ohio State University.  Upon graduating from OSU in 1996, she began her career at a mixed animal practice in Dover, Ohio, then moved to Wexford in 2000 and started working as a relief veterinarian for several practices and hospitals.  In 2010 she started her own practice, Bryant Mobile Veterinary Care.  She treats only dogs and cats, and only in people’s homes, while performing surgeries at a local veterinary hospital.

“With a mobile practice, I have my schedule completely full, staying within 20 minutes of my house,” she said.  “All of my clients are long-term relationships, and I really enjoy talking with them and helping them understand how to keep their pets healthier.  My goal has always been to help strengthen the human-animal bond and to help them live happier and healthier lives, and I really love my job.”

Loving her job helps Kate to overcome the inevitable challenges.

“Time management is tough, balancing between family and work,” she said.  “I could work 24 hours a day, seven days a week, but sometimes I have to step away and be a mom.”

And, of course, she has to manage her emotional attachment to the animals and their owners.

“I do a lot of hospice work,” she said.  “When you have a handicapped person with a seeing eye dog who is dying, or an elderly person who has to put down the dog he owned with his deceased wife, it’s hard.  There’s heartbreak but you have to be able to compartmentalize to maintain your sanity and manage your emotions.”

As for career advice for any budding veterinarians out there, Kate has some strong words of wisdom:  “You have to want it badly.  It’s hard to get into a school – Ohio State had 165 seats for next fall and 2,800 applications – and hard to make it through.  So you have to fully commit and go for it.”

Commitment to her Christian faith has always been important to Kate.  When moving to Wexford 20 years ago, she and her then-husband began shopping for a United Methodist Church in the area.  One Sunday they visited Dutilh and heard Rev. Don Scandrol deliver a sermon.

“We were moved by his preaching and kept going back to listen to him,” she said.  “Then we took a year-long Disciple Bible class with him and loved it.  On his last day at Dutilh, Pastor Don baptized our daughter [May, now 15], so it was bittersweet to see him leave.”

Since then, Kate has become an engaged, active member of the church, investing her time and talents in ministries such as Dutilh’s annual flea market – which was canceled this year due to COVID-19 but is expected to be back in 2021 – and delivering meals to the VOICe women’s shelter. 

“The flea market committee is just completely enjoyable, and we do make significant money, too,” Kate said.  “But I think it’s even more important as a mission project because it helps lower-income people be able to buy really nice stuff, and then we donate the remaining items to many different charities.”

Along the way, Kate said she’s benefited from many church relationships and cited Kay Rimer, a fellow flea marketer, as a primary example.

“My mom passed away 13 years ago and Kay has become my church mentor,” she said.  “It’s like talking to my mom.”

Kate’s dad, meanwhile, is an active 84 years old and still lives in the same small hometown in which she grew up.  Over the years, he built several houses that the family lived in and still resides in one of them.  Throughout her life, Kate has leaned on the lessons learned in those houses and tries to apply her Christian values in her day-to-day work and life outside the church.

“When it comes to work, just being honest and sincere, trustworthy, and trying to do my best were Christian ideals my parents tried to instill in me,” she said.  “I think the qualities that make a good vet are embodied in our Christian values.  I don’t often talk to clients about God, but I would like to believe that in my professional life it was obvious that I’m following a higher power.  When I get angry, for example, I hear my mother’s voice.  She would always say, ‘Will they know you are a Christian by your words?’”

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If you or someone you know in the Dutilh family has an interesting story or profession, send us your ideas! We would love to help tell the story. Email: communications@dutilhumc.org.