Join us for an emotional and heartfelt conversation with Dr. Elizabeth Hugger, co-founder of Lap of Love, as we delve into the compassionate services they provide for pets and their families during difficult times. In this episode, hosts Alice and Janet explore how Lap of Love supports families through the end-of-life journey with their beloved pets, emphasizing the importance of preserving the human-animal bond.
Dr. Hugger shares the inspiring story behind Lap of Love’s inception, detailing how it began in the Tampa area and has now grown nationwide. They discuss the various services they offer, including in-home hospice care, tele-hospice consultations, and end-of-life euthanasia, all aimed at making the process as peaceful as possible for both pets and their owners.
Listeners will gain insight into what to expect during these sensitive moments, including the unique approach Dr. Hugger and her team take to ensure comfort and dignity for pets. We also touch on the significance of pet loss support and grief resources available to anyone who has experienced the loss of a furry family member.
Whether you’re a pet owner, a veterinary professional, or someone interested in understanding the compassionate care available for pets in their final days, this episode is filled with valuable information and emotional support. Tune in to learn more about how we can honor our pets in their final moments and ensure they feel loved and cared for until the very end.
Learn more about Dr. Elizabeth Hugger or the company’s support services here:
Live Your Best Life as a Lap of Love Veterinarian
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All footage is owned by SLA Video Productions.
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A Loving Farewell: Saying Goodbye To Our Pets – Dr. Elizabeth Hugger
Welcome to the show.
Thanks for joining us today. Once again, we have a super cool guest. This is a really interesting topic. Most of my friends talk to me about losing their pets, and it is like losing a family member. Alice, who do we have on?
Dr. Elizabeth Hugger is a regional veterinary director for Lap of Love, Veterinary Hospice, and End of Life Care Services in your home. We have all been through the loss of a pet, and have to bundle that pet up. If it is a cat, put it in the carrier, then it gets afraid because, “No, I am going somewhere strange.” You have got a big dog that you cannot lift. Lap of Love comes to your home and provides you with an in-house end-of-care service. I have to tell you, it is a much-needed service. In human medicine, we have hospice.
Lap of Love is a hospice and end-of-life care. Dr. Hugger is a graduate of Texas A&M. She did her undergrad at the University of Florida and her vet degree at Texas A&M. She is a regional director for Lap of Love. We are so happy to have her and make everyone aware of Lap of Love and the service that they provide in the very stressful and emotional time that we have when we lose a pet. Welcome, Dr. Hugger. We have a lot of questions about the service because I think it is so important for all of us, because, as you said, Janet, this is a family member.
Yes. When it is 11:00 at night, like with Shaggy, and he was really sick, and I did not know what to do, and I knew there was a vet that would come to my home, and I called, and I said, “You do not know me,” he said, “I will be right over.” I was so grateful.
It’s never a no. It is how can we help you? Welcome, Dr. Hugger. Thanks for coming and doing the show. I was telling Janet that it is such an emotional time, and that it is so wonderful to have Lap of Love. I just want people to know about it.
I am excited to be here and to talk about this service because it is a passion of mine for sure. Glad to be here.
Tell us about Lap of Love. How does it work? How did it get started? What do you all do?
How do we call you? Do you email yourself? What?
The Origin Story Of Lap Of Love
When people are looking for our services, most of the time, they hear about us by word of mouth. That is by far how we get the majority of our referrals. The other way is just through referring veterinarians. Oftentimes, about 40% of our clients come from veterinarians who say, “I know that we are coming close to the time, and I know being at home is important. Call Lap of Love, and they will provide our information.” We do have a website, and that is probably the easiest way to get some general information.
It is at LapOfLove.com, and it really will provide all information in terms of what our services are, what we can do, because we are actually nationwide. We started here in Florida in the Tampa area. Co-founder, Dr. Dani McVety, is pretty close to getting out of vet school. She was working in emergency medicine, and she had an owner come in. She tells this story where she had an owner come in, she had this poodle wrapped in a blanket in her lap, and she knew that it was time, and they were in the clinic, and the owner just said, “Is there any way that you can just leave her here on my lap?” That is how the Lap of Love got its name.
That is beautiful.
Being really what we are dedicated to preserving is the human animal bond. That is something that is just so important, and really, that bond is undeniable. If we can help make this process a little bit more manageable. This time in a family’s life with their pets, it is never going to be good.
We're dedicated to preserving the human-animal bond because it's one of the most powerful and undeniable connections we have. Share on XThere are never any words either.
It is not. Really, what I always said to families when they asked how I could do this and how you can, my focus and my goal, and my answer was always that it really is just an honor for me to be able to be here.
I agree. Can I tell you, when my father-in-law passed away, I told this story on the show before, we walked out of the room, and the funeral director was there. I said to him, “I do not know how you do this.” He said the exact same thing. “It is my honor to be with your loved one at this point in that person’s life.” How true is that?
It is, and if we can make an unbearable situation bearable, that is really always what my goal was. That is who we are, and we offer services everywhere. We want to be able to provide whatever it is families need when they are coming towards this stage or this season of their pet’s life. Everything from in-home hospice care, which basically is when we are coming to the end, there may be a couple of things that we can do and try to help improve quality of life for a short period of time. If we can do that, that is where we are with hospice. We also have a tele-hospice service where families can call in and speak directly with a veterinarian.
Range Of Services Including Hospice And Grief Support
It is very much a quality-of-life discussion. It just gives families a little bit of direction in terms of where we are. What may be the options? Are we getting to the point where we really need to start thinking that we need to make this really difficult decision? We walk families through that time, and then we do have our in-home end-of-life services, our in-home euthanasia services. After that, we also provide pet loss support and grief support for families. That is not just for families that are Lap of Love families, but it is available to any pet parent who has lost a loved one and is just searching for support. We have that as well.
Wraparound services.
Yes. I also love that you have a memory gift, which I think is really sweet. When our Shaggy died, it was my first time with euthanasia, and I had no idea what I was getting into. A couple of weeks later, this little package arrived, and I had no idea that that was happening. It was just the sweetest thing, and we now have all of those little paw prints on our Christmas tree. That is where we put them, and it was really touching to get that. I had no idea it was coming, so it was a lovely surprise.
We leave those paw prints with the family in the home when we make them, so that they have that at least tangible memory afterwards.
Can I ask a technical question? Do you also take care of the body?
We do.
A lot of people do not know what to do, or they will wake up in the morning, and the dog will have passed away on its own. They do not know, do they call the police? Would they call you for something like that as well?
The answer is twofold. If we are providing end-of-life services, yes, we absolutely will provide aftercare services if the family so wishes. Sometimes families wish to bury themselves and handle their own aftercare, which is totally okay and appropriate. Oftentimes, they will ask us to handle those. We do have trusted funeral home partners in all of the locations that we work with really closely.
We have very high standards with what partners we will work with because we are very particular. Yes. Now the flip side of that is if a family has noticed that their pet has passed away overnight, for example, in those cases, they certainly can give us a call and ask for guidance, and we can guide them to certain funeral home partners that are local and give them a little bit of guidance on whom to call in those instances.
I am sure this varies by location, but is there a fee?
There is, and you are exactly right. It does vary by location. The last number I heard, I believe we are in 35 or 36 states. We are quite spread across the country, and those prices are variable depending on the location. The easiest way to be able to find out the prices is to go to our website. You can just look at families that are looking right on the very first page. You can type in your zip code, and it will bring you to the appropriate page, and it will show you the doctors that are available in your area with a little bio about them. It will break down the prices and all of that information, and the local area phone numbers that you can call.
I also like that this booklet you provide has information on your other pets because it was a huge loss when we lost her, and Shaggy was her littermate, a brother, whatever you call it. Shaggy came, and the whole personality of the house changed because of that. We were not prepared. We did not know what was to happen.
It is interesting. Sometimes I do not know that we give our pets as much credit as I think they deserve, but they absolutely mourn in their own ways. There are certainly going to be some pets that will move on with life as though nothing happened. That is okay too, because there is also the flip side of that. Some pets are really affected by it and really mourn that loss. Every family is different in terms of whether they want their other pets to be present for these sorts of services or not. We certainly welcome that if that is something that the family is asking about, and we are certainly open to discussing that, too.
We had my friend Katherine on, who is a master’s in social work, who talked about how she handled it with her children and how she works for Cornell here and works with the veterinarians and patients that are going through loss, pet loss. It is a whole wraparound that you provide, which is really something.
I know, too, Janet, I have some friends now that I am retired. Jackie, who used to work for me. Jackie always had golden retrievers. Now that she is late ‘70s, I do not think she will mind me saying that. She did not want to get another golden.
Mature.
It’s because you cannot pick that dog up. If something happened to the dog, she could not pick it up and take it to the vet. I think that is a wonderful service that Lap of Love provides because their dog had bone cancer, osteosarcoma, and broke his leg because of a weak spot in the leg. She cannot get him in the car. This service comes to you, I mean, that is invaluable as far as I am concerned.
How does it work? I am in one of your towns, and are there local veterinarians that work for Lap of Love that are on call?
We have in each territory, we often have multiple veterinarians that are available. When you call into our support center, we have a support staff that mans the phones. You will talk to a live person. You do not talk to a robot.
Can I tell you when I called to get you on? The person was so nice. I wanted to keep talking to her. She had the softest, most comforting voice. “How can we help you?” Kudos to her.
Thank you. They are incredible. They basically will look to see who we have available, what the schedule looks like, and will talk with families to try to schedule a time that really works best.
What are some of the things that hospice care entails?
What are some of the things that hospice care entails?
Understanding The Differences Between Veterinary And Human Hospice
It’s a good question because I think there is a little bit of a disconnect between what we can provide with veterinary hospice versus human hospice. Many of us have experience with human hospice in terms of where a nurse comes to the home and provides nursing care, and provides IV medications and things like that. It is a little different in veterinary care. In a veterinary hospice, the owners are really in charge of caring for the pet in that nursing care.
Veterinary hospice differs from human hospice. Instead of nurses providing daily care, pet owners become the primary caregivers, supported and guided by their veterinary team. Share on XNow, certainly, we are focused on palliative measures. Are there medications that we can provide to help with any of the symptoms that these pets are exhibiting, whether that is pain, vomiting, or inappetence? Additionally, though, the real benefit of having a veterinarian come to the home is that the veterinarian can see the environment and see if there are some opportunities for maximizing the environment to help this pet.
For example, if you have a pet with mobility issues and they are on a tile floor, there is an opportunity for yoga mats to be placed or carpet runners or pads for the feet, things like that that can really help them get around, that can really make a difference. For kitty cats, for example, if they are having a hard time getting around and the veterinarian notices that the litter boxes are on top of the dryer.
Being able to lower those and cut the sides out of the litter boxes to make them more accessible. Things like that that you can see when you are actually in the pet’s environment. Those are the things that we really focus on. Are there some palliative measures in terms of medication? Are there some environmental management techniques and tools that we can utilize?
Some of those are just little minor changes that can make a big deal.
That is exactly it. Just the little thing for a big dog, for example, raising the food and water bowls off the ground so they do not have to lower their head as far when they are getting a little bit older and painful and a little creaky. There are a lot of those sorts of things that we will discuss when we are in a hospice appointment.
It is like when visiting nurses came to the mother’s house or the mom’s house. We had said, “We should probably move those throw rugs.” When the visiting nurse said to move it, of course, I knew they did not listen to us. They listen to the official.
Do you ever do exotics? Do people call you for that, like ferrets?
We do. They are a lot less often. It is a smaller percentage of our appointment volume, but we certainly do have lots of doctors who are happy and willing to see birds and ferrets and pigs and hamsters, and we have had fish. People love their pets, and so we certainly want to be there to help.
A lot of people really want their pet to die naturally.
I know. At the pet’s expense, even though the pet is suffering, because they do not want to have to deal with it.
They do not want to make that decision. I remember when Shaggy was, it was bad, and he had a hard time breathing, and the vet I had on the phone was going to come over, said, “Should I just listen?” He goes, “I need to come over. That dog is suffering.” I had never met this man before, and he was fabulous.
I bet education is a lot of what you do.
What do you tell them?
There are lots of times when families are unsure, and that is part of what we do. As a veterinarian, it is educating clients and help them understand what is happening. You had mentioned that natural passing. We all would want to fall asleep and not wake up right, that is what we want, but unfortunately, natural passings are by and large not peaceful. Helping families understand what we are able to provide as veterinarians. We are the only medical practice that is legally allowed to take a life.
The Importance Of Preventing Animal Suffering
I take that extremely seriously. I know what every veterinarian does, and with that, we are not only able to stop suffering, but we can help prevent it from occurring in the first place. Which is actually part of our veterinary oath, is to help prevent animal suffering. I feel really strongly that it is much better to make this decision a day too early than a moment too late.
Totally agree. It’s because you regret that the rest of your life. “Why did I do that sooner?” I have told people, even though I am in Durham and we have very few losses in Durham, thank you, God. People, for some reason, always called on me to ask me stuff. I would say, “He is not doing well. Let us give him a day and let us see. If he does not turn around,” because sometimes we all have a bad day, let us face it, but when you know it is a terminal disease, like a hemangiosarcoma or something, and you know that they are not going to get any better.
I have to tell you, Janet will know about this. When our father was dying, at the end, he had liver cancer. The resident who was taking care of my dad at the hospital. He was hospitalized, and my dad was out of it because they were giving him a morphine drip, and we wanted to put in a feeding tube. I had to fight with our older sister. The man is terminal. The only thing this man ever complained about was the NG tube, the nasogastric tube, which bothered him. I am not putting him through something that bothered him.
I will tell you, Dr. Hugger, it was a fight with that resident because, legally, they wanted to do that. I was so mad at myself because I got teary-eyed, because I was fighting it. I said, “Lee, I will sign anything you want. This is not on you. This is the family decision.” My older sister said, “Well”, I said, “Penny, this is not TV. This man is terminal. We need to do whatever he can. We refused the feeding tube.” It was a fight. Thankfully, in our profession, we know when it is the end. We do not have these legal things of, “Let us put a feeding tube to prolong life.” No.
I will say as a pet owner, it is comforting. When I had to put Smudge the cat down, or Dexie the cat down. When my doctor, my veterinarian, looked at me and said, “It is time.”
I am sure Dr. Hugger, with your pet and with my pet, I want my friends who are vets to say so. One of mine had a brain tumor, a fifteen and a half year old golden. Dr. Heidi Ward, my classmate, an internal medicine specialist, said, “Alice, you know what this is.” Just those words, I just needed somebody to double-check me and tell me, “Yes, that is the right thing to do.”
One hundred percent. I can even speak from my own experience that when I have my own pets, I all of a sudden cannot be a veterinarian for my pets, and I cannot think that way. I need my veterinarian friends to be able to say, “Look, Elizabeth, this is where we are. It is time, and it is okay.” Being in that space also helps me to be a better doctor for my clients.
You have been there yourself.
Yes. You can help them. You know exactly that pain and the difficulty of making that decision, and that question of is it too soon or is it too late, or is it time, and being able to sit in that space.
Can you walk us through the process? I have experienced it, but a lot of people, I did not know what I was getting into the first time.
Good question, Janet.
I am happy to. Typically, a typical appointment will include a first medication that will be administered under the skin, just like giving a vaccine. In that medication, there is pain medication, and there is sedation, and it is really just to help them relax. Many of these pets have been uncomfortable and not feeling well for a long time.
At this time, they are really able to relax. We can remove that discomfort and really let them settle into that feeling of just painlessness. Once they are ready and once they are feeling really good, we move forward with the second medication, which essentially is an overdose of anesthesia. It really travels to the brain first, and it shuts things down from the brain and then shuts down the other body systems.
Is that IV again?
It depends. That is a good question. Many times, yes, it is IV, but we do not place indwelling catheters as many hospitals do. We find that actually causes a lot more stress in terms of having to hold the pet and being able to gain IV access while they are struggling. We try to avoid all of that manipulation if possible, which is why that first medication is just given under the skin really easily, and then that second medication just depends.
In that scenario, it becomes flaccid or relaxed so much. These cats get severe constipation, or what we call obstipation, where they can’t even defecate. It’s a pretty severe disease. It’s something that we try to encourage owners to keep track of what’s going on with their cat’s bowel movements. If I told you your cat isn’t going to defecate quite as often, if they’re otherwise acting normal, that’s like, “Let’s scoop.” The more we can intervene early in those cases, the more likely we can try to hopefully prevent the development of something like that.
Before all that happened, we were giving Shaggy chicken skin and all the good stuff, right? Still had an appetite. That is something I think you just do as a pet owner because you are spoiling the bejesus out of them.
Food is love.
We encourage it.
Treat them like family.
We encourage treats. Many of our doctors bring treats for the pets because we just want them to feel as good as possible.
A couple of my really good friends, the dog was drooling, the dog was losing vocal control, and it was bad. The pet owner was not ready. Do you have any tips on how to talk to a friend or a family member and say, “Look at how this is bad? Look at Fluffy here.”
It is absolutely challenging when you can see what somebody else does not see. I have spoken with not just clients, but a lot of friends and family call me when they are getting towards this time, given what I do. I oftentimes encourage families to think about the quality of life. I like to give them something that is very tangible to consider. What I ask them is, what are the three things that Fluffy loves to do?
It's incredibly difficult when you can see what others can't. That's why I encourage families to focus on their pet's quality of life when making these hard decisions. Share on XWhat are those things that historically are his favorite things, whether that is going for a walk, eating, going for a swim, or chasing the ball? Whatever those three things are, what are those three favorite things? When he can no longer enjoy two of those things, my question to you is, do you think that his quality of life is good enough anymore? I would challenge that maybe it is not.
The other thing is, for example, let us go back to the kidney failure cat. They lose their body mass, they get dehydrated, they are skin and bones, and the owner has been living with this, and they do not see it because they are living with it every day. A stranger like Dr. Hugger, Dr. Jeromin, or Janet walks into the house and says, “My God,” because they are not seeing the change.
That is certainly challenging, and oftentimes, sadly, we do see an uptick in appointments around the holidays.
What is that?
I know, it is like, “It has got to go. First thing, it has got to go. Has got too much to do.” I agree, Dr. Hugger. I would tell my girls.
I am not saying that it is, not that you hear, like I have a lot of humans that die around that time of the year and pets. There is something about the holiday time.
I will tell you my thing. Even in Durham, I noticed that all of a sudden, family is coming and everything, and now the pet is too much trouble. As vets, all of us would agree with that, would you not, Dr. Hugger?
Yeah. I think also when you have holidays, there are people that you do not normally see that are now seeing the pet that they have not seen in the last six months, and they are saying, “What are you doing? Look how rough she is.” I think that also plays into it as well.
I agree. What pets do you have, Dr. Hugger?
Right now, I have one dog. She is a terrier mix. Whatever was walking by that day, who knows what she is? She is thirteen. She is an old lady. We used to have four dogs, and she was the terror of all of them. She was the bad girl. Now she is a good dog. I do not know what happened.
What happened there?
I do not know. Then we also have two tortoises.
How old are they?
They are about ten.
Are they in a cage?
They are outside. We have built a garden for them outside. Until it gets below about 50, then we have to bring them inside. We have one of those plastic baby pools. We put it in the house, and they sit in the baby pool in the house until it warms up a little bit.
They are fast because I volunteer at CROW, and sometimes we do tortoise day. We take them out to exercise, and I will be talking to another volunteer, and I will turn around. “Where is he?” They can really, “I am the vet, and I do not want to lose one of the tortoises.”
Are you at CROW in Sanibel?
Yes, that is where I am.
We were just in Sanibel two weeks ago.
Not the shell show. That was last weekend.
No, just because. We have a two-year-old son, and we took him to the beach for the first time.
If you can, look up the Sanibel Sea School, and when he is a little bit older, I want to go there because they have wonderful programs for kids. It is a great learning experience. The Shell show is the first weekend of March. That is adorable, too. He would love that. Not when he is two, maybe three or four.
It is funny you mentioned CROW too, because when I was in vet school, I went through the intern match and was looking at CROW as one of the intern possibilities. I ranked them at one point.
It is wonderful. There is nothing like it. When I go back to Ohio, when I go back home, and there is an injured animal, the closest thing to me is Back to the Wild, which is about an hour and a half away. CROW, my husband and I were going to Venice, and we were ready to get on 75, and there was an injured tortoise, one of these big ones that was hit and left for dead. I cannot tell you how many runners ran by and did not do it. I yelled, “Turtle.” He pulls over as soon as he can because everyone here goes 80 miles an hour.
I ran, and I got it, and the left eye was gone, and it was bleeding from its side. Thank God, Blue Pearl, right by 75 there, will take wildlife, and then CROW comes and picks him up. I do not think he made it. I did not call to find out because I did not want to go through the sadness of it. At least we got him off. He was not on the road. He was hit and probably walked over. It was bad. CROW was wonderful.
Dr. Hugger, I am going to ask you the questions we ask all of our guests. Thank you for joining us. We really appreciate it.
I am so excited about our tortoises.
Thank you for having me.
What makes you passionate about your work?
I already know that.
I was in small animal GP prior to coming into Lap of Love, and I can remember very vividly a gentleman, an older gentleman whose pet was not doing well, a little poodle, and we ended up having to say goodbye and really walking him through that process. It was really sad because this was his only companion in life. It was just heartbreaking, and he came back the next week just to bring me flowers, to say thank you for that.
I was the one who ended his pet’s life, his companion’s life, and he was thanking me. I just felt that was the moment when a light bulb went off, that there is something here. This work is not for every veterinarian, but there are certain people for whom it is made. When you feel like you really have found your passion and your calling within the field, it is really special.
This work isn't for every veterinarian, but for those who are called to it, it's more than a career—it's a true calling. Share on XFinding Passion And Purpose In Veterinary Hospice Work
It is a calling. It is not a job. Anybody who calls this a job has no clue. It is a life. I had a client, a young man. Is this the one with the punch?
Her eye looks red, does it not? Janet, you are such a client. Hold them up to the camera so we can see them. I cannot see them, Janet.
Can you not see right there that redness?
No. Pull the lid down.
Good luck.
I cannot. Anyway, what I was going to tell you real quick was I remember having a client. Remember, I am in DERM, so I had a young man, and I think he had a Springer Spaniel. This guy would do anything. I do not think he worked. I think he was on mental disability. He would do anything for this dog. To give that dog the six-month heartworm preventative shot, I do not know why that was done, because this guy would get up at 2:00 AM to give any medication at any time of day.
Monthly heartworm preventative would have been great for this dog. It had a reaction, and it died from that. I reported it to the drug company, and I worried about him because he tried to tell his regular vet and the drug company that the dog had never been the same since it got the shot. It started three days after, and I called him every day for three weeks because I was worried about him after he lost his dog. This dog was everything to him, and he was a young man with some problems, and he did okay, but it was tough.
That human animal bond is so strong.
I was afraid of what he was going to do, really.
Our next guest question is, what is your pet or human peeve?
Pet peeve. Pet or human.
It is not the Terrier, because the Terrier is a good girl now. She is a good girl.
I cannot pick on her anymore.
I wish I could come up with something really clever. I have got nothing.
See, that is a happy person.
I am always annoyed by everything.
People do not use their blinker, things like that.
I work from home. I hardly drive anymore, to be fair.
In Florida, that is a plus in Florida.
The other day, I was in Pilates class, and we are a group where we see each other every single morning. One woman said, “I just have such anxiety.” She goes, “What do you have anxiety about?” I went “Kind of nothing.” I said like an MRI puts me over the edge, but how often does that happen? Not a lot. She is like, “How do you do that?” I go, “A lot of stuff is out of your control. Let it go.” She said, literally, “I am anxious all the time.” I would go out of my mind.
The only time I have experienced anxiety is, I will never forget when they announced that COVID was a worldwide pandemic. I was like, “Now what?” because we had never been through that. That got a little like, “How is this going to work?” It just rolled out.
Do the tortoises have names?
What are their names?
Maple and Molasses.
You need to send pictures. I happen to love tortoise pictures.
I will send pictures.
Put them up on the screen. Thank you so much for this.
I hope we get to meet someday. If you ever come to Sanibel again, I’m here until the first week. You probably passed through Venice.
Venice is not far from us. We try Naples a lot. My brother lives there.
That’s like going to the Middle East because it takes forever to get there. I’m going to tell you. I was walking on the beach this morning, listening to a webinar because that’s where I get a lot of my vet listening stuff in. I met this couple from Lancaster, PA, and we just got to talking, and she was saying how nothing is really built back here. I am like, “Yeah, you are right. It is not.” They asked me about stuff to do because they leave on Saturday.
They are there with another couple. They were going to go to Naples. I said, “Plan on spending four hours in the car, two hours there, two hours back.” I said, “Why do you not do Captiva Cruises? You can take the boat to Boca Grande. You rent a car and have a fun day.” They are like, “The other couple, he was in the Navy, he would love to go.” I said, “Do it,” because Naples is fun, but at this time of year it is a lot if you are driving to Naples.
Thank you so much for joining us.
Send pictures.
Thank you for having me. I really appreciate it. It has been lovely.
I love what you do. I honor you for what you do, and I am so glad that you came on, because our audiences really need this service, and if they do not know about it, go to the website. Thank you so much from the bottom of my heart, really.
Alice, wrap it up.
Thank you, Dr. Hugger. This is Dr. Alice Novotny-Jeromin from Cleveland, Ohio, and Janet Novotny-King from Cleveland, Ohio, saying thank you for tuning in. Thanks for joining us. Please send us your questions. We are happy to address them on the show. We love our audience. We love our audience’s pets. We cannot wait to see Dr. Hugger’s tortoises.
Thank you, ladies. I appreciate it. Bye-bye.
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About Dr. Elizabeth Hugger
Dr. Elizabeth Hugger is a Regional Veterinary Director with Lap of Love Veterinary Hospice. A native of Florida, she earned her undergraduate degree from the University of Florida before pursuing her veterinary education at Texas A&M University. Dr. Elizabeth practiced in private veterinary care for several years before joining Lap of Love nearly seven years ago.
Initially, Dr. Hugger dedicated herself to providing hospice and end-of-life care by visiting families’ homes, offering support during their pets’ final stages. After two and a half years in this role, she transitioned to the position of Regional Veterinary Director, where she now plays a key role in training and supporting the veterinarians who provide in-home care to families on a limited income.