When They Became Irreplaceable

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In the last twenty years, the relationship between pets and people has changed. They are now irreplaceable family members. We believe veterinary medicine must change along with this.

  • In 1991, Dr. Peter Brown started practicing at Chuckanut Valley Veterinary Clinic.
  • He soon created one of the nation’s most successful veterinary practices, in rural-Washington no less, by focusing on the experience that both clients and employees have in the practice.
  • In 2018, Peter founded cara with a belief in shaking up the industry. With the evolution of the human-animal bond, cara would begin to rethink what a veterinary practice could be and mean to the communities it serves.
For so many people, pets are closer to children than they are animals. That means the veterinarian occupies a role closer to a pediatrician than anything else. But the current healthcare delivery model was not built to address both the medical needs of animals and the emotional needs of humans.

This is a complex challenge. And Peter believed it needed to start with making cara a special place to work. A place where the magic is put back into medicine. Where veterinary professionals could come together, do the best work of their lives, and think more broadly about the impact they can make in the lives of people and pets.
The roadmap became clearer… in order for cara to create meaningful change in the industry, it would have to become a network of veterinary hospitals. One who thinks very differently about how to shape veterinary medicine to meet the deeper needs of people and pets.

But what was still needed was the scaffolding; the principles that would animate all the decisions that would need to be made inside the practice. Cara’s Pillars were born. In everything we do, we are guided by the following core values:

Put Pets First – Trust The Parent – Good Neighbors – Authentically Human – Shake Things Up

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At Chuckanut, Peter’s goal was always to make a pet owner feel like they were the only thing that mattered. That he could see their pet through their eyes. That they had no idea that the veterinary experience could feel so authentic and meaningful. Now, the cara family network of hospitals is building on that to create a more hopeful and exhilarating future for veterinary medicine.

Changing the world is nearly impossible. But when you attract incredible people, impossible becomes hard. And hard becomes realistic.

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