Love of Animals - J. Skinner

August 25, 2025

Julia Skinner, AVC 2026, travelled to Hopdale and Sheshatshiu as one of the student participants on the Chinook Project. As part of the experience, the students craft various pieces of writing.

This picture is one of my favourites from my time with the Chinook project. It’s a photo of a beautiful dog who was seeing us for her spay surgery and me. I was hanging out with her while the surgery team was getting everything ready. All of us entering the veterinary medicine field have a deep love of animals, and though that’s not all that vet med requires of you, it’s what I keep finding myself coming back to. Veterinary medicine can be hard, and tiring, and sometimes devastating, but it can also be beautiful and hopeful and full of love, and that’s why I love it so much. I know that even on my hard days, knowing that I have the honour and privilege of caring for animals I adore so deeply, will help keep me focused on what matters the most. 

Izzy and Julia

I’ve always loved animals and I’m at my happiest when I’m cuddling a dog or a cat, or pretty much anything else, and I think that’s evident in this photo. The Chinook project was an incredible two weeks; getting to work with my classmates as a team was incredible, learning from the knowledgeable vets and tech that were with us was enlightening, and meeting the community members in both Hopedale and Sheshatshiu is something I’ll always treasure.

However, the very best part of Chinook was meeting all of the beautiful animals, whether it was snuggling them while they were being sedated for surgery or waking up after, doing physical exams on animals of all shapes and sizes, providing vaccines and deworming to help keep them healthy, performing many surgeries, and making sure they all knew they were the very best boys and girls in the whole world. I was able to meet and cuddle so many animals throughout those two weeks and to me that makes everything, even the challenges, more than worth it.