Ten Years In: A Love Letter

By Deirdre Frey, VMD

Ten years ago, I was burned out. I had gone into veterinary medicine to help animals and connect with people, but the conveyor belt of 15-minute appointments and rushed goodbyes left me depleted.  I believed there had to be a better way to care for pets, support clients, and stay whole as a provider.

My first picture for VAYD. I look so young back in 2015!

So I started something different. I didn’t have a polished plan - just a vision, some grit, and a lot of improvising. We built the plane while flying it. Somehow, it worked. Ten years later, we’re still flying that plane. It’s no longer held together by duct tape, but has slowly evolved into something sleeker, more resilient, and built to last.

Vet At Your Door has become not just a practice, but a community, and an anomaly in the best way: a beloved, deeply human veterinary experience. 

We’ve been through a lot together. A pandemic. The rise of corporate veterinary medicine. AI creeping into every corner of the profession. These forces are massive. Behemoth, even! And many seem designed to strip away our individuality, to treat connection like a transaction, and to push humanity out of the picture.

The One Team Approach keeps us small and connected with our patients, clients, and each other.

But our One Team Approach is our secret sauce and has kept us personal despite these forces. Even as we’ve grown into a multi-doctor practice, each client still works with the same veterinarian, technician, and client liaison, forming a consistent, trusted team over time. We’re still passionately privately held, with a scrappy, entrepreneurial mindset at the helm. We’re still building our own plane, unlike anyone else’s, and flying it our way. And we’ve never put the bottom dollar above the people and pets we serve.

Instead, we’ve built this practice by listening. We listen to our staff, to our clients, and to our patients. We’ve chosen to do things differently, even when it would have been easier not to. In a world of Goliaths, we’re proud to be the David - mighty in our purpose and large in our ability to connect and make a difference.

Connection means everything!

This personal connection is what gives this work meaning. It’s what gets us through the hard days. The -20 degree windy ones. The masked-up, teary-eyed ones. It’s the thing that says: we could be somewhere else, but we choose to be here. 

And you’ve seen it. You’ve told us. You’ve welcomed us into your homes, trusted us with your incredible pets, and treated us with kindness. That matters more than you know. You’ve made this mission possible. 

People are happy when the animals are happy.

Over the years, we’ve also tried to give back. We created an Angel Fund to help families in crisis. We’ve donated over $25,000 to shelters and nonprofits that share our values.

And just this month, we launched our Concierge Club. It’s not a shift in direction, but a deeper commitment to what has always made us special: continuity, trust, and care that feels like family.

Our team has grown, but our foundation remains the same, even after all this time: 

• Do the right thing, even when no one’s watching.

• Proactively solve problems for the team, the client, the patient, and the greater good.

• Stay adaptable, even when it’s messy (our plane has some turbulence after all!).

• Communicate clearly and with empathy.

• Keep showing up with a real desire to help.

Our patients waiting for us to come in.

We’ve spent countless hours building internal systems to support us. Not to replace the human experience, but to protect it. Our framework lets our team focus their emotional and mental energy on what matters: being present, being real, practicing great medicine, and making a difference. I hope that we have created something that allows people to stay in this field without burning out—and even fall in love with it again.

To our clients: thank you. For your warmth, your loyalty, your smiles, your porch waves, and your kind words.

To our team: thank you. For showing up with heart. For choosing to do this work, even when it’s hard. Especially when it’s hard.

We’ve had our highs and lows, and we’ve learned from all of them. I can confidently say that building our Vet At Your Door plane has been one of the greatest joys of my life. Simply put, Vet At Your Door is in the best place we’ve ever been. And we’re just getting started.

Happy 10th Anniversary to us! 

With all my gratitude, 

Deirdre Frey, VMD

Founder, Vet At Your Door