HELPING HAND: Free wellness clinic for pets in Denver benefits them and their lowincome owners.
Veterinarian Graciela Guzman talked sweetly to the notsofriendly Shar Pei called Peyton before delivering an updated vaccine into the dog’s right leg Saturday morning. Peyton never flinched and only glanced at Guzman before retreating behind his owner’s legs.
“He’s a good boy,” Guzman said about Peyton while behind the Focus Points Family Resource Center in the ElyriaSwansea neighborhood Saturday morning. Guzman then moved on to her next patient, one of 200 or more dogs that waited for medical checkups, vaccinations, and spay and neuter surgeries, all provided free of charge during a wellness clinic Saturday for pets from lowincome families.
The clinic, held for the fifth year, brings in veterinarians and students from Colorado State University’s Veterinary Teaching Hospital in Fort Collins to help local owners who can’t afford highcost pet care in an area with few local clinics.
“I guess you can call this place kind of a ‘veterinarian desert,’ ” said Guzman, who grew up in the Elyriaswansea and Globeville areas and returned Saturday to lend a hand during the clinic.
“It’s good to do this; you can talk to the owners, get on the ground with the dogs and find out what’s really going on with them,” Guzman said. “I just like giving back to this community.”
Guzman, a Colorado State University graduate, worked hard early Saturday morning as pets and their owners quickly lined up to get inside the resource center for help.
Focus Points provides programs for the area’s residents in school readiness, adult literacy and selfsufficiency. So it only make sense the nonprofit also helps the other important members of local families — their dogs and cats, said spokeswoman Allegra Mangione.
“Pets are truly part of the family, and people want to take care of them, so this is part of our mission as well,” Mangione said. But many can’t afford the high prices of vaccinations as well as spaying and neutering.
Demand to get into the clinic was so high that by Oct. 3, no new appointments were accepted. However, volunteers quietly allowed some walkins, depending on the case, organizers said.
The Dumb Friends League, Elanco animal health and Clinica Tepeyac, which provides health care to poor families, were also on site to lend help. Clinica Tepeyac clinicians and staff members gave free flu shots and health screenings for humans, including blood pressure and behavioral health assessments.
Andrea Enriquez, who grew up in the neighborhood, is Peyton’s owner. She also brought Peyton’s sister, Sophia, to the clinic to be spayed.
“To get her spayed and get other shots would have cost about $500,” Enriquez said. “Here they do it for free, which is such a help.”