PHOTO: JAMIE KILGORE
DR. LAURIE HESS, one of only approximately 125 bird specialists in the world, founded the Veterinary Center for Birds & Exotics in 2010 because she wanted to offer exotic pets and their owners a truly unique medical facility that caters only to the specialized needs of exotic species. The center provides comprehensive, cutting-edge care for birds and exotic pets, utilizing state-of-the-art technology—including digital X-rays, ultrasonography, endoscopy, laser, and electrosurgery—and offers the comprehensive care of a large hospital within the personalized setting of a small one. It is the only American Animal Hospital Association–accredited bird and exotic specialty referral hospital in New York (treating patients from New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania) and only one of seven such hospitals in the United States and Canada. It is also the only hospital in Westchester County, New York, and surrounding areas that offers emergency phone consultations 24/7/365 for birds and exotic pets.
Laurie graduated summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, from Yale University and received her doctorate in veterinary medicine from Tufts University. She completed a one-year internship and two-year residency at the prestigious Animal Medical Center in New York City, where she stayed on to head the Avian & Exotic Pet Service for more than a decade, before opening her own specialized practice. When Laurie isn’t at her animal hospital, she’s at home in Mount Kisco, New York, with her husband and two sons and the rest of their family: Ringo and Lennon, Gloster canaries; Quinn, a Goffin’s cockatoo; Dale, a blue-headed pionus parrot; and Bingo, Gizmo, Bean, and Tilly, a menagerie of cats.
SAMANTHA ROSE is an Emmy Award–winning television producer, author, and a multi-best-selling coauthor of nearly a dozen nonfiction projects in the areas of health and wellness, diet, lifestyle, how-to, parenting, and memoir.