This story is based on an interview with Ron Titterington, 59, a relief veterinarian from Eugene, Oregon. It has been edited for length and clarity.
I decided to become a veterinarian after a seminal moment in fourth grade.
It was midnight, and a stranger’s dog was hit by a car outside our house. I sat in the backseat, comforting it while my dad drove to the emergency clinic.
Sadly, the dog didn’t make it. However, the incident sowed seeds in my mind that I wanted to work with animals.
I worked part-time from 8th grade
I started in part-time jobs at kennels and veterinary practices in eighth grade and earned a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine and Surgery in 1992.
I purchased a small 1,500-square-foot clinic. By 2008, it had expanded into a 10,000-square-foot operation with over a dozen employees.
I loved meeting people and helping their pets. One of the most rewarding things was treating larger dogs carrying eight or more puppies.
They would generally need a C-section, which brought all the staff together. Each person would be assigned a puppy to help with resuscitation at delivery.
Still, other parts of the job were challenging. Things like taxes, insurance benefits, marketing, and juggling expenses were a constant source of stress.
I have no love lost for the process of trying to build a bigger practice, dealing with logistical nightmares like city permitting.
Although I earned up to $150,000 annually, it caused a lot of financial duress, taking me away from the everyday work of someone whose priority was caring for animals.
I was exhausted by my job
A corporation eventually took over the clinic, and I looked at my options. I was tired to the bone, with nothing left in me.
I said to my wife, Kathleen, also a vet, “I think I’m done with veterinary medicine; I don’t have much of a taste of it in my mouth anymore.” It took me over a year to grieve the change. I thought of retraining as a teacher, teaching math or science at the high school level.
Nevertheless, at 49 in 2016, I was pulled back into my original profession, this time as chief of staff at a pet care HMO. I climbed the ladder and became chief of medicine, earning the same amount I did when I owned my own practice.
I was more of a C-suite individual, but continued to do orthopedic surgery and consultations, particularly during the staffing shortage caused by the pandemic.
It was a 10-hour working day with weekend commitments. I barely had a minute to myself. My colleagues were great, but the work-life balance was nonexistent.
Then, after my dad got sick with cancer, I realized something had to give. I wanted to be by his side. “This job isn’t feeding me,” I thought. “It’s overwhelming and doesn’t allow me to be a son.”
I get to decide my own schedule
Kathleen and I talked it through, and I left the company in August 2023. I didn’t have a plan, but ended up taking what I like to call “soft retirement.”
I now have the advantages of being half in, half out of my career by working as a relief veterinarian. My shifts are arranged through the app, Roo. It matches vets like me with clinics and hospitals that need temporary cover.
I get to decide my own schedule and can say “yes” or “no” to whatever job or location I’m offered. It feels great not to be at the top of the heap with all the responsibilities that come with it.
Meanwhile, I haven’t experienced ageism. The new graduate veterinarian students are lovely people 99.9% of the time. They respect my experience and will kindly ask my opinion.
I don’t force my views on anyone. I feel like I’m that quiet, confident person at the back who says, “OK, we’ll get that done and go from there.”
And I learn from the grads every single day. I compliment them when they pick something up, saying, “It would probably take me a week of Sundays to figure that out.”
It’s not job satisfaction, it’s job enjoyment. I’m also delighted to be paid almost twice as much as I did in my past, high-pressure positions.
I spend quality time with my family
There is a huge demand for relief workers to help make up the current shortfall of veterinarians entering the field.
My skills are highly valued, especially the surgical side of things. Clinics seek me out. I can work five days a week if I want, and have to stop people from asking me for a sixth.
As for my personal life, things are much better. Dad is very independent now, and Kathleen and I spend more quality time together in the great outdoors.
Looking toward the future, I don’t see myself 100% quitting medicine anytime soon. “Soft retirement” has been a sound alternative for my family and me.
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