A&M Veterinary Students at the Houston Cat Show
COLLEGE STATION, TX – For the past several years, representatives of the Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences (CVM) have been attending the Houston Cat Club Annual Charity Cat Show. At this year’s show, held last weekend, veterinary students interested in feline practice staffed one of more than 40 booths and answered questions from the public about veterinary medicine, the college, its teaching hospital, and its programs.
“It was fun to talk to kids of varying ages because our advice changed depending on how old they were,” said Lexie Kremenezky, president of the CVM student chapter of the American Association of Feline Practitioners and one of the organizers of the booth. “At one point we spoke with a girl who had just started as a freshman at A&M, and our advice was to focus on grades and getting experience in a clinic. The next minute we were talking to a ten-year-old girl who wanted to be a vet, so we told her parents about the CVM’s annual open house.”
“We had many visitors at our booth,” said Dr. John August, Professor of Feline Internal Medicine at the CVM and the faculty advisor for the group, “and the students represented the CVM wonderfully well.”
The students also enjoyed learning more about cat shows and the cats who compete in them-an aspect of feline practice many had never seen before. In addition to the judging circles, the show included a cat agility area, a trick course in which cats performed various stunts, a cat costume contest, and designated “Pet Me” cats.
“To my knowledge, we are the only veterinary college in the United States with a separate feline internal medicine service in the teaching hospital,” said August, “so compared to other schools, cats are a prominent part of our educational and patient care programs.”
