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There will be a reunion this weekend for survivors of extraordinary medical and traumatic conditions. All of the patients were treated at a hospital in Connecticut, and many are furry and have a tail.
Dogs and cats and their caregivers will gather this weekend in Stamford at Cornell University Veterinary Specialists hospital. The facility opened about two years ago to provide state-of-the-art emergency care to the sickest animals - a kind of Mayo Clinic for pets.
"Veterinary specialty medicine has advanced dramatically in the past ten to fifteen years."
Dr. Susan Hackner is Chief Medical Officer.
"For example, pacemakers in dogs. People are used to thinking of this as a solution for humans of course. But we fairly commonly put pacemakers in dogs and dramatically extend the quality and quantity of their lives."
The hospital has oncologists who treat pets with cancer and specialists who provide emergency care to critically injured animals.
Hackner says advances in veterinary medicine have been driven by America’s pet-owning public.
"As a nation, we have more dogs and cats than any other nation. There are more pets in this country than there are people. Pets are members of their family."
And Americans are spending more on their animals too – $53 billion in expenditures in 2012, an all time high, according to the American Pet Products Association.
