ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, July 13, 1996 TAG: 9607150042
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-4 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: DUBLIN
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
The black spaniel ambled onto the lot where the Community Animal Hospital will be built, sniffed around the crowd at Friday morning's ground-breaking, and marched straight up to Dr. E. Van Covey as though checking out her veterinarian credentials.
Everybody around Covey laughingly claimed she had to have prearranged this omen. "I've never seen this dog before in my life," she insisted. "I have animal magnetism."
The dog wagged its tail, accepted being patted by Covey, then strolled off in the direction of McDonald's Restaurant.
Covey came home to her native Pulaski County to build a 3,400-square-foot small animal hospital at the 7276 Alexander Road tract just behind Premier Bank. It will include a grooming area, separate facilities for dogs and cats, surgery and X-ray areas, and a drive-in window for customers to pick up prescriptions, refills and animal food.
"I used to see women carrying the baby and the dog and come in for medicine and food, and I felt so sorry for those people," Covey said. Here, they can just use the window.
A graduate of Pulaski County High School, Virginia-Intermont College and the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine, she had been working at a five-doctor animal hospital in Alexandria.
Her building was designed by Wayne Usiak & Associates of Albuquerque, N.M., specialists in animal hospitals. The contractor, Michael Allen of Wythe County, hopes to complete the project in 120 days.
"He says I should be open by Thanksgiving," Covey said.
She will hire two veterinary technicians, two receptionists and a groomer, she said. "I've already had applications."
Covey is the daughter of Earl and Doris Ann Covey who own the Covey Campground on Claytor Lake. Her brother, Stuart Covey, is a Realtor and helped her find the site. Her aunt, Dublin Town Councilwoman Peggy Hemmings, provided food for those attending the ground-breaking ceremony.
Covey's father raised beef cattle on Claytor Lake when she was growing up, "So I've always been around animals," she said. The family always had dogs and cats on the farm, and she would show cattle and sheep at 4-H shows. "I've always been animal-oriented."
LENGTH: Medium: 51 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: PAUL DELLINGER/Staff. Dr. E. Van Covey and otherby CNBdignitaries at her animal clinic's groundbreaking react to a dog
that showed up at the event in Dublin.