{"id":27096,"date":"2015-11-05T09:02:42","date_gmt":"2015-11-05T17:02:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/animal-planet-introduces-world-to-dr-dee-alaska-vet\/"},"modified":"2015-11-05T09:02:42","modified_gmt":"2015-11-05T17:02:42","slug":"animal-planet-introduces-world-to-dr-dee-alaska-vet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/animal-planet-introduces-world-to-dr-dee-alaska-vet\/","title":{"rendered":"Animal Planet introduces world to ‘Dr. Dee, Alaska Vet’"},"content":{"rendered":"

LOS ANGELES<\/strong> \u2014 Dr. Dee Thornell bought the first heated surgery table in the state of Alaska \u2014 for animals. But as a veterinarian with an animal hospital in Fairbanks, she doesn\u2019t always get to use that table. She\u2019s just as likely to be flying to some remote location, performing surgery using a church pew, pool table or truck bed.<\/p>\n

Thornell is also the first veterinarian from Alaska with her own reality television show. Animal Planet\u2019s \u201cDr. Dee, Alaska Vet,\u201d debuts Saturday at 7 p.m.<\/p>\n

Some of the show is filmed in the wild. The rest comes from her practice \u2014 which she calls Animal House. It includes a large, modern animal hospital, a Montessori dog training school, a laundry, groomer, retail store and the latest addition, a crematorium.<\/p>\n

She likes her job, from the dogs, cats, moose, beavers, woodchucks and other animals she cares for, to the people.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe people are helpful, friendly and outgoing. There is not a single soul who would not stop to help you. It\u2019s a big little city,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also a cold place in winter, with an average low in January of minus 17 degrees. Throw a cup of coffee in the air and it might freeze, she says. She wants her 15 employees to be happy at work, so she makes sure there is warmth and laughter on the job.<\/p>\n

In the first show, viewers travel with Thornell as she does welfare checks on a black bear and a team of sled dogs, castrates a group of piglets and untangles a reindeer\u2019s antler growth. Trying to save a horse injured in an expedition is her biggest challenge, partly because of the weather and partly because it is a good friend\u2019s beloved pet.<\/p>\n

Thornell set up the Golden Heart Pet Assistance League so remote villagers can get help paying for treatment for domestic and farm animals. She also uses the charity to do as much spay and neuter work in outlying areas as possible. And she conducts a two-week class every year to introduce 10 high school juniors and seniors to the world of veterinary medicine.<\/p>\n

As a grade-schooler in Michigan, Thornell wrote a report on Alaska and fell in love with it. She and her husband, Ken Rodriguez, met in 2005. \u201cHis dream was to fly and I was building a house. He helped me build the house and I helped him learn to fly,\u201d she said. Now he works for the state of Alaska as a pilot and they share a house and barn with three dogs, three cats, two Friesian horses, one donkey named Gus and several pet chickens.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been going to her for 35 years. She\u2019s a wonderful lady, a good vet and she cares deeply for you and your animals,\u201d said Cindy Reason, who has two blue heelers (Australian cattle dogs), Dottie and Missy. Reason has invited all her friends and relatives to a viewing party the night the first episode airs.<\/p>\n

Reason said Thornell has been by her side during her toughest moments over the last three decades \u2014 including helping her through the loss of several dogs.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you have to make the hard decision to put your babies down, that\u2019s extreme. Dr. Dee has the compassion that helps you through that. She\u2019s just fantastic support for you during that time,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Thornell says she\u2019s been told: \u201cYou are not Dr. Doo-little, you are Dr. Do-a-lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

But she says life only makes sense if \u201cyou close your eyes for the last time, and there are no \u2018what ifs.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

This story has been corrected to show premiere date is Nov. 7 instead of Dec. 7.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LOS ANGELES \u2014 Dr. Dee Thornell bought the first heated surgery table in the state of Alaska \u2014 for animals. But as a veterinarian with an animal hospital in Fairbanks, she doesn\u2019t always get to use that table. She\u2019s just as likely to be flying to some remote location, performing surgery using a church pew, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":27097,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[230],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-27096","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-state-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27096","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27096"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27096\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27096"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27096"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=27096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}