Jamie Furutani woke up early Tuesday morning, ready for the day. She had to have her children ready for school, make sure her dog was fed and ready to go, and open her animal clinic-- all before 8 a.m. She owned her very own clinic in Mililani Mauka and worked there everyday of the week but one.

Dr. Furutani finished 8 years of school to become a veterinarian and open her own practice. It’s the perfect career for her because as she said, “I’ve had pets since I was 2 years old. I love being around them, and I love science.” In order to be a good vet, you should have an affinity towards animals, and you should like science. Vets are basically doctors who specialize in animals, and they do everything a regular doctor would. They give medicine, treat wounds, and even perform surgeries. However, just like a doctor, you need to have a certain level of education. You need to have a good base in science and math, and it’s extremely hard to enter an accredited veterinary college, which include Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine, Colorado State University, the University of California-Davis, University of Pennsylvania, North Carolina State University, The Ohio State University, and Texas A&M University-College Station.

Furutani said, “School was hard… vet school is hard. You’re going to school from 8 to 5 every day. And then you have to go home and start again. So there’s four years undergrad, and then four years vet school. So pretty much vet school 8-5, you go in, on the mainland—there’s no school here—so most times you go to school in the winter and you go in when it’s dark and you come out when it’s dark.” Then, in order to treat animals you need to pass a state exam in order to get a license to practice. Before all of that though, make sure you can start of preparing yourself for college by taking good science courses in high school and keeping your grades as high as possible, which will be of great help later on. Like Furutani said, “…volunteer at a vet clinic to actually see if that’s really what you want to do first. In the last thirteen years, I’ve only known 1 person to go to vet school after they volunteered.” It is definitely a hard task, but if you’re sure you want to become a vet the rewards will definitely outweigh the hardships.

Veterinarians have to deal with animals whom kick, bite, scratch, and have infections and diseases that are easily transmitted. However, most vets live their job, like Furutani who said, “Yep. I’m lucky. Some people can’t say the same thing,” when asked if she felt the same about her job. “…when the pets are sick, and they’re really, really ill and you can get [them] to feel better and make a family happy. That’s rewarding, when you can get them better. It’s hard when you can’t get them better, that’s the sad part but it’s rewarding to get them back to what they’re supposed to be.” Even though vets “can’t save everybody’s pet,” as Furutani said, and they have to make phone calls and do paper work, they get to “play with the animals all day long.” As a matter of fact, veterinarians even help humans. They do research with other doctors and even helped conquer malaria.

If you want to become a vet but don’t want to work in an office or with a certain type of animal then it’s okay! The veterinary field isn’t a “one-way ticket.” Like Furutani said, “There’s a wide range on what kind of vet you want to be. You can be large animal [vet]; you can be a pig vet, chicken vet, horse vet…” You don’t have to treat only dogs and cats and work in an office. Some veterinarians prefer to treat larger animals, or just one type of animal. The variety of work is broad, and you can mix-and-match however you want. You can become a vet who works on household pets in a homey office, or one who works with large animals out in farms and ranches. You can become a researcher who works in a lab, or a marine vet who works with the dolphins at an aquarium. You could even work with exotic and wild animals and work in place like circuses and wildlife preserves.

Depending on what kind of work you do you can get a lot of vacation time and many traveling opportunities. Furutani, whose clinic is mainly for pets, such as dogs and cats, said, “I’ll attend conferences on the mainland or on the neighbor islands,” and, “I probably take off more than two weeks off a year.” So being a vet isn’t just work and no play. Exotic veterinarians travel the world, and vets who work on animals can tour through the countryside.

Once you graduate, get your state license, and start working you can begin working at a practice. . Finding a job in another practice is easy because there a lot of places to look. Your college will usually have a list of jobs; many online sites also post lists of possible employments; networking also works, since many people “know people”; schools need instructors and will usually employ students right after graduation. The government, however, is the biggest employer of veterinarians, so you usually have a guaranteed job there. Once you start working you may have to work longer and on weekends. Self-employed veterinarians have to work long and hard in order to forma sufficient client base, working weekend and nights if necessary. Furutani says, “I try to have the last appointment done by 4:40 so that I can get home to my family. Other clinics you can work 10, 12 hours a day. I choose not to.” Group practices taking turns being on call for evening, night, or weekend work.

Although working in a group practice is easier when you first start working, owning your own practice will allow you more freedom after you have enough clients and your own employees. Furutani said, “I built this clinic three years ago according to how I wanted it to built; I live a mile down the street; I make my own hours; if I want to take off for my kids I can take off for my kids.” “… working in somebody else’s clinic you work the hours they want you to work, you have limited amount of vacation, your pay is what they tell you it’s gonna be. Whereas this is… it depends on how hard I work, how much money I get paid. And my hours are what I want to make it. If I want to take off for vacation or my kids are sick I can just take off, I don’t have to ask anybody. I don’t have a boss to answer to except for myself.”

Veterinarians get paid a lot, even when they first start working. Furutani said, “Out of vet school, I guess starting salary right now can range form 40 to 60 thousand dollars. But as the time goes by you can work it up to 100 thousand to 200 thousand a year. It just depends on how much you want to work, and where you want to work.”

If you’re worrying that a need for veterinarians won’t be necessary in the future, then think again. People consider pets as part of the family, and conservation laws keep animals from being killed. This will cause a predicted 35% increase in the 2006-2016 decade, resulting in 84,000 jobs being held in 2016, which is a much faster increase than many other occupations. So now worries!

Veterinarians are people who have serious jobs and plenty of responsibilities—just ask Furutani, whose daily schedule goes like this: “…from 8 to 10 we are doing surgeries. So spades and neuters pretty much. Then during the day seeing… puppy checkups for vaccinations, sick dogs sick cats, birds, bunny rabbits, guinea pigs if they’re ill. Some wellness exams for the exotics, and then get lunch and either the appointments or if you saw something that needed surgery earlier that week, doing surgery on them later that week.” They don’t just do examinations, and like Furutani said, “Most people change their mind once they work at a vet clinic or come in and just shadow for a day. They realize what it’s really like, ‘cause in the [exam] room that’s maybe 20, 25% of our job. The rest is in the treatment area in the surgery room, taking x-rays, having animals on the I.V. at the hospital.”

For Furutani, all the responsibilities and risks of her job are worth being able to see and treat her favorite animal, dogs. “I like seeing the puppies come in. It’s fun to have a new owner come in… they’re willing to learn and they want to be educated about animals. That’s the fun part.”