Veterinarian Overview
Some of the earliest and fondest memories of my childhood involve the pets that I have enjoyed over the years. Dogs and cats naturally but also lizards, chameleons, birds and fish. As a teenager I also owned five rabbits. At that time I believed that breeding my rabbits was my ticket to fame and fortune. I am embarrassed to admit but retrospectively happy to recall that I was unsuccessful in the simple enterprise of breeding rabbits. I graduated the New York State Veterinary College at Cornell University in 1969 fulfilling my life long ambition to become a veterinarian. In 1970 I adopted my very first cat who I named Vashti. Vashti was a beautiful black female short haired cat with gorgeous golden eyes. She was the very first cat for whom I was solely responsible. Vashti converted me from a dog person (I also owned a dog named Spock at that time) to an ailurophile (cat lover). I spent the first five years of my career working for other veterinarians in the metropolitan area, with both dogs and cats as my patients. In 1972 with my cat Vashti as my inspiration, I decided that I could be a much better veterinarian if I limited my practice just to cats. In pursuit of this objective, I devoted the next two years of my leisure time reading feline literature both professional and non-professional. In August 1974, I opened the Forest Hills Cat Hospital on Austin Street in Forest Hills. Shortly after I opened the office, my staff and I adopted our first office cat, Puss-Puss (not a name of our choosing) a 2 year old long haired female cat. Puss-Puss shared with us the early and difficult growing years of our practice and many, many lunches. Puss-Puss graced our office for nearly twenty wonderful years. Over the years both the numbers of our patients grew as did the size of our staff. In July 1998 we moved from Forest Hills to our current roomier and better equipped facility in Gendale. I am currently a member of the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) and the American Association of Feline Practitioners (AAFP). For more than twenty five years I have been a member of the Research Committee of the AAFC and for more than twelve years, I served as chairperson of that committee. My wife, Dr Zita Goldfinger is also a Veterinarian. Unfortunately she has developed allergies to dogs and cats. Thus other than our daughter and son we have no mammalian pets in our home. However, of the non mammalian variety of pets, we own two Sun Conures and a Bearded Dragon.
