Hanging Up His Stethoscope

From Clinic to Cross K full time: Long-time country veterinarian “Doc” Kennedy retires Dec. 2024 after five decades of practicing animal medicine

CLIFTON – Grey short-haired cat Macy is usually sweet tempered. But at the vet clinic, her inner devil surfaces – hissing, snarling, scratching and contorting her agile body so nobody can hold her – making the quick once-over exam and yearly vaccinations quite the ordeal.

Miserable, critically-ill 12-year-old lab mix Dusty lays her weary head down in the waiting room with her somewhat distraught owner – she senses it’s probably end game for her sweet old girl. Earlier in the morning, the vet was out in the barn lancing and flushing a large abscess on a heifer, and administering antibiotics to a donkey’s eyelid that had gotten lacerated on metal yard art.

Later that day, pregnancy checks during a ranch visit are on the books, after giving a nest of puppies their first round of vaccinations and de-wormer and setting up the appointment to spay the Basset Hound mother who had a fling with the neighbor’s Pyrenees livestock guardian dog. And there is the head of a skunk to send to the lab, to test it for rabies.

Oh wait, someone just called in about a colicky horse, which needs immediate attention. And on the way home, check in to review lab results that came in from clinic a few days ago especially those for the Frenchie with a urinary tract infection to make sure her kidneys are alright, and to check the planned surgeries on the books for tomorrow.

There is never a dull moment at a rural, mixed animal veterinary clinic. No day is the same, no pet is the same, and no owner is the same. At the heart of it, the veterinarian rolls with the punches and goes with the flow of the organized chaos of the clinic’s day to day, held together by the vet techs and receptionist.

A veterinarian’s job is both physically and mentally demanding – switching from diagnosing diseases and giving nutrition advice during clinic to arduous farm visits at the drop of a hat. Animal health emergencies never fit a neat schedule; uncooperative animals large and small and explaining an animal’s ailment to a distraught pet owner or a rancher that thinks they know better all come with the territory. And it can make for long days.

After 50 years of being a practicing veterinarian, “Doc” Dick Kennedy, DVM, 75 years old, is finally at a place that he is ready to retire from the profession he loves and has dedicated so much of his life to in December 2024. With his retirement, the community will miss a man that they knew through good times and sad with their animals, and the Clifton Veterinary Clinic will miss the man who was their anchor since 1985. They will miss his world of experience and encyclopedia of knowledge of animals and the community.

“We’re so grateful for his friendship and what he brought to the clinic when we bought it [in 2015]” Dr. Kaki Nicotre, DVM said. “He’s been very, very good to us, and we were so lucky that he stayed with us as long as he did. He is just really a stalwart of calm, strength and steadiness. Nothing changes with him, and there have been a lot of changes in the past nearly 10 years. He is such a welcoming, comforting presence. And he’s seen it all.”

The clinic is celebrating Doc and his service taking care of the community’s animal health needs for so many years with a Come and Go reception on Dec. 17 from 2 p.m. onwards.

Doc touched many lives over the course of his long career, and as such impacted the community on many levels. His clients will be sure to remember his kindness, thoughtfulness and depth of soul.

“Doc is really compassionate, and with his faith he can always see the end goal, and not take anything too seriously,” Nicotre said. She added that Doc is very funny with a dry sense of humor, and over the years she and the vet techs heard lots of jokes muttered under his breath.

In his five decades of working at a veterinarian, Doc said he went from “touch to tech,” meaning for example he went from palpating pregnancy checks to sophisticated ultrasound equipment. Practices went from being open on Saturday and on call 24/7 to having evenings and weekends off – except maybe during calving and lambing season. The family recalls that Christmas when a calving heifer interrupted the unwrapping of presents with Santa Claus.

Back in the early days of him practicing veterinarian medicine, there were no cell phones, so sometimes Doc would come home weary from pulling a calf only to have a message waiting regarding a cow with a prolapsed uterus. And there was no Google Maps or Waze to help.

The words “You need to come out, I have a cow down,” will always ring in Doc’s ears. As a new resident to the area, sketchy directions on where to find the farmer and the ailing animal, like “turn right at the Jones’ place and then again at the corner where that old oak used to be; there at the creek bottom” were a major challenge.

Doc would always advise a farmer to put a rope on the cow while waiting for him to arrive. Some farmers thought the cow wouldn’t be able to get up, but on seeing a tall stranger approaching them, they invariably found the super-natural strength to get up and bolt. “We did a lot of wild cow chasing back in the day,” Doc said with a wry smile.

Besides being smart, Doc says good communication and the ability to develop relationships is an important characteristic needed to become a successful and respected vet. For Celia, the transition from people calling for Doctor Kennedy to calling for “Doc,” showed how the community started to see him more as a helper and a friend; it showed the familiarity.

“Serving your community and being able to help people is important to me,” Doc said. “Working with people creates a relationship, and when I know I have done my best to help them, gives me a feeling of fulfillment.”

For Doc, the challenge as a veterinarian was to explain to people what was ailing their animal/pet on their level, without resorting to medical terms they might not understand. And with the internet, some pet owners come to the practice thinking they already know the diagnosis, and it’s up to the vet to offer any alternatives they might have overlooked. Through the years of treating animals, his focus shifted from seeing the animal from a purely medical standpoint to understanding what the animal meant to the family.

“The most rewarding thing for me now is when my clients tell me I helped or saved their pet, and that I understood what they were going through,” Doc said. “When I first started practice, I was more focused on helping the animal, but later the relationship with the owner became important. I learned that through the years.”

In communities throughout Texas, the veterinarian serves as the cog of livestock and animal care, yet many rural areas are experiencing a historical lack of veterinary service. With that in mind, the Clifton Veterinary Clinic is happy to welcome 2024 Vet School graduate Dr. Ashley Vahling. She and her young family moved to Texas from Illinois, and she’s ready to try and fill the large boots Doc Kennedy leaves behind.

The profession is undergoing a shift toward an increasing number of female veterinarians. What used to be a male-dominated profession, is now 75 percent female. In a statistic reflecting a national trend, women composed about three-quarters of Texas A&M’s graduating veterinarian class. There were 12 women in Doc’s 1974 graduating class of 128 students. Now there will be 12-15 men in a graduating class of 144 students.

Some studies indicate that female veterinarians, for many reasons, might not be as inclined to enter large-animal practice. And, like many other practices, over the years the focus at the Clifton practice flipped – going from 65 percent large animal and 35 percent small animals and pets to 15 percent large animals to 85 percent pets. Doc accredits this flip to the smaller family farms and ranches being sold as the kids dispersed to more urban locations. A new veterinary program at Texas Tech University in Lubbock started in 2021, focusses on producing more large animal vets.

And with that shift, sentiments towards pets have changed also. Doc recalls an old country vet joke that a farmer would come in with a sick dog, saying “Do what you need to, Doc, to save him, but I only have $25 with me.” On farms and ranches, livestock animals are a higher priority when it comes to the investment in medical treatment, they are after all the family’s livelihood.

Growing up a farm boy on a West Texas cattle and cotton operation, the youngest of three children, Doc always loved animals and knew he wanted to become a veterinarian. Before being accepted and transferring to the rigorous curriculum at Texas A&M in College Station, he had some pre-requisite courses like calculus, to get under his belt.

The two years at Tarleton State University in Stephenville for, proved life-changing, meeting Celia, a small-town girl from Valley Mills at a dance during the second semester of their freshman year. “She was smart, and the most well-read person you’ll ever meet,” Doc said. “And she was attractive.”

Celia was impressed with Doc’s ambition and on his perseverance during his studies, noting he was the first child in the family to go to college. She remembers relating to him, having come from a small town too; and that he was handsome. She also mentions another adjective that repeatedly shows up when people describe Doc: steady. “You can always count on him,” Celia said. “He’s steady; that’s just who he is.”

But without his partner, Doc would have never been able to practice his profession in his dedicated way. Family and faith are both immensely important to the couple, and are the driving force in all they do. They became inseparable and married in 1971 after Doc received his Animal Science degree and started vet school in College Station. Their relationship transitioned to a long-distance one, held together with letters and an occasional phone call.

The veterinary program is a long one, requiring an understanding anatomy, physiology, disease processes and treatment options for all species of animals – cows, horses, goats, pigs, dogs, cats, birds, and the less common reptiles and rodents that are showing up as pets – think tortoise, iguana, ferret and gerbils.

Working as a high school English teacher, Celia’s paycheck, scholarships and the future vet working at the highway department, helped pay Doc’s way through Veterinary School and complete it without debts in 1974.

Nowadays, veterinary students easily rack up a $100,000 debt before receiving their coveted diploma. Texas currently has both state and federally funded programs to help repay part of a veterinarian’s student loan debt if they relocate to an under-served area. The purpose of the state’s Rural Veterinarian Incentive Program is to encourage veterinarians to practice in qualifying rural Texas counties. This program provides educational loan repayment assistance or payment of tuition and fees of up to $180,000 to eligible veterinarians and veterinary medicine students in return for commitment to work in designated rural areas in Texas.

Another initiative to encourage veterinary students to consider a rural practice is the Rural Veterinary Preclinical Externship Program. Clifton, Hico and Hamilton all welcomed students from this pilot program Texas to complete two-week preclinical externships under the guidance of mentors and community leaders in rural veterinary practices.

After a large animal residency in Colorado, a stint in the Mansfield area for a classmate and practicing veterinary science in San Saba for 10 years, the young family with three kids aged six, eight and 10 came to Clifton in 1985 when Doc became an associate for Dr. Lloyd Hampe. The clinic had just moved to its present location south of town. At the time, Texas Safari was still open, and the vets included exotics, like rhinos and ostriches and even a Bengal tiger cub to their list of patients.

Family, faith, love, and animals were the strong foundation on which they built their life. With the walls of his office at the clinic covered with memories and photos of family and friends, they surrounded Doc always, even when away from home. Reuse and recycle as well as plant and grow guided much of the activities around the 1906 homestead. They bought the home overlooking the Bosque River flood plains south of Clifton shortly after moving to Clifton. Over the next couple of years, starting with a kitchen, electric, plumbing and bathrooms, they lovingly entirely renovated their home–and the kids remember all the years without central HVAC.

“He’s an earth person,” Daughter in Law Kat said. “And his picks up strays; people, animals, stuff.” For example, three-year old Border Collie Scout was taken in when her original family found her hyper, herding ways a little too hard to handle. An original chuck wagon in the family forest was gifted to him by a former client. And the Kennedys took in girlfriends and boyfriends as their own.

Much of their furniture is vintage and has been gathered throughout the years. Salvaged planks and windows and the old sink that had laid around for 35 years recently were repurposed in a greenhouse Doc intends to use more frequently in retirement. The old barn/garage was repainted red with white trim has served as the perfect colorful backdrop for “Count Your Blessings” family photos. A new large metal barn called “The Bunkhouse” is home base for regular cousin camps for the grandchildren aged 10-20. A repurposed locker plant door closes off the pantry. Each year the grandchildren could look forward to finding another addition to their camp – from swings, a doll house, an All Terrain Vehicle. And the large cross to which the ranch owes its name “Cross K” has been to many of the family’s main events, like weddings. Two Aggie Oaks stand on both sides of the back gate; planted in honor of their eldest son who died in an aircraft accident during his military service. Additionally, the Burr Oak Family Forest grew as the family grew, rooting the 15 family members to the Cross K.

Never one for idle hands, Doc added cows, and then chickens and then the extensive vegetable garden to the homestead. Any visitor went home with fresh produce, eggs or some homemade jellies. Even with the busy practice, a gifted athlete himself, Doc found the time to coach his sons’ baseball teams. With the children all going to school, Celia became a much beloved fourth-grade teacher at the Clifton school, embedding her in the community also. She sees many of her then students return to the community they grew up in after college, to raise their children here.

Taking his time in the morning, holding a cup of coffee, he will look out onto their little piece of paradise on earth, the picturesque and peaceful Cross K. After a short check on the cattle with Scout riding shotgun in the ATV, he might look into the seeds he has for next spring’s vegetable garden. Some Burr oaks in the Family Forest succumbed to the years of drought followed by some hard freezes in the winter, so he’ll look into getting those replaced. And he’ll consider replacing the bee hives that didn’t survive the hard weather – the orchard needs their pollinators after all. There’s always fencing to fix. The barn needs to be ready for the family Christmas.

Doc smiles as he sees the mural in the barn of Celia and him looking out over the Cross K – a memory left after a Cousin Camp. Maybe the kids need a Foosball or ping pong table in there? And besides tending the cattle herd of about 30 head, his extensive garden, green house and orchard, he thinks of all the traveling he and Celia will be doing – not to see the world but to attend the nine grandchildren’s sports events that include long distance running, swimming, football, baseball, basketball. Retirement life will be good, and fulfilling, doing the things they love, in their own pace.

Photos by SIMONE WICHERS-VOSS & courtesy of the KENNEDY FAMILY