By: Charles Romans
Carter County Times
It was 1995 when Donald “Doc” Gibson came to Grayson, from Maysville, to start his own practice. Ready to branch out on his own after beginning his career with a clinic in his hometown, Gibson visited Grayson to check out the practice vacated by longtime Grayson veterinarian Dr. Rodney Gross.
“There were two little exam rooms (in the original location),” Cindy Gibson explained, noting how tight space was before their 2012 move to their current location on Main Street. Since then, they’ve expanded to five exam rooms, allowing them to add another doctor and increase their staff. But, at the time, the location was exactly what Doc needed to get started.
“I guess that practice had been closed about a year,” Cindy explained.
Doc had heard about it, came down to give it a look, and was sold.
“He came down, took a look at everything, and went to local banks and gave them his business plan,” Cindy said. “He told them what he wanted to do, and Commercial Bank (of Grayson) said, ‘We’ll bring you here.’ So, in ’95 he bought that, renovated it, and opened on July 5, 1995.”
His first client, Cindy noted, was local attorney and philanthropist Bob Caummisar – whose animals Gibson still cares for. Caummisar had an emergency on July 4, before the clinic was officially open, and brought a dog to Gibson for treatment.
“For our 20 year anniversary, Bob wrote a poem about it, and it’s actually on the wall at the clinic,” Cindy noted.
For their 30th anniversary, she said, they want to look back on those milestone events, but also toward the future and growth of the clinic.
Festivities kick off at 2 p.m. this Friday, with food, clinic tours, door prizes, a petting zoo, and pony rides. Then, as the evening draws in they will transition to the live entertainment portion of the celebration.
“At 6 (p.m.) we’ll have Dustin Burchett and Phillip Green start the music. Then, at 7, we’ll have Big Catt Daddy playing for our parking lot party.”
Cindy, Doc, and the rest of the staff encourage everyone to stop in, bring their children, have a hot dog, take a look around, and celebrate 30 years of healing Carter County’s critters with them.
Contact the writer at editor@cartercountytimes.com
