On a warm April morning, Taylor Gaines ’13, has a short visit with one of his regular patients, who is typically anxious and standoffish. This is the reason why Gaines goes directly to this family’s home for checkups.

Before the treatment, Gaines collects some information from his clients and sets up his supplies, while the patient sits comfortably on the couch in the living room, purring. Gray with white patches, Poe is a cat who has arthritis, and today she will be getting her regular treatment to manage it. Gaines, a vet who does home visits, will give Poe her second dose of Solensia, which numbs the feeling of arthritis, and he also plans on trimming her nails. 

Gaines picks Poe up and wraps her in a swaddle blanket for more control and so Poe will feel more at ease. Gaines quickly gives her the shot, to which she responds with a hiss, but after this, nothing more painful will take place. 

Poe doesn’t seem too happy about Gaines trimming her nails, but she doesn’t make much of a fuss. As soon as her treatment is all done, Poe continues her day as normal and runs over to eat from her food bowl.

Gaines talks with his clients about helping Poe maintain a consistent weight, and from there the visit wraps up. Gaines will see Poe again soon.

Take the time to figure out what you love

Gaines did not begin his UMBC career thinking he’d be swaddling cats as part of his living. Originally, he majored in biochemistry and molecular biology to combine his favorite subjects from high school. Later, he added a minor in statistics, but it wasn’t until his senior year that he realized he wanted to be a veterinarian.

“In my junior year, it finally dawned on me what biochemistry was—the chemistry of living things. That led me into veterinary medicine, and my interest in how the chemicals in the medicines we use are interacting with the body,” he said.

After his junior year at UMBC, Gaines signed up for an organic chemistry summer research program at Texas A&M University that focused on drug design. But as he worked through the program, he found himself spending his mornings at Texas A&M’s veterinary school, talking to people about their experience, “And I said, ‘Okay, this is what I actually want to do.’ I didn’t go to college with an idea of what I wanted to do,” says Gaines. “I didn’t find it until I had one year left of undergrad.”

Gaines channeled this newfound understanding, and after UMBC, he graduated from the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine with a doctorate of veterinary medicine and a master’s of public health. “I like the problem-solving aspect of veterinary medicine. I always say, I could probably be an auto mechanic or something similar, too. It’s the same job,” says Gaines. “Figure out a problem and try to solve it—work within constraints, people’s budgets, and things like that. That’s just a fun challenge, and you get to help people out, and they’re appreciative. I like all that stuff—it’s a very fun job.”

Gaines remembers how helpful the professors at UMBC were in fostering his success and helping him to figure out that he wanted to become a veterinarian. “I was able to work in Dr. Mauricio Bustos’s biology lab at UMBC. That led to me getting into that program at Texas A&M, and eventually, that’s how I found vet med.” 

“It’s cool to learn there”

Standing in front of a play structure, Gaines watches his 3-year-old daughter, Opal, on the playground. Gaines explains that he enjoys the variety his job as a veterinarian gives him. Aside from doing house calls, he also works at a veterinary hospital. “One day a week I do house calls; on Wednesdays I do surgery; and Fridays I do office visits in the hospital. So every day is different,” he says. 

Not only this, but he enjoys the flexibility it offers his schedule. “Like right now, I’m here watching my daughter. I’m able to provide for my family without working all the time,” he explains.

Prior to starting Catonsville Doc on the Go—his house-call veterinary business—in 2020, Gaines was working for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, an office job working in the export of animal products. “I found the office job unfulfilling, so I made a plan to transition to what you’d normally think of a vet—hands-on working with animals.”

Gaines met his now wife at UMBC, coincidentally, also named Taylor (Westhoff ’13). She majored in modern languages and linguistics, studying Spanish. “We never actually had any classes together, but we just met through a friend group,” he says. 

“We always say we appreciate how focused on academics UMBC is,” says Gaines. “It’s not like you have to like a football team or be in a fraternity—you can just go there and learn. It’s cool to learn there.”

For now, Gaines says, he’s satisfied with his Doc on the Go business and that he enjoys making house calls. Sometimes it allows him the opportunity to treat more unique pets. “It is nice that you get to see things that people might not bring to the vet. I’ve done parrots, parakeets, and rats,” he says.

Opal chimes in, “And chickens!”  

“And chickens, you’re right,” he replies.

“What did you say?” is the phrase most likely to be heard when you’re walking the halls at Baltimore Animal Rescue and Care Shelter (BARCS) and the answer is most likely drowned out by a cacophony of barks, meows, and even some bird chirps. But Liz Willman wouldn’t have it any other way. 

As most animal lovers do at some point in childhood, Willman decided she wanted to be a veterinarian when she grew up. But unlike most kids, it wasn’t just a phase for this rising senior. That passion for pets brought her to UMBC—where she’s pursuing a major in biological sciences on the pre-vet track—and she’s honed her animal care skills as far as Scotland and as close as BARCS, just a few miles down the road from UMBC.

Dog days of summer

After starting as a volunteer dog walker at BARCS in fall of 2022, Willman accrued experience and staff there asked her to consider moving to the next level of volunteering. But she countered with the request to find an internship opportunity working with their medical professionals. They accepted, and in January 2023, Willman was able to start getting  hands-on experience in her field. For the last several months, Willman has been continuing her work with BARCS medical staff with one short break to  to work with animals across the pond as well. 

“The best part for me is getting to see an animal come for intake on their first day, and then seeing the progress they make,” she says. 

Left: Willman takes a minute to give Ovenmitts (with her extra thumbs!) some love. Right: Willman reviews daily medication and the animal schedules with a BARCS staff member. (Marlayna Demond ’11/UMBC)

Each day, Willman performs a variety of tasks, including distributing medication, checking weights, collecting samples, and more. The staff at BARCS have been especially supportive, taking care to seek out Willman and offer opportunities for hands-on learning. 

“Any time they see something that might interest me, they come find me,” she says. “They know I plan to go on to veterinary school, so they’ve been taking the time to teach me how to do a lot of things vet techs struggle with.” 

Taking to the sky

In addition to her classroom education and work at BARCS, Willman spent six weeks this summer interning with the Scottish National Wildlife Rescue Center. When Willman originally approached UMBC’s education abroad office, trying to find summer trips with a pre-vet focus there wasn’t an existing program, but the office worked with her to find one that would fulfill her requirements. 

Photos of Willman with the animals she worked with in Scotland, courtesy of Willman.

During this time abroad, Willman worked to rehabilitate birds that were injured or abandoned by their parents when they were still too young to care for themselves, performing daily exams and helping to build their strength to prepare them to return to the wild. This experience abroad was one with several firsts for Willman, including her first time leaving the country and her first foray into working with wildlife. 

“It wasn’t only a new experience for me to be working with wildlife, but it was also wildlife that you don’t see in the U.S., like finches native to the United Kingdom,” she says. 

Returning to Maryland this summer, Willman had both her work at BARCS and her own family zoo waiting for her. It’s no surprise an interest in caring for animals hits close to home for her—especially considering her family home in the outskirts of Frederick County has goats, sheeps, dogs, pigs, chickens, and even a registered emotional support turtle named Rumpelstiltskin who accompanies Willman to campus. But her internship experiences added an extra boost in confidence.

“It has just really reaffirmed that I’m not just trying to live out my childhood dream,” says Willman. “I’m meant to do this.”