HANOVER — Yes, the doctor will make house calls.
No, she won’t see you, but she will see your pet.
Abbie Fisher, a Hanover veterinarian, has launched No Place Like Home, a mobile veterinary practice to offer in-home health care for small animals (like dogs and cats) in the Upper Valley.
Fisher, who previously worked at Lyme Veterinary Hospital, will show up at the homes of pet owners with a “tackle box” of medical instruments and medications to provide annual wellness examinations, vaccinations, fecal screenings and blood work within a 25-mile radius of Hanover.
“Around the country, mobile vet care is becoming a popular niche, and anywhere other than the Upper Valley, there are lots of veterinarians doing this,” Fisher said. Her mobile practice will treat pet illnesses such as eye and ear infections, skin infections, and gastrointestinal problems.
Having the vet come to your home, Fisher said, is helpful when “your cat is overdue for his rabies shot, and you don’t want to put him in the car and take him to the vet” or for families busy with kids as well as “people with mobility issues.”
Her mobile vet practice will include staple instruments of her trade, including a microscope powered by her vehicle’s electrical power, so she can decipher if the pet’s problem is a bacterial or fungal infection.
Fisher noted that she will not be able to provide at-home veterinary procedures that require anesthesia or if the pet is acutely ill, but she can quickly connect the client with a hospital in event of an emergency.
For now, Fisher will make the rounds in her car, but she expects to purchase a white sprinter van within the next few months. She also will be able to administer at-home euthanasia in order to minimize the trauma of the most painful decision pet owners ever have to make.
Information on how to make an appointment with Fisher is available on her website at nplhvet.com.
They share a name. They each are in the home building supply business. And they both have been longtime fixtures in the Upper Valley.
Beyond that, the month of February could not have turned out more different for each company.
Blodgett’s Sash & Door, the Lebanon designer and installer of kitchens, baths, windows and doors, has filed for bankruptcy protection and closed its Mechanic Street location.
At the same time, Blodgett Supply in White River Junction has a new owner.
Blodgett’s Sash & Door, owned by Jonathan Blodgett, of Lebanon, filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy on Feb. 7, listing about $90,000 in liabilities and about $62,000 in assets, according to its petition filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Concord.
“It was 31-and-a-half years,” Blodgett said of his Mechanic Street business. “We put everything we had into it, but in the end it just didn’t work.”
Blodgett said his business suffered from a distressingly familiar fate among Upper Valley small businesses and store owners in recent years: Online sales and services have siphoned away customers.
Blodgett cited a common complaint heard among other longtime Upper Valley businesses: Hoped-for customers would walk in, inspect floor samples, ask questions, take pictures on their phones — and then leave only to buy online what they saw in the store.
“Our sales diminished,” Blodgett said. “The last four to five years weren’t a lot of fun.”
Meanwhile, Vermont-based plumbing, heating and air conditioning equipment wholesaler and large appliance retailer Blodgett Supply has been acquired by Pennsylvania-based Hajoca Corp.
Hajoca describes itself as the nation’s largest privately owned wholesale distributor of plumbing, heating and industrial supplies, with more than 700 locations around the country operating under local names.
Williston, Vt.-based Blodgett Supply — which is not related to Blodgett’s Sash & Door — has seven locations in three states. In 2014, the company opened a new 7,400-square-foot building on Route 5 in White River Junction to replace its old structure near Hartford High School.
Hajoca’s purchase “will allow Blodgett to leverage the advantages of being part of a larger company, with advanced technology, training and development and access to additional product lines and services,” according to The Beringer Group, a Pennsylvania-based consultant that specializes in advising midsize family owned companies and which was hired by the owners of Blodgett Supply to “explore transition options.”
Blodgett grew significantly by adding new locations and adding new product lines under Chairman and Chief Executive Sam Levin, a former WCAX-TV account executive who joined the company in the 1980s and retired with the sale of the company. Over the past year, Levin gradually had handed over day-to-day management of Blodgett Supply to a new team led by Jim Howard, president.
News items of interest to the local business community are published in the Business & Money section of the Sunday Valley News. Submissions may be sent by email to: biznotes@vnews.com (high-resolution photographs may be attached in .jpg format). Items are edited for clarity and space.
John Lippman can be reached at jlippman@vnews.com.
