New vet carries on tradition: ‘We’re going to care for them just like family’

As a 16-year-old, Paige Fawcett worked for a veterinarian who put people and their pets first.

She said that’s unlike some practices that put their businesses first instead. So when Fawcett looked to run her own vet clinic, she said she was thrilled to find Garry Cowan’s East Douglas Veterinary Clinic near Kellogg and Rock Road.

“It’s very family oriented,” Fawcett said.

She said Cowan is “just an honest, hardworking man.”

“To finally find that again in a clinic I wanted to buy is really refreshing.”

Fawcett has purchased the clinic, and Cowan will fully retire within a couple of months.

“I did look at quite a few clinics to be honest,” Fawcett said.

She did some relief work at Cowan’s practice, and she said that’s when she realized how much he cared for pets and their parents as well as his staff.

“Dr. Cowan really just wanted someone to take over and care for his clients,” she said. “It was just a perfect fit, really.”

A family-oriented business is important to Fawcett since she has three children under the age of 4. She also has several dogs and cats, too.

Fawcett’s husband, Daniel Gonzalez, is a partner in Northridge Playcare & Boarding, and she said he has more free time than she does to help with their family while she works, though she said a good work-life balance for everyone at her practice is important to her.

Bailey Vaughn Cyrus of Commercial Collective handled the purchase of the business for Fawcett along with Collective owner Stephanie Wise, who also is a Sedgwick County commissioner.

East Douglas Veterinary Clinic, which is at 8118 E. Douglas, mainly cares for dogs and cats, though on a rare occasion Fawcett said she’ll see pocket pets and exotic animals.

Fawcett is keeping the name and the staff, though she said in the future she’ll be moving to computer-based records rather than the paper ones that Cowan long favored.

She also hopes to one day have two or three veterinarians working at the clinic, so she expects she’ll need more space eventually.

Mostly, though, Fawcett said her goal is to offer care just like the kind people show their pets.

“We’re going to care for them just like family.”