Her ‘person’ is a vet.
And that vet goes by the name of Dr Lauren Kelly.
She’s one of three business partners who run the Cobram and Yarrawonga vet clinics.
While Lauren is originally a Mudgee girl and Lacey hails from Coolamon, the pair now calls Koonoomoo home.
“We love it there, plenty of space and it’s quiet. We have three horses, two cats, oh and a donkey. They all get along, surprisingly,” Lauren said.
With a scientific understanding of all dogs great and small, why did Lauren decide on a Dalmatian?
“Dalmatians are unique. They are very loyal, but you have to have persistence when you’re training them,” Lauren said.
The breed, made famous by the Disney film 101 Dalmatians, is not to be underestimated according to Lauren.
“People assume they have the temperament of Labradors, but they behave much more like a pointer,” Lauren said.
In Lauren’s line of work, she bears witness to some sad endings and in her personal pet life she has experienced her fair share too.
“When I was studying vet science at Charles Sturt Uni in Wagga I had a foster Dalmatian and sadly lost them to a snakebite when I was travelling overseas,” she said.
Purchasing Lacey was meant to fill a void, and from what Country News witnessed when visiting the Yarrawonga Vet Clinic, Lacey has delivered on that.
A love of dogs runs in the family, with Lauren’s parents breeding dachshunds.
“They had bred their last ever litter and despite the mum and dad both being short-haired, they threw this one long-haired pup, which I ended up taking. Her name was Millie, so I had two pups born a week apart, Millie and Lacey,” Lauren said.
“They were a super dooper bonded pair, so it broke my heart when we lost Millie about a year ago.”
The silver lining was that Lacey got the green light on coming to work, because Lauren couldn’t bring herself to leave her home alone.
The spotted hound appears very at ease at the clinic while Lauren gets on with the job of fixing small animals, carrying out surgeries and helping pets with reproductive assistance.
With eight vets servicing the two clinics, there is rarely a dull moment, but at the end of the day, Lacey and Lauren are happy to get home among the gum trees, where they can enjoy the peace and quiet of the bush.
On patrol at work, Lacey feels at home at the vet clinics in Cobram and Yarrawonga.