Some of my earliest and fondest childhood memories involve the pets I have enjoyed—dogs and cats, naturally, but also lizards, chameleons, birds, and fish. As a teenager, I also owned five rabbits. At that time, I believed breeding my rabbits was my ticket to fame and fortune. I am embarrassed to admit but retrospectively happy to recall that I was unsuccessful in the “simple” enterprise of breeding rabbits. I graduated from the New York State Veterinary College at Cornell University in 1969, fulfilling my lifelong ambition to become a veterinarian. In 1970 I adopted my very first cat, who I named Vashti. Vashti was a beautiful black female short-haired cat with gorgeous golden eyes. She was the very first cat for whom I was solely responsible. Vashti converted me from a dog person (I also owned a dog named Spock at that time) to an ailurophile (cat lover).
I spent the first five years of my career working for other veterinarians in the metropolitan area, with dogs and cats as my patients. In 1972 with my cat Vashti as my inspiration, I decided that I could be a much better veterinarian if I limited my practice to cats. In pursuit of this objective, I devoted the next two years of my leisure time to reading feline literature, both professional and non-professional. In August 1974, I opened the Forest Hills Cat Hospital on Austin Street in Forest Hills. Shortly after I opened the office, my staff and I adopted our first office cat, Puss-Puss (not a name of our choosing), a 2-year-old long-haired female cat. Puss-Puss shared with us the early and challenging growing years of our practice and many lunches. Puss-Puss graced our office for nearly twenty wonderful years.
Over the years, the number of our patients grew, as did the size of our staff. In July 1998, we moved from Forest Hills to our current roomier and better-equipped facility in Glendale.
I am currently a member of the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) and the American Association of Feline Practitioners (AAFP). For more than twenty-five years, I have been a member of the Research Committee of the AAFC, and for more than twelve years, I served as chairperson of that committee.
My wife, Dr. Zita Goldfinger, is also a Veterinarian. Unfortunately, she has developed allergies to dogs and cats. Thus other than our daughter and son, we have no mammalian pets. However, of the nonmammalian variety of pets, we own two Sun Conures and a Bearded Dragon.