Born in a small town in western part of Washington, Dr. Thompson was raised in the even smaller lumber mill and cow town of Anderson, California. A west coast son and youngest of 4 children born New England parents: father a CPA for lumber company and mother a 'good old fashioned' City Hostess for a town of 300. He spent his youth barefoot and wearing cut-off shorts from prior years' school pants roaming wide open spaces enjoying ranches and orchards, visiting mills, swimming in rivers, creeks and ponds. When he did not make it home for lunch, he grazed on wild berries, nuts and fruit borrowed from orchard trees and warm raw eggs from ranch hen houses. He knew when milking time was at the dairy for a glass of fresh cow body temperature milk. He never got good at hand milking cows, however! It seems, however, that he never seemed to arrive at home without pockets full of bugs or birds, snakes, frogs, rabbits and anything else he could befriend or dissect. On his wanderings, Dr. Thompson collected releasable baby toads and frogs that he sold 3 for 10 cents to the neighborhood families to keep bugs and flies down. And so the path to being a veterinarian and entrepreneur was formed.
On his 13th birthday in 1964, he was awarded the honor of Eagle Scout in the Boy Scouts of America. He got those silly good grades in school and was becoming an entrepreneur. Dr. Thompson worked at the local printing company, dry cleaners and the local variety store. He had his residential and vendor paper routes; mowed lawns and did pet sitting; sold greeting cards, soap, candy and nuts door to door. In the summers now he had to trade his bare back and bare feet for a tee shirt and pair of Converse sneakers that pedaled him miles and miles each week on his Western Flyer bicycle doing his ˜jobs'. School buses did not have bike racks back then and he worked after school each day, so he bicycled to school, rain or shine, 6 miles each way and only one was uphill!!. Once a month he collected current issue magazines from donors and delivered them to the rest homes, house bound people and to people of the Methodist Church who could not afford them. As his father's health was failing, from WWII military related kidney disease, Dr. Thompson took a greater role in caring for him. His father's kidney disease eventually culminated in going onto hemodialysis in early 1964. When his father was accepted to have a Drake-Willock hemodialysis machine, installed at the family home, Dr. Thompson was selected to be trained with his mom on how to clean, sterilize, service and connect his dad to the machine, via the Quinton-Scribner indwelling Teflon dialysis cannula, for nocturnal dialysis. In the mid 1960's his dad had two kidney transplants, albeit unsuccessful, but he learned a lot about medicine spending hours read patient charts, under the scowling nurse's eyes at SF Medical. Yet another step towards a goal in medicine was formed.
Dr. Thompson became even more self-sufficient, and around the town he was a mini icon entrepreneur at only 4' tall. In high school, not reaching 5' tall until my junior year, he was the mini smarty pants that the upper class men liked to use as an unwilling dumpster diver, never was anything useful in them except garbage, and then after several garbage dunks: chuck him into the canal. At least he was clean and dry by the time he got home! It was not as bad as it seems when years later the same ˜jocks' thanked him for tutoring them through math and science. After the purchase of a 1955 Chevy, in 1967, he had greater mobility. For $1.00 a day, Dr. Thompson chauffeured the math teacher to and from school, just as his older brother had until he graduated. That job had the perk of keeping him out of the dumpster, but boy did he get grilled hard on any missed test questions and not just on math tests but all tests!! He was not allowed to start the car until he had answered all missed questions correctly. FYI gas was $0.17 a gallon then so he showed a profit each month. Dr. Thompson was becoming a businessman.
His passion for veterinary medicine was solidified while working at the Asher Veterinary Clinic in Redding, CA. He had already been accepted to the University of California, Davis when he graduated from high school at age 17. Within a month of high school graduation, he had secured a part-time retail clerk job at Pay ˜N Save, purchased a small mobile home, and moved he and his cat to Davis, California. He had help from home, my savings and a pile of honors, honorariums and scholarships in science academics that helped fund his first year at UCD. Sadly at only 44 years of age his dad died as Dr. Thompson's freshman year at UCD was ending. Now he had to put all his early education to work and prove he could pay for his own education and become the veterinarian he strived to be.
Now working full time, with being awarded a 4 year scholarship from the Oakland Scottish Rite / Scaife Scholarship Foundation, fast forward to application to and acceptance to UCD School of Veterinary Medicine. After just 3 years of undergraduate studies, he had also been accepted to UC San Francisco School of Medicine with a full ride scholarship and offer of Fellowship in transplantation medicine. However, he followed his first love in medicine and in the fall of 1972 at age 20, married for two years, started his official veterinary education. He turned 20 during his first week of classes along with the announcement that his first child was in the oven. Cheri was born in March 1973 and Dr. Thompson's bachelor's degree in Veterinary Science was awarded.
The next four years were a blur of grueling class schedules, challenging curriculum content, VMTH Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital tour director, diapers and toddler, work, senior class treasurer, and camaraderie with 94 classmates. They ushered in the pilot program for the new wave veterinary education track programs. They survived the Vietnam War, campus unrest and social revolution of the mid-sixties to mid-seventies. As a class they were known as the Spirit '76 celebrating their graduation with the 200th birthday of the USA. And a spirited class, they were breaking about every school rule there was and won nearly every "battle" for change that they stood for in improvement in education and patient care. They were the class that produced more future professors, researchers, Diplomats, veterinary military officers and other notables in veterinary medicine than any class in recent school history. As Dr. Thompson entered his 4th year of vet school, it was announced that he was to be a father, again. Just weeks before the National and State Board exams, Jeremy was board in April of 1976.
Graduation came in June 1976 and he found himself employed back in the practice where he had worked as a kennel boy. He was the wet-behind-the-ears veterinarian, who had just had braces removed from his teeth and younger that most of the other employees and staff veterinarians. Now at 24, cutting his college long hair and full beard, Dr. Thompson entered clinical practice looking like a 12-year-old baby faced kid. His talents were soon appreciated by clients, and in 1978, he bought into the Asher Veterinary Clinic as a junior partner.
1980 brought significant changes with a divorce and the opportunity to purchase the practice outright. With the help of a prime plus 5 % adjustable SBA loan, he was "the" boss and sole practice owner. The early '80s proved a challenging time to have a variable note when prime went to 23% and he was paying the government 28% interest on his loan. Determined spirit, hard work, leading by example and past experiences he not only survived the economic times, but also grew the practice to five full-time veterinarians. As a down side, they were outgrowing the physical building they were in, even though they could house 132 pets at any one time. Dr. Thompson paid off his SBA loan and it was time to expand.
In 1989, Dr. Thompson selected the site for his expansion into a second hospital. Along with construction, he was managing a thriving hospital, 24 hours emergency service and nearly 50 employees: challenging to say the least! In 1990 he opened his second hospital in Redding: the Companion Animal Veterinary Hospital. During this time, he had been appointed by then governor Jerry Brown to sit on the Board of Visitors for the School of Veterinary Medicine and eventually invited to sit on the Commission to select a new Dean for the Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital. Though all of this he had an epiphany, he had too much management and not enough medicine; too much work and not enough fun!
In 1991 Dr. Thompson sold the Asher Veterinary Clinic to VCA and in 1993 he sold the Companion Animal Veterinary Hospital to VCA. After recovering from a 1994 devastating injury, it was time to pursue his real passion: feline medicine and surgery. This decision predicated he had to leave his home town of 40+ years. In December 1995, he opened the Feline Medical Center in Reno, Nevada. Yahoo! Fast forward again 17 years and in 2013 he found himself in his middle sixties with a thriving feline exclusive practice and married 28 years to Judy Ann.
Another epiphany came to light. After 35+ years of practice ownership, he decided to turn the reins over once again. He wanted to enjoy his clients and feline patients and not take the baggage of management home every night. Once again, he sold his practice to VCA.
