Wants to combine boutique, clinic
Dave Sullivan
Northern News Services
Yellowknife (May 23/01) - The owner of the North's only veterinary clinic has bought out his ex-wife and another partner in a Yellowknife horse stable business.
Dr. Tom Pisz also takes over Joanna Jonkisz's half-interest in the Pet Boutique, a pet supply store.
The couple and Nunda Rao built North Country Stables in 1997. Pisz took over the stables, located near the airport, for an undisclosed price May 15.
Pisz's main business is the Great Slave Animal Hospital, which he started 14 years ago across town in the Kam Lake Industrial Park.
"The long-term plan is to join the properties by building a clinic by the stables," Pisz said.
Eight of the clinic's 12 employees work full time, with another employee looking after the stables.
The purchase made sense for Pisz because "the two (businesses) will support each other in many ways."
The stables, for example, use medicine from the clinic.
Pisz and a second veterinarian working in his clinic, Dr. Kim Elkin, cover the entire NWT and much of Nunavut, he said.
They don't travel as much as they used to because of high transportation costs.
Pisz used to cover the South Slave area until a couple years ago, when Dr. David Stickney, a vet based in Manning, Alta., converted an 18-wheeler transport truck into a mobile animal clinic which makes regular stops in communities such as Hay River and Fort Simpson.
The lack of agriculture in the North hasn't kept Pisz idle. With sled dog teams, and a large number of residents owning everything from cats and rabbits to birds, "we're busy," he said.
Pisz, who has been working with horses for 30 years, keeps nine of his own in North Country Stables and is boarding six others, leaving just three vacant stables.
Four years ago he built the only indoor riding arena North of 60.
He also operates dog boarding kennels and runs the city's dog pound, keeping a family tradition very much alive.
His father was a veterinarian, and one of his two daughters, Jola, has begun training to become one.
