When I first met Joyce Karst, my inclination was to show her the nearest exit. Here stood a woman in wrinkled, worn clothing. Her eyeglasses were smudged and rested halfway down her nose. Whatever attempts had been made to tame her hair had been undone by driving in a rusted pick-up truck whose windows couldn't roll up. Learning just how wrong a first impression could be has been one of the highlights of my career.

Joyce works as a lab technician. When she isn't at her place of employment, she's hard at work for the welfare of cats on the San Francisco Peninsula. Joyce has identified four feral cat colonies in the Half Moon Bay area, in addition to one each in Santa Clara and Mountain View. She feeds these cats 365 days of the year. Cats are trapped, then presented to either our clinic or to the Palo Alto Animal Services Spay/Neuter Clinic. They are FeLV tested, spayed or neutered, and receive necessary medical care. In the past five years, Joyce has trapped over 800 cats! She has funded this project entirely through her own resources. Although we offer her a modest discount on care of the feral cats, her expenditures for this work are daunting. Her truck may be rusty, but her heart is made of gold.

Twenty-two lucky cats have found their way into her heart and her home. Fourteen of these were a wild cat colony which was going to be exterminated in Palo Alto when she took them in. Joyce describes them as her "precious companions -- loving, neat, and tidier than their owner." Indeed Joyce does not simply warehouse cats to say she has saved them. Her home is meticulously clean and her cats are much loved.

Joyce always treats me, my associate, and my entire staff with sincere respect. She is careful not to usurp our time, and she always has a smile to share. In the midst of a busy day at a vet hospital, these small things become quite precious.

Joyce was reluctant to present each of her cats for a physical exam when their annual vaccines were due. After all, the exams alone would cost over $600 and that could pay for a lot of spays and neuters. I convinced her to bring two. It turned out that one of these needed dental care. Soon she was bringing them in four at a time. This year, six of her cats had dental cleaning and treatment.

Joyce's most valuable attribute is perhaps the last thing I noticed -- perhaps because I was still prejudiced by her appearance, and wary from bad experiences with others whose interest in helping feral cats was more talk than action. In the midst of a discussion about FIP, it finally struck me that Joyce is extremely intelligent. She listens carefully, and comprehends fully. Her questions are insightful and thoughtful. To the extent that client-doctor communication is important and relative to the quality of medical care the pets receive, her intelligence is Joyce's finest quality.

Well, perhaps the second finest quality...

Last spring when I was working solo on a two-doctor appointment schedule, Joyce approached me and shyly asked if I would MIND if she planted some flowers in front of our hospital. I laughed to myself, remembering my first impression of her. I accepted her kind offer, and sure enough, a week later we had flowers growing in front of our hospital.

Last summer, I had just gotten away from the clinic after a very late day and my receptionist, Jane, was closing up when Joyce drove up to the clinic. Jane sighed, thinking she might have to call me back. Joyce approached Jane apologetically and said, "oh, you caught me." Jane looked at her somewhat puzzled when Joyce continued, "I love you guys so much, I come here at night to water the flowers."

You may find nominees who make a better first impression, or some who have greater resources, and a rare few who have the selfless commitment and heart-of-gold attitude that Joyce Karst has. But I doubt that any other vet will nominate a client does all that Joyce does, and then comes by after we have all gone home to water the flowers!