BRIDGWATER'S Quantock Veterinary Hospital has just held its ‘Pet of the Year’ event celebrating some of their most remarkable and admired patients of 2017.

Veterinary nurse Sian Holman explained: "Over the year we see a huge range of animals and problems and every month we vote for our most inspiring patient.

"Some of the cases and stories behind them are complex, some rewarding and some of course heart-breaking but many of our patients and importantly their owners are an inspiration to those of us who work here.  

"This is our chance to celebrate some of those that have been considered perhaps particularly special” she said.

This year the twelve nominated animals ranged from cherished dogs and cats that had endured traumatic accidents or distressing conditions, a dog whose greedy ways got him into serious trouble, a rabbit suffering from a life threatening condition and a tortoise who needed to be fed through a feeding tube - for six months. Each one of these remarkable pets has their own story and behind them loving and hugely dedicated owners. 

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This year after an evening of presentations and much deliberation the two brave judges – Nicky Kerswell from PetPlan and Mark Scott from Elanco Animal Health – with help from attendees’ votes, eventually decided upon Rosie, an affectionate eight-year-old rescue cat as our 2017 ‘Pet of the Year’. Rosie had suffered horrendous injuries most probably from a dog attack and managed to drag herself home and up a six inch fence to get back to her family.

This year as well as an overall ‘Pet of the Year’, there were two runners up - Monty an exuberant young Beagle who very nearly died from extremely serious food poisoning, and Blaze a stunning young cat who also suffered horrendous injuries from a road traffic accident and survived major surgery with good grace. 

Clinical director of the hospital Dominic Phillips said: “These twelve stories give a taste of commitment, skill and dedication of all our staff here – I am so very proud of them - but also demonstrate the amazing commitment and love of the owners shown to these incredible pets. It is humbling. These sort of cases make our jobs so worthwhile.”