First Place: Locke Taylor

9023 Woodman Road
262-8629

Second Place: Nan Jack

Third Place: Betty Baugh

With 40 years of experience, Locke Taylor takes the long view of his patients — from cats and dogs to lizards and snakes. He's seen veterinary medicine in transition and is happy with the progress. "Anesthesia is much better than 20 years ago and antibiotics are much, much better," he says. "We can do things with digital imagery impossible years ago." Plus, there's experience. He has four full-time vets and four part-time doctors, totaling more than a century in the practice. And he prevails with his tried and true ways. He doesn't handle farm animals as he used to, but horses sometimes show up in the parking lot. "And," he says, "we get the occasional goat or lamb or pig." Reader surveys show that veterinary medicine is competitive. Nan Jack opened her Church Hill Animal Hospital in January 2003. And Betty Baugh is noted for her holistic, alternative vet work.