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E-mail us photos of your favorite pets—along with their stories—and we will post them on-line in a new section of Penn Vet Extra: Pet Pics.
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In the 1980s Penn Veterinary Medicine's Matthew J. Ryan Veterinary Hospital and the Philadelphia Ronald McDonald House developed a pet-visitation program, VetPets—and it continues to this day. Every Wednesday evening, faculty, staff and students of the School of Veterinary Medicine bring their certified dogs to the Ronald McDonald House to visit with children being treated at area hospitals and their families. The Ronald McDonald house serves as a "home away from home" for pediatric patients and their families so that they can stay together while coping with serious illness.
Penn Vet student Marisa Brunetti and her dog Buddy—both in Phillies gear—share a smile with a young boy at the Ronald McDonald House.
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The VetPets program emphasizes the value of the human–animal connection and benefits of animal-assisted therapy. This Halloween PetVets organized a special evening of dogs in costume to help lift the spirits of hospitalized children who might miss trick-or-treating. For more photos, email Christina Bach, director of Veterinary Social Work and Pet Bereavement Services. ?
Photo, from right to left: Senator Dominic Pileggi, Ranney Moran, Mrs. Ranney Moran, Caroline Moran, Betsy Moran Legnini, Franny Moran Abbott, Dr. Joan Hendricks, Betty Moran, Secretary Dennis Wolff, Franny Abbott.
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Ground was officially broken for the state-of-the-art James M. Moran, Jr., Critical Care Center at Penn Vet’s New Bolton Center, named in memory of Mrs. Elizabeth R. Moran’s son James, who passed away in April 2008. Major funding for the center was provided by Mrs. Moran and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
More than 70 guests attended the ground-breaking ceremony in October, including Mrs. Moran and her five surviving children. “I knew Jim had been involved with New Bolton Center but until now I didn’t realize to what extent. The whole family is honored to have his name on this building,” she said. The center will have two wings, one with antechambers dedicated to isolation cases and one for colic cases. The 18,540 sq. ft. facility will be the largest clinical addition to the George D. Widener Hospital for Large Animals since the completion of the C. Mahlon Kline Orthopaedic Center in 1972. It will be constructed with low-maintenance and durable materials, in keeping with the Chester County farm vernacular. The center will be located on a biosecure area on the service drive at New Bolton Center and is expected to be completed next year.
Also in attendance were State Senator Dominic Pileggi, chair of the House Agriculture Committee, the Honorable Art Hershey and members of the school’s Board of Overseers.
“This new critical care center will help ensure that our most critically ill patients have the optimal housing for their care. This will improve treatment of these critical patients at the same time that it will allow their separation from each other and less seriously ill patients elsewhere in the hospital,” said Dr. Dean W. Richardson, Charles W. Raker Professor of Surgery and chair of New Bolton Center’s Section of Surgery. ?
 Above: Artist's rendering of part of the Moran Critical Care Center, west elevation view.
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