Walkin’ Pets Names its Veterinarian Scholarship Winner

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Kelly Hood, a fourth year DVM student at North Carolina State University College of Veterinary Medicine, has been awarded the 2018 Walkin’ Pets Veterinarian Scholarship. Walkin’ Pets by HandicappedPets.com, an e-commerce pet product company serving the needs of disabled, injured and aging pets, awards the scholarship to help support the next generation of veterinarians who will be on the front line of providing compassionate pet care.

Hood, originally from Asbury, New Jersey, is an unconventional veterinary student who first worked in the entertainment business in New York City and Nashville for many years. She and her husband, Charles, then relocated to Miami, where Kelly had difficulty finding a job in the entertainment industry. She eventually took a job at a kennel which kindled a desire to redesign her life and become a veterinarian, necessitating a return to school to get her science degree before applying for veterinary school.

Upon graduating from NCSU College of Veterinary Medicine in May 2019, Hood intends to go into the field of small animal veterinary forensics, a unique field that has the potential to help both animals and people. Hood has also managed to find time to go on veterinary mission trips as a volunteer to the Navajo Nation in New Mexico and Arizona and the Cherokee Nation in North Carolina.

On one of her last trips, she brought her son Alex, then 6 years old. While Hood was helping to spay and neuter dogs, Alex saw a person drive by and throw a dog out the car window. Hood and Alex went over to help the abandoned dog and wound up adopting him. Now “Tracker” has joined the family, which also includes two other dogs and three cats.

Walkin’ Pets by HandicappedPets.com says it “is honored to award their annual veterinary scholarship to someone as deserving as Kelly Hood.”