Meet Christy Hanamaikai - Vet Tech At Utah County Spay & Neuter Clinic

Hey there! My name is Christy Hanamaikai. I have been working for NMHPU as a vet tech for 1.5 years at the Utah County Spay and Neuter Clinic and I absolutely love my job!

I was first introduced to the Spay and Neuter clinic by my cousin who lives up the street from me. I had a dog I needed to get neutered and when I brought him in I had a great experience with the staff and the clinic. Then, a couple of months later I was looking for a new job. I applied to every kind of job I could find for several months, with no success. Then I found the posting for the Spay and Neuter clinic and remembering my great experience with them neutering my dog; I immediately applied for the position. And to my surprise I quickly got an e-mail back to set up an interview. A few days later I got a message from Kalinda saying that they thought I would be a great candidate for the job and would like to talk with me about starting. Then I couldn't get a hold of Kalinda for 3 or four days because the clinic was closed and she was out of town and my imagination went way out of control. Did that message mean that they were going to hire me? Did it mean that it was just a possibility and that if I didn't get a hold of someone they would choose someone else? Should I call Kalinda twelve times a day to make sure she knew I wanted the job? Should I e-mail Holly and figure out why Kalinda was avoiding my calls?

Well, you get the picture. Eventually Kalinda came back from her vacation (I guess she's entitled to those sometimes) and all my stress-filled worrying ended. She offered me a job and I started my love-affair with spaying and neutering.


I love being able to work with the animals and to know that I am helping make a difference in the world. It is great to get the stats and see the difference spaying and neutering can make on the neighborhood. Plus, there is never a dull moment at the clinic. Everyday we have a new story to tell, whether it is animal or client related - we get more than our fair share of characters in there! And the more I work with the Spay and Neuter clinic, the more important it becomes to me to fix as many animals as we can. We see and hear so many cases of neglect or abuse, where people come on hard times and dump their animals at someone else's house, or breeders who only see the money and don't worry about the health of their animals, or clients find an animal that was a victim of abuse and take it into their homes. The clinic offers people a low-cost method to take care of their animals.

It feels good to be a part of an organization that helps so many people. Hopefully it will be a long and fruitful relationship.