Skillman Animal Clinic offers general practice veterinary services in the Lake Highlands area of Dallas! We serve dogs, cats and their owners alike.
07/14/2024
Now that it's been nearly a year since I closed the clinic and retired, and a certain florist has hung his sign on the space that used to be mine in the shopping center, I thought it might be time to let y'all know what really happened when I retired, and since lots of people ask, what I've been up to since then.
Last spring a certain florist came to me and asked if he could buy me out of my lease. This florist and I had become friends (or at least I thought so) over the years and I knew he really wanted my spot. I had promised him that should I ever decide to leave, I would let him know so that he could do whatever he needed to do to get my spot.
I had been thinking about retirement for a while as many of you knew, and had even hired a broker to market my practice. My plan was to sell the practice to another vet, stay on for a while until everyone was comfortable, and then fade out. Unfortunately that plan was not going well, as sole practitioner practices are not in demand at all.
So, I decided that maybe the best thing to do was to let this certain florist take over my lease, cancel the broker and sell off my furnishings, equipment and inventory piecemeal. That also did not go well, as those things had little to no value as well. I donated, gave away, sold to a junk dealer and literally threw away the entire practice over the course of the summer. We sent out letters to every client we had seen in the last 3 years, Danielle and Brandon made plans to move to Corpus Christie, and even though business was brisk all summer we continued to edge toward the end.
Meanwhile, the certain florist was bringing contractors by regularly to get bids on the renovations he would need to make a florist shop out of a vet clinic. Everything seemed on track until one day I noticed that the florist hadn't called in a while, and then noticed that he wasn't returning my calls. When I finally got in touch with him, he reneged on the deal because he said the IRS had texted him that he owed an eye-popping amount in taxes, so unfortunately he couldn't take over my lease.
This was obviously not seriously possible in my opinion because the IRS is not known for sending demands for payment by text. Be that as it may, the deal was dead. Unfortunately for me, my lease stated that breaking my lease would cause a fee equal to 3 months rent, plus I would be responsible for the next 6 months of rent if no new tenant was found. For me, it was about $45,00o dollars. I couldn't just keep practicing for that 6 months to pay the rent because there was nothing much left to practice with. So we limped to the finish line, with the closing of the clinic costing me about $60,000 in the end. That was a serious blow to my retirement, because I never was much good at making a living, and apparently I wasn't much good at retiring, either!
So after the clinic closed, I did a little bit of low-budget travel, and worked on my medical issues that I never had time to take care of while I was working. I had surgery on both knees and cataract surgery on both eyes, which improved a lot of things for me. My first grandchild was born, Sophia Grace, in North Carolina, so I spent some time there in February.
Amazingly enough, the certain florist somehow figured out how to open a florist shop in my space, and his sign is up now. I'm not going to tell you how that happened, because to tell you would violate another person's trust, but if you think about it, you can guess pretty easily. All I know is that the owner of the shopping center is sitting on a pile of my money, the certain florist is sitting in my space, and I am sitting here with nothing to show for a lot of years of work. Oh, and the certain florist and I are not pretending to be friends anymore. I'm not saying you shouldn't give him your business, because he does do nice flowers, but if you care about what kinds of people you do business with, you now have more information than you used to.
Also, on a more personal note, Last week I was diagnosed with breast cancer, for which I will soon begin treatment. It is said that cancers can develop more easily in people under extreme stress for prolonged periods of time, which would certainly describe much of my last year, because many things happened to me last year besides retirement.
So, I am going to quit thinking about how stupid and gullible I am, and what a poor business person I am, and focus on all of you wonderful people and pets I had the good fortune to meet and develop relationships with, and how the community of Lake Highlands welcomed me and supported me all those years.I am glad to say that I did the best I could for you and your pets, and always tried to treat everyone honestly and fairly. I am sure there were times I missed the mark, but it was never my intention to do less than my best.
If you are a praying person, I would welcome your prayers as I begin my cancer journey. This page will remain open as will the email account for a while longer since I still get occasional inquiries about pet records and such. Thanks for al the years!
