by Vicki Skinner

Hannah Southgate and veterinarian Linda Amezcua. Photo credit: Vicki Skinner.

Linda Amezcua is a very busy woman. In addition to being a veterinarian for over 30 years, with credentials from the University of California, Davis, she wears many other hats.

Amezcua has myriad animals of her own: eight ducks, three geese, an African grey parrot and a blue-fronted Amazon parrot, a greater Swiss mountain dog puppy named Albert, a Rottweiler named Mojave, two indoor cats named Maggie and Malcolm, two Chihuahuas named Marble and Minnie, and some goldfish. She’s also the co-owner of a horse named Strider. Her Pescadero property has a gorgeous garden where the geese and ducks roam freely around a pond with flowers galore and vegetables in the summer.

Amezcua also has a 4H workspace set up in her barn to approximate a clinic at the Linda Mar Veterinary Hospital in Pacifica where she has been a partner since the 1980s, when she co-founded the practice with Nancy Craig. The barn was a hotbed of activity on a sunny Saturday at the end of January, its tiny office crowded with people and animals. Amezcua was neutering wild cats and dispensing shots while teaching a 4H class. Her class size usually varies from three to seven students, but on this day there were two students, both from La Honda: 9-year-old Erica Bordi and 10-year-old Katie Souza. Fourteen-year-old 4H team leader Hannah Southgate of Woodside was also there, as well as Chris Lis, a veterinary nurse from the Linda Mar hospital.

Katie said, “This is my first activity with 4H. I love it. We see cats and dogs. Mostly cats. Last time we saw a fluffy gray kitten that was here for a checkup and to get shots. We petted him and kept him calm. Kittens are a bit frisky.”

Amezcua had already neutered one feral cat before I arrived, but I witnessed the second neutering from start to finish. The cream-colored, 6-month-old male had matted hair and wild eyes. He fought Lis as she reached into his cage and grabbed him in order for Amezcua to administer a shot to calm him down; Lis sustained several scratches for her bravery! Next, the cat was placed in a clear box where he breathed in oxygen and “happy gas” to put him to sleep completely. Then Lis removed the box and Hannah weighed the cat on the scale.

Hannah has been involved with 4H for five years. She has been coming to Amezcua’s for the past two years and became teen leader five months ago. “I love it. I handle the e-mails from parents, and organize the kids,” she said.

I was the one who came closest to guessing the feral cat’s weight. I guessed 8 pounds and he weighed 7.75. When I inquired what my prize was, Amezcua laughed and said the prize was his testicles.

After allowing the girls to listen to the cat’s heart rate with the stethoscope, Amezcua performed the surgery, which was remarkably quick; she explained to her class what she was doing the whole time. Erica and Katie watched the whole procedure intently from their vantage point by the window. However, Erica had to lean out the window to get fresh air in the middle of it. Afterwards, Amezcua, Chris Lis, and Hannah Southgate brushed the longhaired cat to get the mats out of his fur. Then he was transferred back to his cage to recover.

Amezcua has been associated with 4H since roughly 1994. She said, “This was Bill’s idea initially (her late partner, Bill Cate) and I disapproved, but now I really like working with kids. They do better and are easier to train than adults. Most stay long enough to help run it as almost a regular clinic would. Those end up working in the real version in Linda Mar.”

Amezcua wanted to be a vet since middle school. She said, “I didn’t understand what a vet did. I figured it was an unattainable goal.” Now, she not only has met her goal but soared above it.