This story originally appeared in The Centre County Gazette.
CENTRE HALL — For Dr. Diane Porter, the path to opening her own veterinary clinic didn’t begin in a classroom or a clinic. It began at a backyard picnic table with a piece of dental floss and an injured rabbit.
“I had always wanted to be a vet since I was a little kid,” Porter said. “I was one of those inspired kids at 5, 6 years old. Just loved animals.”
Ironically, Porter wasn’t allowed to have pets growing up, aside from rabbits kept outdoors. But one childhood moment helped define her future.
“One of my two rabbits … got kind of in a little scuffle and injured the small rabbit,” she said. “My dad grabbed some dental floss, we went out on the picnic table in the backyard and I sewed up the bunny at a very young age. And ever since then, I was like, that was amazing! And I’m going to do that.”
Years later, that same sense of purpose is driving Porter as she prepares to open Valley View Veterinary Care at 2836 Earlystown Road in Centre Hall. The clinic is expected to operate Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., with a grand opening anticipated in the coming weeks after the April 1 move-in date.
Porter said the decision to open her own practice comes after years of working in a field that has increasingly shifted toward corporate models, something she hopes to move away from.
“I’ve wanted to own a practice for probably eight years,” she said. “I wanted to be more involved, more part of it. I feel like the human-animal bond is something that everybody should be a part of. And it’s important to me.”
That bond, she said, can sometimes get lost in the pace and structure of larger operations.
“It was becoming more corporate and more just daily routine and daily grind,” Porter said. “I think it’s more important to be more down to earth and get back to a little bit more what it was years ago and more personable.”
Valley View Veterinary Care will offer full-service small animal care, including dogs, cats and select “pocket pets” such as rabbits, guinea pigs and rats. Services will include in-house and external laboratory work, radiology, ultrasound, dentistry, soft tissue surgery, wellness visits and senior care.
For Porter though, the work isn’t defined by procedures, it’s defined by the moments that stay with families.
“Sometimes it’s the little things,” she said.
She recalled one case involving a young family’s dog that had ingested an entire fleece blanket.
“I start … taking something out of the stomach and it just doesn’t end,” Porter said. “It just keeps coming. … Thirty, forty minutes later, still pulling pieces of this blanket out of this dog’s stomach.”
The surgery was successful and the dog made a full recovery.
“You know, the dog wouldn’t have made it,” she said. “The whole family gets back together and it’s all a happy story.”
Those moments are what continue to drive her.
“There’s always kids that bring their pets in,” Porter said. “Even something as simple as a rat … you remove tumors off of them and they get their little rat back for six more months or something. It’s little things like that.”
Porter brings a wide range of experience to Centre Hall, including time working with exotic and aquatic animals. She spent several years working with the Virginia Beach Aquarium, where she treated animals ranging from harbor seals to sharks.
She also developed a passion for fish medicine, performing procedures on koi and other aquatic species. She says it’s a specialty she hopes to incorporate into her practice over time.
As she prepares to open Valley View Veterinary Care, Porter said the coming weeks will be a whirlwind of final preparations. A website and additional contact information are expected to follow, along with a potential open house to introduce the clinic to the community. For now, those interested in services may contact Dr. Porter via email at valleyvethospital05@gmail.com.
For Centre Hall and the surrounding communities, Dr. Porter’s love for animals is now taking shape in a place she hopes feels a little more personal, a little more local and a lot more connected.
