As a veterinarian and a pet owner, Kristen knows that pets are a big part of many people’s lives and cherished members of the household. That’s why she uses Alexa to help animals stay calm when they visit her clinic. She also uses Alexa to help run her business—including during a recent surgery.

An image of a woman with pink hair taking a selfie with her cat in her veterinarian clinic.

In Kristen’s words:

I’m a vet, and I only recently opened my practice. When I did, Alexa became central to the way I set it up.

It really started with little things—going to the vet can be stressful, especially for cats, and as a vet it’s my job to keep them as calm as possible. The regular noise of a clinic—people coming in and out, people talking, other animals—that can all be really overwhelming, and I’ve found that my patients respond really well to white noise. I use Echo Dots in my clinic and ask Alexa to play white noise, so I can keep my patients calm without taking my attention away from them.

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The other thing I use Alexa for in my clinic deals with some of the day-to-day realities of owning a small business. In a vet clinic, there are always supplies that need to be bought—bandages, trash bags, cleaning supplies. With Alexa, I manage my shopping lists for the clinic and order via Amazon from the Echo devices around the clinic.

Quite recently I was reminded just how important Alexa was to me—I was performing surgery on my own cat, Parka. Anyone with pets would know just how precious he is to me, and when I was doing surgery, I suddenly realized I needed more information from my husband, Henri, about Parka. With cats, it’s important to minimize the time they spend under anesthesia, so I didn’t want to waste any time. I called out to Alexa during Parka’s surgery and dropped in on Henri, who was in his office at home.

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Henri was able to answer all of my questions straight away, and I was able to move ahead with the surgery without stepping out of the operating suite or pausing the surgery once. Thanks to Alexa, Parka was out of surgery and back on the mend in no time.

An image of a woman sitting on her couch taking a selfie with her cat.

We’re glad to hear Parka is on the road to recovery! If you have a story of your own about how you use Alexa, we'd love to hear it, and we will continue sharing some of our favorite #AlexaStories. Email us or tag us on Twitter or Instagram @alexa99 or #AlexaStories. Learn more about how Alexa is helping people in different ways by watching our Alexa Stories videos.