Petplan, in association with the Vet Times and the VN Times, host the most prestigious annual veterinary awards to recognise dedication and commitment in the veterinary world. If you would like to nominate Hamish, one of the nurses or 387 Veterinary Centre we would be delighted!

Nominations can be made at www.petplan.co.uk/vetawards

The deadline for entries is Friday 10th February.

Everybody who nominates will be entered into a free draw to win tickets to the awards ceremony with an overnight stay at The Malmaison Hotel in Birmingham, or 2 nights’ luxury stay at the pet friendly Lords of the Manor Hotel in the Cotswolds. Best of luck!

Welcome to Becky who joined us as a trainee nurse on 1st February. She has previously worked at two other practices locally, and is looking forward to getting to know you and supporting the care of your pets.

Best of Walsall are running a ’14 days of love’ competition to find the area’s most loved local businesses – and the most loved businesses nationally too. If you feel you have had great service here, we’d love you to vote for us!

Follow the link to submit your testimonial (minimum 75 characters):www.thebestof.co.uk/local/walsall/recommend

And you’ll be entered into a draw to win great daily prizes from 1st to 14th February.

You can follow our progress via the Best of Walsall’s love-o-meter under the ‘Vets’ category. And you can vote for your favourite businesses from the love-o-meter too. Thanks so much to all who have voted so far!

As of this week, there is now a nurse on site from 8am to admit animals who are coming in for surgery, for greater time flexibility when dropping off your pet. The surgery opens for making appointments and taking queries from 8.30am as usual.

We are delighted to see Lily fit and well at her post op check having undergone surgery on her gut last week. Lily was at the vets in November with stomach trouble having chewed on a child’s dummy and she sneakily found another dummy to chew again!

Welcome to Lola and Billy who are here today to be spayed. Their mum Pippa was a stray cat, and just a week after she was taken in by her new owners, she gave birth! The owners have decided to keep these two beautiful kittens from the litter for themselves!

Thank you so much to Mrs Wakefield who brought us a delicious homemade lemon curd sponge this morning as a thank you for looking after her poodle Lucy when she came to be spayed. Mrs Wakefield only got Lucy in January from a family who were looking to re-home her. Lucy has never been off the lead and is looking forward to lots of running about and exploring on her dog walks across the fields!

We say bye today to Sammy who has been staying with us for a week for intensive care and nursing post surgery for nasty injuries. Glad you are feeling better!

Now that the practice extension project is finished, we’d like to invite you to our first Open Day on Saturday 11th February – Valentine Saturday! – between 2pm and 4pm. Come and see behind the scenes on special guided tours with Hamish. There will be ‘before-and-after’ displays as well as a slideshow of our amazing ‘makeover’; a raffle for charity to win a year’s supply of pet food, a falconry experience and more; a testimonials display (with some familiar faces!); and your chance to win prizes and be part of the Best of Walsall’s 14 days of love. All are welcome – bring family and friends! More details coming soon!

Great news – the owners of the beautiful little cat below saw a poster advert on a lamp post near their house and called us at 387 Vets immediately. The cat was definitely theirs and so thankfully they have been happily re-united.