My name is Mat Glassman and I’m a veterinary surgeon that worked at Friendship Hospital for Animals in Washington, D.C. for 12 years. I’m currently taking some time away from the operating room to build a company to help pet-parents take care of their pets better at home, Dr. Cuddles. Dr.

My journey into rescue started when I was young. My brother and I wanted a dog, and my mom told us we were going to rescue. As a seven-year old, I didn’t really know what that meant. However, when my brother and I went with her to the animal shelter and met Patch, we immediately wanted to take him home. To be honest, we probably would have felt that way about any dog. But Patch was available and Patch was good with kids.

As is the case for so many in this passion-driven field, my love for all things animal and rescue began at a very early age; from caterpillars found outside to a box of abandoned kittens, I wanted to save them all. Although we were a dog-loving family, my dad would often have to tell me “no more heartbeats” when I begged to keep a kitten, lizard, or fish (true story: I once found a goldfish swimming in the flooded gutter during a bad storm and “rescued” it).

“Mom, can we go see the cats in Petco? Just to look at them?”- Me at 8 years old.

Of course, we came home with two kittens. Life with two cats is how it was supposed to be. I had lost the last member of my childhood kitty duo a few months prior, and things just weren’t the same. I think we were all missing life without the morning meows for food and pets, the comedy of nightly zoomies, and the satisfaction of being the chosen lap while watching “Survivor” on Friday night with the family (and had forgotten the periodic “gifts” of dead mice and rats in the living room).

I grew up in a world surrounded by animals. We of course had our own resident dogs; Marley, Taz, Belle, & Lily that made affluent impacts on my childhood. My grandmother was an equine enthusiast, and I was fortunate enough to have had the privilege of riding horses alongside her for many years. Beyond that, my father was an avid outdoorsman. We spent many weekends in waiters, thigh high in mud and muck trying to reach bird nests that my dad had built himself to restore native populations. Along the way we would encounter whitetail deer, mallard ducks, garden snakes, etc.