Business

Local Businesses and COVID-19: New Canaan Veterinary Hospital 

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For today’s Q&A with a local business owner, we talk to town resident Dr. Paul Potenza of New Canaan Veterinary Hospital. Established 70 years ago, the Vitti Street veterinary practice is open 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, and 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Wednesday. 

Here’s our interview. New Canaanite: Tell me about how you’re operating now. Dr. Paul Potenza: We cut ourselves back to essential services only, which is only the veterinary and the medical-surgical side of it. So we shut down the kennel.

Animal 411

New Canaan Veterinary Hospital Launches ‘After Hours Urgent Care’ for Clients

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Saying they want to ease pet owners’ minds, officials at a local veterinary hospital are expanding hours and services to meet their clients’ emergency needs. The ‘After Hours Urgent Care’ service at New Canaan Veterinary Hospital will see veterinarians on call through 11 p.m., seven days per week, to advise and care for injured or ill pets after the Vitti Street facility is closed. Spearheaded by chief veterinarian Dr. Paul Potenza, a New Canaan resident, the new service is for established clients of the business only, and those clients will incur no additional costs for emergency treatments, he said. “Most emergencies that people are concerned about don’t require round-the-clock care, and they see a problem in the evening when they get home from work,” Potenza told NewCanaanite.com. “People want to fix it and not worry all night.

Animal 411

VIDEO: Abandoned Puppy ‘Señor’ Well-Loved at New Canaan Vet

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The staff at New Canaan Veterinary Hospital is facing the bittersweet prospect of saying “goodbye” to the abandoned Chihuahua puppy who came to them malnourished, shocked and screaming with fear after being left outside CVS on March 20. In the three weeks since, the approximately six-month-old puppy known here as “Señor” or “Señor Friend” (after initially taking on the simple name “Friend”) has been treated at the Vitti Street vet for demodectic mange and they’re getting his weight up—and he’s also getting a whole lot of TLC. Dr Paul Potenza and Senior at New Canaan Veterinary Hospital
“We had to give him some injections for his skin and he really reacted because he was so afraid and within two days, he started acting like this, holding onto us, letting us love him,” said Dr. Paul Potenza, moments before shooting the video above with us. “Now when [Technician] Michelle [Galanek] walks out of the room he starts to cry because he wants her back.”

It isn’t clear who abandoned the pup. A woman who works at a Lantern Ridge Road home found him outside the CVS on Park Street in the afternoon of March 20—about three Thursdays ago.