I am sure many people have experienced the stress and difficulty when their animals become sick or injured outside of normal vet hours, and you are suddenly faced with potentially driving up to two hours each way to one of the few emergency vets open in our region to get help for them. This means you are faced with a huge drive during an emergency situation, or stuck waiting what seems like an eternity until the vets reopen in the morning, or--worse yet--after the weekend ends.  Obviously when your pet is sick or injured, this is very difficult choice for all involved, and can lead to poor health outcomes for our animals.  Access to emergency veterinary care seems to me like it should be an essential and basic service for Vermonters. So, my proposal would be relatively inexpensive, in the scheme of things, and should hopefully result in lessening this burden and thus making life easier and better for us and our pets. It involves 3 or 4 strategically placed $100,000 stipends throughout the state to entice a veterinary clinic to remain open to all for after hours emergency care, preferably 7 days a week, but at least 4 (staggered, by region, so people could go to the next nearest emergency clinic if closed that day, knowing it will be open instead, and not further than, say, an hour away even in that case).  So, if that is enough money to entice a few vets in key areas (like Rutland, the Northeast Kingdom, and other spots where the nearest emergency vet is more than a certain distance away) to stay open, imagine how much better off our pets would be, and how much easier it would be to get them the help they need when a crisis arrives. My dog started to choke literally about 5 minutes after all the vets in the area closed, and none would agree to see him because of that fact.  Luckily, he eventually coughed it out, and recovered, but it could have easily gone the other way...and imagine if we had to have gone two hours to get seen.  Would he even have made it?  Probably not.  And I was as panicked as can be trying to frantically find someone that could help, calling four or five vets to basically no avail, while rushing towards Rutland in hopes of finding some vet that would see him. And I am sure many of you have similar stories of late night trips to Burlington or West Lebanon.  For a veritable drop in the bucket, all our lives could become a little less stressful, and we could sleep with a little more peace of mind knowing that there is one less thing to worry about, and that our animals can get the help that they need, when they need it.  Seems like a win-win solution to me.