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| | | (JASON WRIGHT/www.northfulton.com)
Dr. Hardee examines Ella Byrd, who was spade that day. (click for larger version) | |
January 23, 2008
Dot Hardee, mother of Midway Animal Hospital owner and veterinarian Rod Hardee, liked to give her son a hard time about the life expectancy of his business in the early days.
Established Jan. 2, 1988 on a then barren portion of Ga. 9 on the Forsyth and Fulton border -- it was across the street from a proposed dump named Site 13 -- there wasn't a whole lot around, save for a liquor store.
"She called and said she finally believed it was going to be a success," said Susan Hardee, who co-owns the family business with her husband. "There were more cars in our parking lot than at the liquor store."
Fast forward 20 years. The Hardees are now in a two-year-old, state-of-the-art animal hospital that faces Crooked Creek and has become a well-known land mark. They built the new facility after hitting a wall of renovations in the house that used to stand on the site.
And getting there was all the fun. When the Hardee's originally set up shop in a residential home, they only had family to depend on.
"We turned the house into a veterinary hospital in two weeks, said Susan. "Our whole family was up here -- my dad still talks about how cold he was painting the outside of the house."
The family affair didn't end there. Hardee's mother worked at the hospital "right up until the day she died" in 2002, and the pair's son and daughter have also logged substantial hours in the kennels.
Now that Susan has retired from teaching with Gwinnett County, she's at Midway part time.
That family care is evident in everything at Midway, who's motto is "Caring for pets, owners and each other."
It's that care that has kept Lynne Gray a loyal customer for six years. The day she was interviewed, she was picking up her 2-year-old bull mastiff mix named Sadie.
""I've always felt the weight of what Dr. Hardee says," she said. "I've always felt comfortable with his diagnosis and follow through."
And with big dogs come big problems, said Gray.
"I'm excited someone of his expertise was always available," she said. "He's a very kind and user-friendly person."
Hardee, who counts University of Georgia football -- his Alma mater -- and legendary blues man Muddy Waters among his other great passions, said he came to veterinary medicine after a childhood of pets and an ill father.
"I didn't like human hospitals," he said, "but I loved biology. It was just a natural progression for me."
Building his business on the philosophy of giving quality medicinal care to animals as though they were people, Hardee early established a rule that he wouldn't treat anything too big to fit through the front door.
A customer challenged that rule when he brought a miniature horse -- as a joke.
But it's that jovial relationship with his patients owners that Hardee treasures most in his 20 years in Forsyth.
"I just want everyone to know how much I appreciate the support of my clients over the past 20 years," he said. "I still have clients that have been with me since day one."
- www.northfulton.com
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