Melissa Murray was born in West Virginia and moved to TN with her parents and four younger siblings in time to start high school. She attended Virginia Tech for both her undergraduate and veterinary degrees, and graduated with her DVM in 1994. She worked at a small animal practice in Johnson City until 1999, when she and her husband moved to Knoxville so he could continue his education at UT. She came to Fountain City Animal Hospital then, and hasn’t looked back for a moment. What she enjoys most is the professional camaraderie at Fountain City Animal Hospital, where the doctors freely collaborate on complex cases with mutual respect. She finds working in cooperation instead of in competition makes for both a better work environment and results in better care for every patient. With her ever-supportive husband, she is raising two extraordinary teenage children who model their mother’s intelligence and drive for excellence. The outliers in this family of high achievers are the Murray household pets – a lazy greyhound and a bunch of freeloading cats. But she loves them all, and they are guaranteed a fairy tale life simply by virtue of being part of the Murray household.