Marlene Button grew up on a dairy farm in Yates County and graduated from Marcus Whitman High School. She graduated from the NYS College of Ag and Life Sciences at Cornell with a Bachelor of Science degree. She turned down a job as a Cooperative Extension agent to attend (and graduate from) the NYS College of Veterinary Medicine, also at Cornell. Once licensed in NYS, she began her career as a mixed practice veterinarian at the Perry Veterinary Clinic. She eventually gave up large animal work due to allergy issues. Prior to coming to The Country Vet, she worked at several practices, but most recently, the Millstone Veterinary Clinic in Dundee, where she worked for more than 20 years. She currently shares her home with 3 cats, but intends to get another dog at some point. As a daughter of a conservation officer and a nurse, growing up raising orphaned wildlife would seem to simply lead straight into a career in veterinary medicine. However, it was a varied and meandering route involving majoring in Physical Education, competing in diving for the U of M Women's swim team, teaching Physical Education in Australia, working with The Youth Conservation Corp at Crater Lake National Park, VisionQuest in Arizona counseling at-risk teens, and even being a crew member of a sailboat that finally led to a veterinary degree from Michigan State in 1993. Dr. Button began her veterinary career in a rural, mixed animal practice in Colebrook, NH where she worked for 5 years before moving back to NY to be closer to her family. In 2000, she took a position at Seneca Animal Hospital as the sole practicing veterinarian, rebuilding the practice that Dr. Buell had started in the 1950s. Dr. Buell sold the practice in 2011, and Dr. Button started the Seneca Lake Veterinary practice and continued until COVID when she felt it was a good time to "retire." Obviously, retirement didn't stick, and she now continues to follow her calling with us here at The Country Vet. What she's come to like best about veterinary medicine is being an "advocate" for the care of a family pet. Dr. Button feels that there is so much value in having the whole family involved and invested in the good care and well-being of the 4-legged members. She gets immense satisfaction in seeing exuberant dogs happy to come in for a veterinary check-up and cats and kittens who "acknowledge" that coming to see the vet might not be such a terrible adventure after all She also enjoys spending time with her three cats and plans to get another dog in the future [citation].