OUR STORY
THE HISTORY OF KINGSBROOK ANIMAL HOSPITAL
Drs. Brent Cook, Morse Davis and Adrienne Cardella met their first day of veterinary school in September 1989 at Ohio State University. By chance, they had dinner together at the Flying Tomato pizza restaurant on High Street in Columbus with several other students, all anxious about their first days of veterinary school. None of them had any idea that they would someday work together (or marry each other!).
Dr. Cook grew up on a farm in the mountains of West Virginia. The oldest of three boys, he grew up helping his grandfather haul logs out of the woods with his draft horses. It was a big adjustment for him to go to college at Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, PA because he had grown up in such a rural area.
Dr. Davis and Cardella grew up about 2 miles from each other in Bethesda, MD, but never knew each other prior to veterinary school. Dr. Davis, the youngest of two boys was always the outdoorsman growing up. He stayed busy kayaking, hiking, and rock climbing prior to his years skiing at the University of Vermont.
Dr. Cardella announced when she was just six years of age that she was going to be a veterinarian and there was never a change in her plans. Her younger brother tells stories of her riding her bike several miles to animal hospitals during the summers to gain experience volunteering.
After graduating from veterinary school, the three doctors went their separate ways. Dr. Cardella worked in Alexandria, VA. Dr. Cook went to Leesburg, VA, and Dr. Davis worked in a hospital in Bethesda, Maryland. After 10 months, Dr. Cardella accepted a position at Quince Orchard Veterinary Hospital in Gaithersburg. By coincidence, Dr. Davis had worked in this same hospital as a teenager.
One day in the spring of 1994, there was a solar eclipse (we are not making this up!) and Drs. Cook & Cardella bumped into Dr. Davis. Dr. Davis, ever the resourceful one, used a cardboard box to make a viewer for the three to watch the eclipse without burning their retinas. During the course of the eclipse, Dr. Cardella mentioned to Dr. Davis about her new job and within a few months Dr. Davis joined Dr. Cardella in Gaithersburg. The eclipse had some other effects. Shortly, afterward Dr. Cook and Dr. Cardella started talking about marriage and were married in 1996. Dr. Cook and Dr. Davis started talking about opening their own hospital someday. After years of calculating the demographics of different areas, exploring neighborhoods, and meeting with realtors, Drs. Cook and Davis decided that the Kingsbrook area of Frederick was the best place to open a veterinary hospital. They saw their first patients in March 1999. Dr. Cardella was home at this time, raising her and Dr. Cook’s daughter, Alice.
In the beginning, Drs. Davis and Cook took turns working at Kingsbrook Animal Hospital. On other days they did relief work in other hospitals to support themselves. At this stage, there was only one doctor and one other person (Ann Carlson or Alison Szalkowski) working at the hospital each day. Each person wore many hats: Veterinarian, information technologist, receptionist, technician and even janitor! Fortunately, as word spread the hospital quickly grew. Today we are fortunate enough to have grown to support 6 doctors and nearly 30 staff members. For years now, the most common reason that new clients have come to Kingsbrook Animal Hospital is because of word of mouth from our established clients. We are forever in debt for their kindness.
