Veterinarian Overview
Dr. Mary Whitehill joined Dr. Rock Irvine as his partner at the Napa Small Animal Hospital in 1991. At the time, Napa Small Animal was just a two doctor practice. She is proud of how the hospital has grown and strives to serve the needs of pets and their families of the Napa community. She grew up close by in San Anselmo (Marin County) in a home filled with six brothers and sisters, dogs, cats, horses, ponies, rats, rabbits, and even a tarantula! She announced at 9 years old to her best friend that she was going to be a veterinarian when she grew up. That dream eventually became real as she completed first her undergraduate degree in Nutrition in 1978 and then veterinary school, both at UC Davis in 1984. Dr. Mary initially practiced three years in Southern California (at Chatoak Pet Clinic) and 3 years in Sacramento (at Carmichael Animal Hospital) before coming permanently to Napa in 1991. Between Southern Cal and Sacramento, she briefly worked at Alley Cat Veterinary Hospital in 1987 in Napa seeing patients and performing surgery for a low cost spay/neuter clinic associated with the hospital. Dr. Mary lives in Napa with her Taiwan street dog, Kai. Her previous dogs have all been rescues, mostly labradors and lab mixes, and several originally adopted from the Napa County Animal Shelter. In her spare time she enjoys walking Kai in the Hendry vineyard close to her house, exercising, reading, traveling to Hawaii, and seeing friends and family. She is a breast cancer survivor since 2005 and strives to provide the kind of compassionate care to her patients that she received during her own treatment. Dr. Mary serves on the board of directors at Napa Humane and willl complete her second term as president of the board at the end of 2016. She believes strongly in the good work they do in the community. In addition to serving on the board at Napa Humane, she has served on the board of directors of the Girl Scout Council of Napa-Solano for 12 years, the last 5 of those years serving as the board chairperson. She finished her service to the Girl Scouts in 2005. She grew up as a Girl Scout and remembered how important it was to inspire girls to be the best that they could be.
