Dr. Boros retires; new veterinarian takes over Rehoboth Animal Hospital

Veterinarian Dr. Tim Dabkowski loves Rehoboth Beach, and he loves his job – so it’s nice, he said, to practice veterinary medicine in his hometown. Dabkowski, a veterinarian with seven years’ experience, bought Rehoboth Animal Hospital Sept. 28.

Since then, he’s been busy modernizing the hospital’s dated systems, installing computers throughout the office, and buying a new x-ray machine and a new dental table.

“Everything is getting redone,” Dabkowski said. “It can’t happen soon enough, but I’m trying to get it done.”

He said Rehoboth Animal Hospital is currently operating as a walk-in clinic, though it will also accept appointments beginning in 2010. The hospital gives all emergencies top priority.

While the hospital currently only serves dogs and cats, Dabkowski said he intends to treat birds, reptiles and smaller pets in the future. Dabkowski said veterinary medicine is actually a second career. He worked as a business consultant for eight years, a job he described as cutthroat and joyless. When his sister developed breast cancer, she told Dabkowski life was too short to spend at a miserable job.

Inspired by her spirit of carpe diem, Dabkowski spent his off hours helping out at animal hospitals, scrubbing floors and learning the job from the ground up. “It wasn’t easy,” he said. “I made a lot of sacrifices. But when you’re doing something you love, in the long run, it’s not a sacrifice.”

Dabkowski became acquainted with Rehoboth in 1995, as a vacation town, a place to spend weekends in a house he shared with several friends. When he graduated from Virginia Tech’s veterinary school, he and his partner moved to Rehoboth.

“I feel very comfortable living, going out to dinner – it’s a tight-knit community,” he said. “And very diverse.”

He worked at a local animal hospital for three years, then left, doing veterinary work in Dover, Delmar and Berlin, Md., before purchasing Rehoboth Animal Hospital.

He said being a vet gives him a direct tie to the community and an opportunity to improve people’s lives. “I’m able to educate people and help them through good times and bad,” he said. “I’m able to contribute something to society. That, to me, is worth it.”

Visitors to the hospital will likely meet one of the three residents: Goober and Squeaks, the cats, and Cain, a male pit bull partially paralyzed by a car accident. Dabkowski has a cat and three English bulldogs, one of which is emblazoned on a button and pinned to his backpack.
“They definitely have a character,” he said, laughing.