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"Being a veterinarian is about more than a love of animals," says Don Rollins, a veteran of the veterinary field.

The hours are long, the starting pay is low and there are rarely benefit packages unless you are in a big clinic.

The job can really take a toll on family life. "I have a very understanding spouse," Rollins notes.

But despite the drawbacks, the rewards of the profession are great.

"You really have to go to veterinary school with the idea of helping people," Rollins says. When a family comes in because their cat swallowed a handful of little furry toys and you are able to remove them in time to save the cat's life, it makes it all worthwhile, he says.

One of the skills that is crucial but which is not taught at vet school is communication.

"Most people are wonderful, but you remember the bad ones," Rollins says. "People will wait in line at a doctor's office for an hour or more, but at the vet, 10 minutes is too long. We don't get the respect we deserve."

Often, pet owners come to the clinic very upset and worried. They just want their favorite pet better, no matter what. The secret is to calm the owners down so they can really listen to what is wrong and understand the treatment options.

Sometimes the most heartbreaking option is the one the owner has to choose.

"I never suggest putting an animal to sleep. I let the owners come to that decision on their own," he says.

Rollins still remembers one woman in a wheelchair who came in with her dog. The two had been inseparable for 12 years. The dog had heart problems and they had tried every medication and treatment they could think of. None of it could put off the inevitable.

"The dog went into cardiac arrest and respiratory distress right in front of her. He ended up dying," Rollins says.

The hardest thing is to work so hard to save the animal and then watch it die, he says.

Rollins has this advice to people thinking about veterinary school: don't do it just because you love animals. You can still love them -- own lots of them. But know that being a vet is so much more than that.

If you decide this is the career for you, get involved as early as you can with animal clubs. Volunteer at clinics. Showing you have a real interest and commitment is essential to getting into veterinary school, he says.

On an average day, Pennsylvania vet Susan Quigly sees a new animal and owner every 15 minutes. That means interacting with about 24 new people on any given day!

"Many people seem to think you finish vet school and pet puppies for a living. It's not like that. In a veterinary clinic, people are coming at you all day, so only extroverts can survive in this field," says Quigly.

The big difference between Quigly's job and the jobs of other health-care professionals is that her clients are different from her patients.

"When a family doctor sees a patient, he or she is also seeing a client -- the person who chose to 'hire' the doctor," Quigly explains. "With vets, the animal owners are the clients and they are the middlemen between vet and patient -- the animal."

While Quigly says it's a challenge to get information from a human "interpreting" for an animal, this situation doesn't faze her. She enjoys a good challenge.

Quigly thinks of herself as a kind of detective. She says most of her animal patients' illnesses are mysteries that can be cracked if she approaches the problem in the right way. In fact, Quigly has solved some veterinary cases that might have stumped Sherlock Holmes.

A few years ago, when Quigly was working in an emergency animal hospital, she cracked what she feels is her finest case so far. A woman had come into the hospital with a sick bulldog. He had been unable to keep food down for a couple of days, but was still playful and energetic.

Quigly examined the dog while asking the owner some questions about whether the dog had eaten anything out of the ordinary. The owner said nothing had happened, and so Quigly continued her exam, asking the woman to help out by holding her dog.

"As she put her hand on the dog's back, I saw a tan line where a ring used to be. I asked her what had happened to the ring. She said she hadn't seen it for three days and thought she might have dropped it in the carpet or something. That's when I told her the dog would be fine and I'd have a healthy dog and her ring back to her in a day or two," says Quigly.

Since the animal was still energetic, Quigly was fairly sure it had no major injuries, so her first guess was that this playful animal had just swallowed something he shouldn't have. The disappearance of the owner's ring on the same day the dog became sick was Quigly's second clue.

The dog had swallowed the ring and it upset his stomach. All that was left was to wait for the dog to do the messy deed.

"The woman wasn't sure about my diagnosis, so I kept the dog at the hospital. The very next morning, out came a lovely, rather large diamond ring. The dog was holding his food by 5 p.m. that night," says Quigly.

Making a diagnosis isn't always fun for a veterinarian, of course. Very often, an animal's health problems are traumatic for both owner and pet. Quigly says the toughest part of her job is helping the client make decisions about treatment for their animal.

Because there's no animal medical insurance, cost is a real factor for many pet owners. If an animal has very serious problems that are going to cost thousands of dollars to fix, and the owner is on a tight budget, the owner may have to decide to put the pet down.

"It's a terrible situation. I cry with everybody that loses a pet, because I know they can be just like family members," says Quigly. Most times, however, Quigly says patients and clients leave her clinic with wagging tails, smiling or purring. This is the most rewarding part of her job.

While much of her work involves preventative medicine like vaccines or checkups, Quigly says she occasionally gets a very sick patient.

"The special ones are the ones where you feel you've saved their lives. When an animal comes in, in really bad shape, and you do everything you can to save it and it pulls through, well, it makes you feel pretty lucky to be doing this job."