FC native returns, joins practice

WEST KITTANNING -- As a younger man, Ford City native David Meleason always took his basset hound, Shemp, to long-time veterinarian Robert L. Lash for all the droopy-eared canine's medical care.

Since March, the 42-year-old Meleason has practiced veterinary medicine along side Lash, Mark W. Beere, Gabriel Durkac and David St. Lifer at Robert L. Lash Veterinary Associates.

To get there, Meleason traveled down several paths that led him far from home.

After graduating from Ford City Junior-Senior High School in 1980, Meleason chose to explore life in the west.

"I was 18 years old and I wanted to do something different. Most of the people around here were going to Penn State and Pitt and other local colleges," said Meleason, who wanted to major in fish and wildlife management. "I thought the best place to go for that would be out west."

Meleason attended Montana State University in Bozman.

"Why I did, I don't really know. I never visited there and I was never out west before," Meleason said.

Meleason's undergraduate interests eventually turned toward medical science.

"I began thinking I'd like to be a doctor or a veterinarian," Meleason said.

After graduating in 1984 with a bachelor's degree in biology, he returned to the area to decide what he would do next.

"I wasn't sure of my future. I didn't know whether I wanted to go into medical school or graduate school at that time, so I decided to come back to this area and do some work here," Meleason said.

Job opportunities in Meleason's field of study were scarce at the time. He worked in construction at Solar Testing Company in Pittsburgh and at Polytech Vinyl Windows in Oakmont before landing at Eljer Manufacturing Company in 1987.

"Then I got laid off from Eljer in 1990, and that's what made me decide to go back to school," Meleason said.

From there, Meleason took his past interests in medical science to Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh, where he began one year of medical technology training as a laboratory technician.

"It was both didactic lecture courses and on-the-job experience," Meleason said.

In 1992, the hospital hired him to work in the histocompatability unit, where he performed cross-matching and typing for tissue transplant procedures.

That's where he met his wife, Lauren, whom he married in 1994.

After three years, Meleason began considering veterinary school. That would eventually take he and his wife, a New Kensington native, away from the area again.

In 1996, he began schooling at North Carolina State University in Raleigh.

While there, Meleason and his wife, adopted four cats and one dog.

"We found our first cat in a storm drain," Meleason said.

The couple got involved with "Second Chance", a volunteer kitten and cat rescue for abandoned and stray animals.

"You'd take kittens into your house and nurse them until you could find them a good home," Meleason said. "We had up to twenty-some kittens at our house at one time."

After receiving a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree from N.C. State in 2000, Meleason went on to graduate school at Ohio State University in Columbus to pursue his Ph.D. and undertake a residency in animal pathology.

"We're the ones who did the necropsies on the animals when they died," Meleason said.

In October of 2001, the Meleasons began to miss home enough to move back to western Pennsylvania.

"We were away from our families for a while and we hardly had any chance to see them," Meleason said.

Meleason continued his education at University of Pittsburgh while also doing veterinary research.

"I did primate medicine when I was there. They used the monkey as a model for testing vaccines and drugs for human medicine," Meleason said.

But Meleason longed for more personal contact with animals, which led to his return to the area.

"The research you're doing for vaccines and drug testing helps out in the long run, but you don't ever get to see that," Meleason said.

That's one of the reasons why he's so happy where he's at.

"Here, you help an animal, you fix its broken leg or whatever else, and you see a result," Meleason said.

Another thing Meleason sees as being valuable is the rural locale.

"The closer you get to the city, you're just going to take care of small animals, but Dr. Durkac and Dr. St. Lifer mainly still practice large animal medicine. That's where they go out and do herd health for cows and take care of horses, sheep, goats and llamas," Meleason said. "If I ever wanted to go back and start doing some of the large animal or dairy things, there's an opportunity to learn about that."

And Meleason said both he and his wife believe they would have ended up back in the area one way or another.

"Lauren and I feel like it's luck or fate that we're back here. It's the best decision we've made and we're truly happy," Meleason said.