Happy Tails in Shrewsbury: How veterinary care became family affair

SHREWSBURY - Marko Sima, co-owner of Happy Tails Veterinary Hospital in Shrewsbury, traces his desire to be a veterinary doctor all the way back to his father, who was a veterinarian in Serbia.

“He was smart in school and grew into having a love for animals,” Sima said. “At that time, he was treating larger animals, like horses, cows, chickens and things like that. He did that for 10 years and enjoyed his time there.

“He was very committed to his job,” Sima said. “For him, it was all about caring for animals of all types and he was naturally drawn to that trade like a moth to the flame. No matter what else was involved in the job, he was ready to do what was necessary.”

Dina Rovere, RPh, VMD and Marko Sima, VMD, owners of Happy Tails Veterinary Hospital, pet their dog, Dakota, as they talk about the practice at Happy Tails Veterinary Hospital in Shrewsbury, NJ Tuesday, September 20, 2022.
Dina Rovere, RPh, VMD and Marko Sima, VMD, owners of Happy Tails Veterinary Hospital, pet their dog, Dakota, as they talk about the practice at Happy Tails Veterinary Hospital in Shrewsbury, NJ Tuesday, September 20, 2022.

In addition to being a veterinarian, Sima’s father also worked in food inspection.

“While working as a food inspector in Poland, he met my mother in one of the plants and they got to know each other,” Sima said. “She went to a technical school in Poland at the time and they dated for a year before getting married."

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Sima’s parents got a chance to move to the United States after a new law under President Lyndon B. Johnson made it easier for immigrants with medical degrees to come here with a visa.

“My father had that degree and all of us moved to America in 1968,” Sima said. “Even though my father was a licensed vet in his own country, he still had to get certified to practice in America. He did that and also started working for the (U.S. Department of Agriculture) in New Jersey in 1969.

“We moved to Vineland and I started school there,” Sima said. “He eventually bought a house and turned it into a veterinary hospital at night. When I was not in school, he taught me the business. I started out cleaning out cages and doing things to help out where I could. Sometimes, I would walk around to different parts of the house and I would see him operating on animals and things like that. It became normal to me and that’s just what transpired in that environment.”

'Two different styles of working'

As Sima grew older, he started working as a receptionist for his father’s business. He originally wanted to be an engineer and attended Drexel University for a year, but changed his mind and transferred to Penn State to study animal bioscience. He would later attend and graduate from the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine.

“I decided to follow in the footsteps of my father and became a vet instead,” Sima said. “I initially liked the science aspect of it, but then I got into wanting to help animals. After graduating from medical school and earning a bachelor’s degree in animal bioscience, I went to work with my dad for a year, but I soon realized my father and I had two different styles of working and I needed to develop a way that was all my own.

“He was used to a more old-school style and I was mostly new-school,” Sima said. "We got along well, but we differed in our approaches to treating animals. His understanding was to treat first and then perform tests, but I was the opposite. I just learned how to perform my job in a different way and that’s the way I wanted to practice as a veterinarian.”

Dina Rovere, RPh, VMD and Marko Sima, VMD, owners of Happy Tails Veterinary Hospital, play with their dogs, (center, on table) Dakota, (L-R, front)  Marigold and Mango, as they talk about the practice at Happy Tails Veterinary Hospital in Shrewsbury, NJ Tuesday, September 20, 2022.
Dina Rovere, RPh, VMD and Marko Sima, VMD, owners of Happy Tails Veterinary Hospital, play with their dogs, (center, on table) Dakota, (L-R, front) Marigold and Mango, as they talk about the practice at Happy Tails Veterinary Hospital in Shrewsbury, NJ Tuesday, September 20, 2022.

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Starting in the mid-1990s, Sima worked at different hospitals, improving his skills.

“I would work part-time for a vet and then do some relief work for the rest of the day,” Sima said. “I just wanted to keep developing my work ethic and perfect my abilities, until I mastered my trade as a whole. It was all about getting that practice in until I could be the best I could possibly be.

“I also worked for some emergency clinics for a while,” Sima said. “I would stay there all night long and deal with sick animals that would show up at random. Most of the cases were really intense and it was like an emergency room for animals. It was really emotionally jarring to see all of these sick animals come through at all hours of the night, but I figured I could help out and learn something new in the process.”

While attending the University of Pennsylvania in 1991, Sima met his future wife and co-owner of Happy Tails, Dina Rovere. They dated for several years before they tied the knot in 1999.

“I went and graduated with the same degree as Marko,” Rovere said. “Although we were dating and getting to know each other, we both had our own work-related obligations and career paths that we were chasing. I went to Temple University for pharmacy school and became a vet doctor from (the University of Pennsylvania). We wanted to work hard and get more experienced with our jobs. It was all about filling in the gaps.

“I wanted to be a surgeon,” Rovere said. “I went and did an internship for that in New York City. I worked my share of vet jobs and I ended up leaving one job in particular because my employer was very close to his work life and I decided that I wanted to have a family one day. In the end, I had to choose my family life because I didn’t want to be married to my work. It was that simple.”

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Spreading the word

After choosing family over the job, Rovere and Sima would go on to have three sons and Rovere took some time to raise them with Sima. After taking some time to tend to their family obligations, Sima decided to open his own veterinary practice, having grown up doing it with his dad.

“We set out to buy out older practices around the area, but no one wanted to sell their businesses at that time,” Rovere said. “We eventually found Happy Tails in Shrewsbury, which was previously an open space, and opened on June 2, 2014. It was a slow start. There were other vet hospitals around the area and we wanted to stand out. We met this really nice lady named Betsy Higgins and we really hit it off upon meeting.

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Exterior of Happy Tails Veterinary Hospital in Shrewsbury, NJ Tuesday, September 20, 2022.
Exterior of Happy Tails Veterinary Hospital in Shrewsbury, NJ Tuesday, September 20, 2022.

“She came with her dogs initially,” Rovere said. “She loved us so much that she spread the word around and gave other people with pets a solid review of our business. That was a big reason we started to see people in Shrewsbury come in to our establishment. She knew lots of people and she helped us get our name out there. We have been here for almost nine years and we are still going strong.”

“We take care of dogs, cats, guinea pigs, bearded dragons, rabbits, ferrets and birds, just to name a few,” Sima said. “It is a family affair and we dedicate ourselves and our staff to taking good care of your pet and giving them a good bill of health.”

As Happy Tails and its staff look towards the future, they want to invest in helping young kids get out of debt as they graduate from medical school and move on to their careers.

“During the summers, we have young vet students come work with us to get more hands-on experience,” Sima said. “A lot of them have gone on to med school and that is very inspiring and gratifying to us. We want to keep at it and give other aspiring vets the tools to the trade.”

Happy Tails Veterinary Hospital

Owners: Dr. Marko Sima and Dr. Dina Rovere

Location: 827 Broad St., Shrewsbury

Phone: 732-268-8180

Website: www.happytailsvetnj.com

Hours: 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. weekdays; 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekends

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Happy Tails in Shrewsbury: Veterinary care is family affair