Meet Our Team

Doctors

Dr. Lara Houston, VMD

Dr. Houston grew up in Pennsylvania and is a 2000 graduate of the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine.  She has practiced in Florida, Pennsylvania, Delaware and here in Colorado for the past several years.  Dr. Houston was married in 2007.  She and her husband welcomed their first son, William, on Thanksgiving 2008.  In 2010, they welcomed their new daughter Elizabeth into their family. They also share their house with a Peke and Pom named Ranger, and three cats.  Dr. Houston loves to travel and has been to several countries in Europe as well as studied abroad in Madagascar and Ghana.  She joined our team in 2006 and bought the practice in 2010.

 

Dr. Kathleen Miller, DVM

Dr. Kathleen Miller graduated with her DVM from Iowa State University in May of 2016. She is from Omaha, Nebraska and received her B.S. in biology from the University of Oklahoma. She first practiced veterinary medicine in Austin, TX before making the move to lovely Colorado. Dr. Miller has three dogs, Gracie, Mac and Pete; she also has two Kenyan sand boas, William Snakespeare and Severus Snake. She enjoys spending time with her husband, running, hiking, reading, and travelling.

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Technicians

Monica Anthony - CVT, AAS

Monica has been with BVH since 1988.  She attended the University of Colorado, Denver before going to the Bel-Rea Institute of Animal Technology.  She lovingly refers to her home as the Anthony Ark. She and her husband, Jim, care for their grandson Cristiano.  She also has three more grandchildren in South Dakota, Hailey, JJ and Dixie, who she travels to visit as often as she can. They also have four dogs ; Gracie, Sierra, Chai and Diego along with four cats - Jack, Rafael, Tia and Maya.  The Anthony's have built a straw bale house using solar and wind energy in the Canon City area, and like to spend their free time there.  

Beth Reade - CVT, AAS

Beth is originally from Wilmington, Massachusetts.  She has a busy family consisting of two girls - Jessica & Sarah and her husband Lupe.  Beth spent four years in the Air Force as a Jet Engine Mechanic.  Several years were then devoted to her girls before she pursued a Veterinary Technology Degree.  Beth enjoys painting, gardening, hiking, photography and sight seeing.  She has two dogs - a Beagle named JT and a Lab Mix named Olive.  Beth graduated from the Bel-Rea Institute of Animal Technology and joined our staff in 2000.

Melanie Schappa- CVT, AAS

Melanie, who started working at BVH in February 2015, was born with a love of animals! Growing up in Northern Michigan; dogs, cats and horses have been a part of her life as long as she can remember. After training and showing Morgan horses for a few years she took her love of animals to a new level by getting her degree and license as a Veterinary Technician.  Melanie and her family moved to Colorado in 2012 and have been enjoying the beautiful weather, hiking with their two dogs, and going camping in the mountains!

Sally Lotspeich - CVT, AAS

Sally was born in Cedar Rapids, IA and moved here at age 11 with her family.  She attended Colorado State University for 2 years studying journalism before discovering the veterinary world.  she graduated from the Bel-Rea Institute of Animal Technology in September of 2007 and started with our team shortly after in October.  After 9 years with Bouton, Sally decided to further her education by working for the Ophthalmology Specialty at VRCC.  A year later she is back with our team and welcomed a baby boy named Finnegan into the family in May of 2018.  They have 2 dogs and love spending time outdoors in the beautiful Colorado weather. 

Cat Sawyer - CVT, RVT, AAS

Cat is a true Colorado native, born in Grand Junction and raised in Arvada.  She graduated from the University of Denver in 2003 with a BA and then decided to pursue a career in veterinary medicine by graduating from Bel-Rea in 2005 and started working at Bouton that fall. Although she worked outside of the industry for a few years, the animals just kept pulling her back in!  In 2013, she moved to New Orleans and worked in a very busy small animal and exotic practice and learned to treat many different species.  After getting married in New Orleans in 2016 she and her husband Edward moved back to Colorado with her horse, Genesis, two cats and a tortoise in tow!  They quickly adopted a dog named Savannah and welcomed a son in 2017, followed by a daughter in 2019.

Ximena Salgado-Santamaria

Ximena (pronounced Hee-meh-nah) recently moved to Denver to pursue a graduate degree in Social Work at the University of Denver. She has been an animal lover her whole life and a technician for the past 4 years. Originally from Florida and then New England, Ximena is excited to serve animals in a new part of the country. Even as she switches careers she is determined to continue working with animals as a tech and also with animal therapy as a social worker. She loves Harry Potter and can talk about it for hours. She lives with her husband, her adorable dog Obi, and two crazy cats Sky and Peter.

Veterinary Assistant

Larae Hunt

Larae joined our team at Bouton in 2018.  Originally from Arizona, she moved here in 2017 and now most of her family are also living in our beautiful state.  Before working with us she spent a year at Foothills Animal Shelter where she gained lots of experience in shelter medicine.  While there she adopted an adorable Pit Bull named River (shown in her picture)!  She enjoys all the best parts of Colorado including hiking, fishing, shooting and camping.   

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Our Wonderful Kennel Staff

Kristina Salazar 

Kristina joined our team in 2007 and graduated from Bear Creek High School in 2008. She has 3 dogs: a princess Chihuahua named Bella, a Chi-Pom called Romeo that she rescued in 2013, and she recently added a new addition, Ruby (a Sheltie). Kristina has 2 older brothers, who support her love of animals.  She has aspirations of becoming a dog groomer very soon.  Kristina enjoys snowmobiling, arts and crafts and spending time with her family. 

Heidi Smith

Heidi is a Colorado native and a graduate of Bear Creek High School. She has always had an interest in caring for animals. While still in high school she worked here at Bouton. She went on to work at another animal care facility for a number of years before rejoining our team in 2013. Heidi and her husband have an adorable dog named Ozzy that they adopted in 2018. She enjoys musicals, travel, and paper crafting.

Jessica Nicholson

Jessica is another Colorado native who joined the Bouton Veterinary Hospital team in the summer of 2017.  She grew up with lots of animals where she gained experience with dogs, cats, horses, fish, chickens, rabbits, and special needs pets.  Jessica enjoys photography, gaming, and has always had an interest in marine biology.

Morgan Hein

Morgan is another Colorado native. She joined our Bouton team in the summer of 2018. She is currently a student at Columbine High School. Morgan hopes to attend Colorado State University after graduation. She has three loving dogs at home. When not at work she enjoys baking and hiking in our beautiful mountains. 

Amanda Farmer

Amanda joined the Bouton team in 2019 and is a Colorado native. She grew up around animals and has always wanted to work with them. She hopes to study veterinary medicine at CSU. In her free time, Amanda loves reading, video games, and finding new hiking trails with her dog Matcha.

Anthony Mitcham

Anthony has lived many places in his life and moved to Colorado from New Mexico.  He joined our team in August of 2019.  He graduated with a Bachelors degree in Psychology and is currently back in school studying Computer Sciences.  In his free time he enjoys baking and playing video games.  He shares his home with an adorable Puggle named Rev who is 9 years young.