Every life leaves a lasting legacy. Some companions stay with us for a season. Others become part of our family for a lifetime. At Creekside Vet Clinic, we believe the pets who have shared our lives deserve to be remembered in a meaningful way.
Since 2006, Creekside has participated in the Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine Clinic Memorial Giving Program. Through this program, Creekside makes a memorial gift in honor of cherished patients who have passed away. Each gift offers a quiet expression of sympathy to the family while helping support animal health research that can benefit pets for generations to come.
The story of Creekside's relationship with Cornell began years before the clinic joined the program. In the 1990s, after Donna Lee lost her beloved Golden Retriever, Gabie, her veterinarian, Dr. Feinberg, made a donation to Cornell in Gabie's memory. Cornell sent Donna a letter explaining that a memorial gift had been made in Gabie's honor. She was overwhelmed by the gesture and gift.
Donna kept that letter. It stayed with her because the gesture did more than acknowledge a loss. It gave Gabie's life a continuing purpose and brought comfort at a time when kindness mattered deeply.
Gabie's legacy did not end with a letter. It became part of how Creekside would one day honor the lives of other beloved pets.
In 2006, when Donna joined Creekside, she brought the letter to Dr. Jan Crowe and shared what the memorial had meant to her. Together, they chose to make that same thoughtful gesture part of Creekside's care for families experiencing the loss of a pet.
What began with Gabie became an enduring Creekside tradition. For two decades, memorial gifts to Cornell have quietly honored the patients entrusted to Creekside and acknowledged the place each one held within a family.
In 2026, the longstanding connection entered a new chapter as Creekside and Cornell began working and communicating directly. Cornell recognizes Creekside as a Clinic Memorial Partner and lists the clinic as its participating partner in South Carolina.
At Creekside Vet Clinic, caring for pets has always been about more than medicine. It is about understanding the bond between people and the companions who share their lives, and remaining worthy of that bond through every stage of care.
The end of a pet's life does not erase the love, routines, memories and years that came before it. A Cornell memorial gift cannot lessen the loss, but it can help a family know that their pet was seen, remembered and valued.
The gifts also help sustain the work of Cornell's Baker Institute for Animal Health, where research includes cancer, infectious disease, immunology, genetics, reproduction and other areas affecting animal health.
Every memorial gift carries a name, a story and a relationship that mattered. It honors the life of a cherished companion while helping make possible discoveries that may protect animals we have not yet met.
That is the legacy Gabie began. It continues through every pet Creekside remembers, every family we hold close and every future life touched by compassionate veterinary research.
Their lives mattered. Their love remains. Their legacy lives on.
Since 2006
Creekside Vet Clinic is recognized by Cornell as a Clinic Memorial Partner in South Carolina.
View Cornell's Clinic Memorial Partners