A Day in the Life of Emma, Our Animal Care Assistant

When you walk into SimplyCats, you’re likely to notice the calm atmosphere, the smiling faces, and of course—the cats. But what you may not see straight away is the work happening behind the scenes to keep everything running smoothly. That’s where our Animal Care Assistants come in. This is a crucial role within our clinic and we're lucky to have such a dedicated team. Today, let’s follow Emma, one of our wonderful ACAs, through her day at the clinic.

Morning starts with a check of the clinic

Emma’s day begins bright and early with a walk around the clinic to check that everything is ready for our opening: all systems are switched on, the consult room equipment is present, stock has been replenished in all rooms, and fridge temperatures have been checked to ensure that medicines are stored correctly. These are small but vital jobs that keep our clinic running safely and smoothly.

Then Emma is ready to help with the morning admits of day-patients. This involves weighing the cats to ensure accurate medication is drawn up, and settling them into their kennels.

Helping patients and supporting the clinical team

Once the day gets going, Emma becomes the extra pair of hands for our vets and nurses. She’ll often hold cats during examinations, blood pressure checks, ECGs, or while blood samples are taken—always with a calm, reassuring presence.

Emma also helps with diagnostics, running in-house blood tests and urinalysis, then carefully uploading the results into each patient’s file. If a test needs to go to an external lab, she prepares and packages the samples.

Throughout the day, Emma keeps a close eye on our inpatients—feeding them, monitoring their progress, and making sure they’re as comfortable and relaxed as possible.

Behind the scenes

There’s a lot of unseen but essential work, too. Emma spends part of her day:

• Dispensing medications prescribed by the vets

• Cleaning and sterilising surgical instruments

• Cleaning and calibrating our in-house diagnostic machines

• Washing and drying bedding, towels, and scrubs

• Cleaning kennels ready for the next patients

• Checking stock and adding items to the order, then helping to put deliveries away when they arrive

She’s also a backup to our reception team, stepping in to answer phone calls and help clients when things get busy.

Preparing for tomorrow

Before heading home, Emma helps set up for the next day’s operations—making sure surgical kits are ready, the clinic is stocked, and everything is in place so the team can start smoothly again in the morning.

The glue that holds us together

As you can see, the role of an Animal Care Assistant is very diverse. From patient care and diagnostics to cleaning, stocking, and client support, they really are the glue that holds the clinic together, as expert multi-taskers.

We couldn’t provide the level of care we do at SimplyCats without Emma and the rest of our ACA team. Their compassion, efficiency, and attention to detail allow our vets and nurses to focus fully on treating cats—knowing that everything else is in safe hands.

So, next time you visit us, remember there’s a whole world of quiet, careful work happening in the background—and dedicated people like Emma making it all possible.