AMIGO ANIMAL CLINIC - Key Persons

An Arizona native, Melissa is a true "desert rat" and enjoys the 110 degree days. She spent her summers working at a local boarding stable learning to care for animals of all sorts, including horses, fowl, poultry, cats, dogs, small ruminants, and one very stubborn steer. She attended Arizona State University Polytech campus for undergraduate studies and actually worked as a technician at Amigo before being accepted to vet school. She went to Western University of Health Sciences for vet school, located in southern California. Melissa considered the LA suburbs far too cold and returned to Arizona for her internship at a local emergency and specialty center (VCA ARECA in Mesa). She worked at a few other clinics in town before coming "home" to Amigo! In her spare time, she cares for her two half-Arabian horses, Key and Bonfire, her 3 tortoises, and five dogs. The dogs include a Labradoodle named Donut, a Dachshund/ Miniature Pinscher named Otter , a Cocker Spaniel named Jackson, as well as two foster-failures, a Chihuahua named Ollie and her daughter, the half-Yorkie Wren (who you can usually see helping at Amigo as our Head Nurse!)

Dr. Jensen was born and raised in the Midwest - Omaha, Nebraska to be exact. She knew at a young age that she wanted to be a veterinarian. Now you would think in the Midwest everyone lived on the farm, but not her. Omaha is a metropolitan area. She wished she lived on a farm and would look in the Sunday papers for farms for sale to show her dad. He would laugh and play along. She went to Iowa State University and studied Biological Illustration, a new degree at the time. It paired well with both her scientific interests and her artistic side. She graduated in 1989 from Iowa State College of Veterinary Medicine. She moved back to Omaha for one year, worked for 4 years in the Quad City, Iowa area, and lived by the Mississippi. The Cold winters and floods in the summer of 1994 caused her to seek a warmer climate. She worked for 2 years in Phoenix before buying Amigo Animal Clinic in the summer of 1997. She enjoys the daily hustle and bustle of clinic activity, saying, "you never know what interesting case will come in next."