Dr. Jessica Melman is a vet— of course she loves animals. And while having pets of their own is standard for a veterinarian, there aren’t many folks with pets quite like Jessica’s. The founder of Bespoke Veterinary Services, Jessica has six dogs— five Cavalier King Charles Spaniels and one Bernese Mountain dog– four cats, a bunny, a pig, a gaggle of chickens, three sheep, three goats, and two cows. (Phew!) This crew lives with Jessica and her two children at Good Hill Haven Farm in Weston. “It was always a dream of mine to have a farm,” says Jessica. And while she didn’t grow up on one— she’s from the Washington DC area—living with lots of four-legged friends isn’t new for her. “My grandfather and father are veterinarians, and we always had tons of animals,” she says. “We had dogs, cats, birds, and I had an iguana. I felt like becoming a vet was my calling.”
Six years ago, she moved to Fairfield County from San Francisco. She had met a concierge pediatrician out west and was inspired to open a similar clinic for veterinary medicine here. She quickly fell in love with the farm in Weston. “When I moved in, it was my goal to fill up the barn, and I’ve done a good job of it,” she says with a laugh. She got three baby goats—Rose, Dorothy, and Blanche— as babies, even bottle-feeding them. And she began to develop a reputation as an animal rescuer— it was how she inherited her rabbit, Cash, who had been attacking other rabbits on a rabbit farm, many of her chickens, and her cats. Then a colleague reached out to see if she wanted three sheep— two females and a baby— who had been rescued from a spina bifida study at Yale. “They came on a cold January day with tons of snow on the ground. There was this little lamb, and I was like, I gotta keep you warm.” So she took him inside. “To this day, he does not realize he’s a lamb. He thinks he’s a dog.”
Most recently, Jessica got two male cows, Bucky and Briar, from a dairy farm in Vermont. “They only keep the females, and so a client of mine who works a lot with rescues brought them to me. when they were about a month old. We bottle fed them, too. They are really sweet— they give kisses!” The crew all gets along pretty well, too, with one notable exception. “I would say Wilma [our pig] has been our biggest troublemaker! She’s the one we’ve had to move around the most. But she’s in the chicken coop now, and she’s happy there.”
Having the farm has lived up to her every dream. “I think living on the farm is one of the best things I could have done for my children. Both of them have so much empathy and they love the animals,” she says. “Watching them interact with them is heartwarming.” Even with all the work—Jessica is a single mom and credits her amazing farm hand and support team for helping her take care of everything— she wouldn’t change a thing. “This is absolutely my dream home and my haven. It’s a special place for everyone who comes here."
To learn more about Bespoke Veterinary Services, visit bespokevetservice.com. Dr. Jessica Melman also appears on SiriusXM Doctor Radio Ask the Vet on the first Tuesday of every other month.