![\"\"](\"https:\/\/goodnewsmags.com\/lebanon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2026\/11\/2-5-1024x683.jpg\")
A DAY AT CUMBERLAND ANIMAL HOSPITAL<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n For Kinchen, who grew up in nearby Smyrna, Cumberland Animal Hospital means a 45-minute commute that starts most days before 6 a.m. The days themselves run long: appointments from around 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., an hour that\u2019s supposed to be lunch and usually isn\u2019t, more appointments until 6 p.m., and whatever paperwork the day left behind after that. Some days are wall-to-wall surgery. Some are nothing but exam rooms, one after another, each one needing a different version of him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While most people have a clear picture of what a veterinarian\u2019s day may look like, most don\u2019t grasp the pace at which they work \u2014 a pace akin to anxiety-inducing medical dramas. \u201cEveryone needs a chunk of your time,\u201d he said, describing days when a string of 10-minute conversations quietly eats an entire hour before he\u2019s even reached his actual to-do list.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He\u2019s quick to redirect credit to his technicians, too, the ones restraining anxious animals and drawing blood all day with a steadiness he still finds himself impressed by. \u201cNone of them are getting rich in this field. They do it because they love it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n THE DOG THAT TAUGHT HIM THE REST<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n If the routine clinical cases taught Kinchen how to be a vet, his own dog taught him what the job is actually for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Eleven years ago, he brought home a Great Pyrenees puppy named Lily Belle. His father, watching his son juggle the veterinary school workload, told him he\u2019d end up giving her up after six months. Lily Belle proved him wrong, and then some. She\u2019s been through the rest of vet school, a wedding a week after his graduation, a first house, and two kids.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cShe\u2019s been there every step of the way,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s not a sentimental detail. It\u2019s closer to data. Ask Kinchen what actually shapes the way he treats the people who bring their pets to him, and he can point to his own dog. \u201cI\u2019ve had this dog that\u2019s literally been through every major milestone of my life,\u201d he said. \u201cNever again will I go through all of that in this short a time period.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n That understanding \u2014 of how much one ordinary life can hold inside it \u2014 is what he carries into every exam room, whether the patient on the table is somebody\u2019s new puppy or somebody\u2019s last afternoon with an old friend. No matter how backed up his schedule is that day, Kinchen tries not to let it show.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI don\u2019t want someone who\u2019s trying to rush in and out, or not take the time,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n SHOWING UP<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Kinchen doesn\u2019t talk about any of this in grand terms \u2014 not the job, not his family. At home, Kinchen has Courtney, their two young sons, Brooks and Carson, and a dog who, by his own account, is more thrilled to see him walk in the door than anyone else in the house. Between his hours at the clinic and Courtney\u2019s work as a newborn nurse in Nashville, their household runs on a tight schedule.<\/p>\n\n\n\n His parenting advice, from a man constantly in demand? \u201cNinety percent of being a parent is just showing up,\u201d he said. \u201cI try to make sure I still make it to as many of the baseball games as I can.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s the same instinct that keeps him in the exam room a little longer than his schedule actually allows him to. Kinchen\u2019s whole career runs on it. So, it turns out, does the rest of his life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n GET TO KNOW DR. KINCHEN<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Dr. Wesley Kinchen sees patients at Cumberland Animal Hospital in Lebanon, which is currently accepting new patients and can be reached at (615) 444-1232. A University of Tennessee, Knoxville graduate of both the undergraduate and veterinary schools, he\u2019s a Smyrna, Tennessee, native who spends his off hours on the golf course, watching UT football, or chasing down his kids. GN<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Dr. Wesley Kinchen briefly tried to be an accountant. It ran in the family, and he figured he might give it a semester\u2019s worth of a shot before discovering, in his own words, that \u201caccounting is not genetic.\u201d A clear nudge from his girlfriend at the time \u2014 now his wife, Courtney \u2014 was all […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":24251,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6,70,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24246","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-feature","category-lebanon","category-stories"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/goodnewsmags.com\/lebanon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2026\/11\/4-4-1024x683.jpg\")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/goodnewsmags.com\/lebanon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2026\/11\/1-5-1024x683.jpg\")