How an Emergency Veterinarian Spends Her Sundays

Dr. Carly Fox doesn’t need an alarm for a day of pancakes with her children, cats falling out of windows and red-light therapy.

There was never any doubt that Dr. Carly Fox, an emergency room veterinarian at the Schwarzman Animal Medical Center in Manhattan, would devote her life to caring for animals.

She grew up loving a series of three big boxers, which her family got after moving to Long Island from the Upper West Side. At the age of 5, she audaciously declared that she would become a veterinarian. (This early career choice is recorded in her class yearbook.)

“I had lizards as a child, and I did things like try to make a house for ants on the sidewalk,” Dr. Fox, 41, said.

She followed through on her childhood dream by earning a bachelor’s degree in animal sciences from Cornell University and went on to veterinary school at Ross and Cornell Universities. After an internship at the Animal Medical Center, Dr. Fox became a staff member there 15 years ago, a job that she said is as stressful as it is rewarding.

She lives in an apartment in Midtown East five blocks from her job with her husband, Jordan Fox, 45, the chief executive of Ad Results Media, and their children, Miller, 7, and Penn, 5. A 2-year-old rescue dog, a French bulldog named Leonard, joined their family last year.