ALL 4 PETS

He’s all agog about being a girl dad to an 18-month-old. In January, as a veterinarian and the first chief medical director at Pets4Life in Highland Park, he enthusiastically greeted the first cat and the first dog to enter the full-service pet care center.

Right around the same time, he’d heard Billy Corgan, the frontman of The Smashing Pumpkins, owns Madame Zuzu’s Tea House, located only two-tenths of a mile from Pets4Life.

Go ahead, try to knock the smile off Dr. Joseph DeSa’s face. But prepare yourself for failure.

It’s not going anywhere anytime soon.

“That geeked me out, knowing I work so close to a place run by Billy Corgan,” says the 38-year-old DeSa, who once played rhythm guitar for the band A Room Full of Echoes. “I love The Smashing Pumpkins. It’s one of my all-time favorite bands.”

Music to his ears these days? The happy yips and meows of his four-legged patients and clients at Pets4Life, along with the singsong praises he often hears from the two-legged owners of the jubilant animals.

You’ve heard of a battle of the bands. Pets4Life is home to a battle of the feel-good echoes of animals’ delightful hollers each day it’s open (Monday to Saturday).

“Pets are our first priority, and we are not just a clinic; we’re also your partners in ensuring a lifetime of health and happiness for your beloved companions,” DeSa says of the hospitable, one-stop center that houses a first-class veterinary practice, grooming and pet-spa services, vet-recommended health and retail products, and training and other pet education events, like the six-hour Iditarod Sled Race gathering Pets4Life hosted on March 9.

It also offers euthanasia at the homes of pets.

Co-founders Meg Gibson Revord (also CEO) and Greg Gibson (president and COO) launched Pets4Life, LLC, in mid-January. DeSa, the medical director at VCA Schaumburg Animal Hospital from 2019- 2023, had answered an ad for the CMD position in December 2022. Other staffers at Pets4Life include Dr. Gabrielle Saguil Federle (associate veterinarian), Amanda Scott (veterinarian tech/practice manager), Kate Revord (retail and marketing manager), and Nicole Thorsen (grooming manager and pet stylist).

DeSa is as well-rounded a vet as they come, with extensive experience in anesthesia and pain management, dermatology, and internal medicine. Or, “Things that get my blood flowing,” in his words.

“I consider it a big victory at Pets4Life when a pet owner sees us, after having visited three or four other veterinarians, and finally finds out exactly what’s ailing their pet,” DeSa says. “What they also appreciate is the number of relationships we have with several specialists; we have many, meaning pets and their owners often don’t have to visit another center or another veterinarian. We provide urgent care here. We do surgeries here. Convenience is a big thing here, one of our most significant draws.”

DeSa grew up in the Dominican Republic and lived there through the seventh grade. Sadly and tragically, his Hawaiian-born father, Joseph DeSa III—a first baseman for the St. Louis Cardinals and Chicago White Sox—died in a car accident at the age of 27 in 1986. Joseph IV was only 18 months old.

The future veterinarian moved to Puerto Rico with his mother, Margarita, and resided there until his early 20s.

“I’ve always loved animals,” says DeSa, whose first family pet was a Chow Chow named Coco. “But I thought about pursuing a career in law because my grandmother was a lawyer and she inspired me.”

DeSa benched that quest while volunteering at a small animal hospital as a senior in high school. His enthusiasm on the job was impossible to miss. He got promoted to a full-time post and held it for three years.

“That was where I learned a lot about medicine from my first mentor in the field, Dr. Armando Guardia,” the amiable DeSa says. “He was intelligent, a great vet with good business sense. He was also casual and funny, but he knew when it was time to be serious.”

DeSa later enrolled in PAVE, the Program for the Assessment of Veterinary Education Equivalence, which is a pathway for vets, who are graduates of international, non-accredited veterinary programs, to practice in the United States and Canada. He completed his clinical year—among fourth-year students—at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and became a licensed Illinois veterinarian in 2015.

You don’t emerge from PAVE without boatloads of perseverance and heaps of passion for the field.

“I don’t kiss and cuddle animals all day,” DeSa says. “But that’s what most people picture what it must be like to be a vet. That’s why I’m all for the shadowing of veterinarians for those who are thinking about a career in veterinary medicine. I love the teaching and mentoring sides of what I do because they’re fulfilling, rewarding sides. Vet students in the U.S. need more practical, world experiences— opportunities to see what goes on in surgeries, for example—before becoming vets.”

DeSa first met his future wife, Jessica, while vacationing in Puerto Rico, and fell for her “beauty and contagious smile” faster than a blink of the eye. She bumped and spiked varsity volleyballs at Hersey High School in Arlington Heights and became a nurse practitioner. They got married nine years ago and live in Buffalo Grove.

Daughter Ava arrived 18 months ago.

“I love being a girl dad,” DeSa says. “The full days I get to look after her are the hardest days of my week—and my favorite days. They’re exhausting and fulfilling at the same time.”

His days at Pets4Life? Also meaningful.

“I will always consider it a blessing to do what I do now,” DeSa says. “This is a career I wanted to pursue at a young age. I’m very grateful for the opportunities I’ve had, especially here in Highland Park, and I get to work in such a friendly community that’s filled with highly educated and professional people.”

Pets4Life is located at 661 Central Avenue in Highland Park. For more information, call 847- 434-2745 or visit pets4.com.