This week, we’re celebrating Vetstreet’s third birthday, and it seemed like a perfect opportunity to revisit some of our favorite stories. These are the pieces that touched our hearts, minds, funny bones and much more. We hope you enjoyed them as much as we did.

Stories for the Heart

We all agreed that some of our more memorable stories are the inspiring and heartwarming animal tales we’ve shared with you over the past three years.

Scooter the Pit Bull

"From ‘Thug’ to Therapy Dog in Training — a Rescued Pit Bull Gets a New Life"
Who could forget Scooter, the Pit Bull who, for the first part of her life, was used as "muscle" by a mugger to intimidate his victims into giving up their possessions? We definitely shed a few happy tears when Scooter was adopted by a loving family and became a therapy dog in training.

"Little Donkey, Big Love: Animal Lovers Come Together to Save a Miniature Donkey"
How about when a chain of do-gooders brought a rejected miniature donkey to a new life at Millstone Farm in the Hudson Valley? We just loved those pictures of little Holly.

"How One Enterprising Boy Financed the Seizure Service Dog He Needs"
Evan’s story is one of our all-time favorites. The inspiring 7-year-old wrote, illustrated and self-published a book to finance the service dog he needed to alert his family to his debilitating seizures. We were so proud when he brought home his service dog in 2012: a Goldendoodle named Mindy.

Stories for the Mind

We can’t express how much we value the "learn something new every day" mantra, and we hope some of our articles have helped you do just that.

Clouded leopard cub cuddling with zookeeper

You’ve always thought zoo babies being fed with bottles were totally adorable, but in "The Pros and Cons of Hand-raising Zoo Babies," you learned that caring for these animals is much more complicated than it appears.

You went inside the only laboratory in the world dedicated to solving crimes against wildlife in "Fighting Crimes Against Wild Animals: Inside a Wildlife Forensics Lab." Speaking of protecting animals, other conservation articles taught us about boosting coral reef reproduction, how science is helping successfully breed endangered pandas, and which zoos are helping animals edge out extinction.

Old Man Doug in Kitchen

Stories for the Hard Times

We’ve also gone through the hard times together. We do our best to help you help your pet live a long, happy and healthy life — and we try to be there to help you through the end of your pet’s journey. We shared the loss of Internet-famous animals like Colonel Meow. We grieved together when Old Man Doug passed away, honoring a fellow we grew to love over the years through the stories his human shared with us:
Old Man Doug: an Ode to Our 17-Year-Old Dog
Old Man Doug Moves to Washington
A Last Ode to Old Man Doug

Our experts shared their own time-tested takes on pet loss with articles like "End-of-Life Decisions: Telling Your Vet No," by Dr. Jessica Vogelsang, and "What 25 Years as a Vet Have Taught Me About the Right Time to Say Goodbye," by Dr. Ann Hohenhaus.

Stories for the Funny Bone

Of course, we couldn’t leave out some of our favorite humor pieces. Dr. Andy Roark, sometimes clad in his hilarious dog suit, has created many a classic funny video over the past few years. We’re talking about everything from "SuperVet Battles Pet Fur" to "Keep Runs Fun: a Comical Cautionary Tale." Holidays have also been pretty ripe for jokes, as evidenced by "11 Creative Cats Who Will Do Anything to Avoid Celebrating National Hug Your Cat Day" and "The Polite Pet’s Guide to Not Ticking People Off During Take Your Pet to Work Week."

So now that we’ve shared our favorites, we want to know which stories you remember best from the past three years. Tell us in the comments below!