Dr. Phoebe Terese was on her coffee break, watching another Planet Earth documentary. Such was the life of a huge animal lover, always devouring information about the many different kinds of environments on Earth and the many different kinds of species that exist in each one. She loved watching Planet Earth and Blue Planet, and she was excited about the upcoming Planet Earth II.

"Dr. Terese?" Jake, one of the techs, said. "Dr. Thomas is running late, could you come do a quick exam?"

"Oh," Phoebe removed her headphones. "Sure."

Phoebe went into an operating room and did a quick exam on a 5-year-old American pit bull terrier. She was completely ecstatic when the results showed that it was completely healthy. It was a huge relief after having to operate on a Maine Coon cat with a heart condition. It took a lot of willpower to keep herself together. She hated seeing animals in pain.

She especially hated when an animal had to be put down. She knew that euthanasia was sometimes the most humane thing to do for an animal, but it still didn't make things easier. Whenever an animal had to be put down, it took every ounce of willpower Phoebe had to keep herself from completely falling apart and breaking down. She knew it was necessary, but she still had a really difficult time killing an animal.

Of course, she had to deal with this because this was the life she had chosen. Phoebe had always been a huge animal lover. She always felt that it was her mission to save any animal that needed help. This led to a number of incidents, such as the time when she formed S.A.D.S. to help desert animals before discovering that they don't need help, and who could forget the time that she stopped talking to all of her friends for a week after they decided to go along with the frog dissection project in biology. Of course, she volunteered at the local animal shelter a lot during high school, and there was one time when she shadowed a veterinarian. After spending the day with a vet, Phoebe knew that a career as a vet would be the career for her.

With this is mind, she headed for the University of Pennsylvania after high school. She had heard many great things about their pre-health program, and she knew that it would be a great help in getting her into vet school. The first year was rough, though, but it was mainly because of what happened before graduation.

Phoebe had always been pretty quiet and shy, so many people didn't really know her. You could say that the majority of the school didn't know that she existed. Since she was pretty unknown, she didn't really have much experience in the dating world, but she felt that it was best. She had always been pretty self-conscious about her body because she was tall (5'9'') and skinny. She was only in the mid-B cup range and had pale skin that was covered in a few places with freckles and could never tan, only freckle and burn. All in all, she was kind of thankful that she didn't date a lot because she was pretty sure that no boy would want to be with a lanky girl like her, but there were still plenty of times when she wished that she had a boyfriend.

There was actually one time when it seemed like her wish came true when Carlos asked her out. At first, she was pretty sure it was just a bet between him and his friends, but it turned out to be very sweet. The two of them always had a soft spot for each other, ever since the time when he got her to start SADS, and there was the time that she helped overcome his fear of spiders. Their first date wasn't at all awkward as she thought it would be, and they went on quite a few more dates. In fact, Carlos actually made it to second base with Phoebe before French kissing her. It was a pretty good relationship, but it ended because Carlos was still a chick magnet and Phoebe felt that the relationship was missing something. She couldn't figure out what it was, but she wished that she would find her perfect relationship someday.

Luckily, her wish came true when Arnold asked her out in the middle of their junior year. Arnold didn't care about how her body looked because to him, it was what was inside that counted, and he thought that she was beautiful in appearance, nonetheless. They were both really happy, and Phoebe ended up being the girl that Arnold dated for the longest time. Since they both had similar personalities, they seemed to be perfect for each other, and everyone who knew them agreed. Phoebe thought that Arnold was the one that she would end up spending the rest of her life with, but everything changed towards the end of their senior year. Arnold and Phoebe got in a huge fight over something that was really important to both of them (well, not so important to Arnold). Phoebe got so mad at Arnold that she broke up with him. After that, there was a long time where Phoebe felt really sad all the time. She loved Arnold more than anything, and now, things were ruined. She didn't know if she would ever love again.

This made the university experience difficult for her at first, but eventually, she started working on moving on. She knew that if she wanted to have a successful future, she would need to get over what happened and focus on what was important. Luckily, she was able to move on almost completely by the end of her sophomore year, although there was still a part of her that would never stop loving Arnold and wanted to be back together with him, but she had to be strong.

After mostly getting over Arnold, Phoebe was able to focus on her studies and quickly became one of the best students at UPenn. After graduating with a degree in Biology, she enrolled in UPenn's pre-health program. It was during this time that she started thinking of possible schools to attend. She thought of attending UPenn's vet school, but ultimately, she decided that the school for her would be the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine. Phoebe had heard many great things about that school, such as its outstanding academic reputation, its stellar research that led to new advances in veterinary medicine, and the many discoveries made by faculty and alumni that led to the pioneering of new procedures and testing. All of this greatly appealed to her, so she had her sights set on attending UC Davis' vet school.

After a year in UPenn's pre-health program, she took the GRE and then applied to vet school. She was thrilled when she was accepted into UC Davis and excited to begin classes. She quickly became one of the best students at the vet school, mainly because her passion for helping animals was strong. During her vet school years, she also rented a house with a huge yard where she fostered rescued animals from local shelters, mainly dogs. She loved taking care of the dogs, although it was a lot of work to take care of all of them, especially during times when she had four or five at the same time. Luckily, all of the dogs she fostered eventually found good homes. After four years, she finally graduated with a DVM and was officially Dr. Phoebe Terese.

After graduating, she moved back to Virginia and took a job at a veterinary clinic in Norfolk. She loved living there because it was close to Virginia Beach (how she loved the beach) and it was close enough to Walkerville for her. She had thought of moving back to Walkerville to be closer to her father (she is a grown woman who still calls her father "Daddy"), but she also felt like she needed some kind of independence. Luckily, Norfolk was close enough to her dad for her, and it was far enough that she would have some form of independence.

Once Phoebe was done with the pit bull, she continued on with the day doing what she normally did every day, and then it was time to go home. Phoebe drove to her house in the suburbs and prepared herself for a nice relaxing evening. She really needed it after working hard all day long. She entered her house and was greeted by her pug, Millie, whom she adopted a year and a half ago. She then fed Millie and made herself a nice salad for dinner.

She wasn't in any relationship at the moment. Part of it had to do with what happened with Arnold, but that wasn't all of it. She was still rather quiet and shy, so it was kind of difficult for her to have someone to go out with. Of course, most men wouldn't go for a shy girl, and she was a bit too shy to ask someone out. She was working on it, however. She was working on gaining confidence so that she could ask a guy out because there were a few that she wouldn't mind dating.

Right now, her mind was set on Jake. He was pretty cute with his dark, long hair, his lean, muscular body, and his cute brown eyes. He was also very similar to her in that he was also pretty shy and didn't really talk to anyone unless he had to. Phoebe actually believed that he was shier than her. He had been bullied as a teenage because he was overweight, and that is what made him really introverted. Sure, he was now fit and handsome, but he was still shy and had trouble finding a girlfriend. Why he was like that Phoebe did not know, but she felt that maybe she could ask him out. She just needed to work on her confidence enough to be able to do it.

After dinner, Phoebe went to check the mail. She also found the letter from Walkerville Elementary and read it. After reading it, she became overcome with emotion. She started crying loudly in the middle of her living room. She couldn't help it. She had always been the most emotional of the group.

After a few minutes, she had finished crying loudly and was now sitting on the couch, sniffling loudly and hugging Millie to make her feel a little better. Her phone then rang. She saw that it was Keesha, her best friend, and answered. "Hello?"

"Hey, Pheebs," Keesha answered "I need to ask you something."

"What?"

"Did you get a letter from Walkerville Elementary?"

"Yes," Phoebe sniffled "I don't believe it."

"I know. I can't either. But I need to know, will you be at the funeral?"

"I think I will. Will you or anyone else?" Phoebe asked.

"I will be there. I know that Ralphie will be there, too. And Carlos will be there, and he's checking with Tim. That reminds me, can you check if anyone else will be there?"

"Well, I guess I can check if Dorothy Ann will be there." Phoebe responded.

"Great. Well, I need to go. I'll see you at the funeral."

Keesha then hung up. Phoebe then continued hugging Millie until she had composed herself enough to dial DA's number, hoping that she would also be there, knowing it wouldn't be very likely.