I conceived this story while crossing Broadway near Astor place. It just flashed in front of my eyes in few seconds, brightly and clearly, and left me with a painful urge to make a film out of this brief vision.

My sister is a veterinarian, and she practiced from the house where we all lived. Without much choice to say no, I had to assist her at surgeries and other operations. I also had to witness her agony when she failed to bring an animal to health or life.

I saw her losing romance with the job, saw her tired, depressed, on the edge of major nervous breakdown. Still, she had to get up in the middle of night and rush to help yet another patient. How did she do it? Where did she draw strength to continue?

I wanted to make a film with that emotion — when you think you can't keep going anymore, down and depressed, a touch, a presence of Spirit gives you a hope and you are able to pull through. Technically, the biggest challenge was getting animation right. I was working with eight animators, each of them had a different style, I had to bring it all together. In the end, animators did an amazing job — each animal has its own life and very specific movement.

I was lucky to get Laima Puntule as a background artist. Her skill as a painter cannot be overestimated - thanks to her work the film has the mysterious, almost surreal mood. Backgrounds were hand painted with acrylic and then scanned in.

Music was written by talented Raimonds Tiguls. It is perfect — simple and drives the emotional core of the film.

The production took about 4 years and a lot of anxiety. Just about as I was going to be checked in mental hospital with major nervous breakdown and depression "Veterinarian" was done.