Our Veterinarians

Dr. Robert Quindt has had a passion for being able to “fix and repair things” since he was a child growing up with the family dachshunds. This passion and his love of animals led him to the veterinary field and have served him well over the years. Dr. Quindt, also referred to as ‘Dr. Bob’, especially likes performing surgery and has helped many dogs and cats with conditions ranging from the removal of tumors to repairing broken bones.

Dr. Robert Quindt is our Chief of Staff and after working in two practices for the first seven years of his career, he opened Cottage Lake Veterinary Hospital. He grew up in Portland, OR and graduated from Oregon State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine in 1983. He and his wife, Laura (the other Dr. Quindt), have two grown children and currently share their home with three dogs and a cat. In his spare time, Dr. Quindt plays the trumpet in the Fidgety Feet Jazz Band and the Sophisticated Swing Big Band.

Dr. Laura Quindt grew up in Eugene, OR and always liked science, reading and animals. After reading “The Little Prince” and “All Creatures Great and Small”, she found she wanted to become a veterinarian because “we are responsible for the animals we have tamed.” A high school career speech on veterinary medicine and volunteering in clinics made her career goal clear. It was at this time she was inspired by the family veterinarian, who explained her cat’s illness to her as if she were an adult. 

Dr. Quindt became a veterinarian through the Washington-Oregon-Idaho program of veterinary medicine, graduating from Oregon State University in 1983 with her husband, Dr. Bob Quindt. After 10 years in Humane Society work, where she helped animals who had no owners, she finds private practice rewarding in a different way. Helping people with their pets, preventative care, and especially middle age/geriatric health and dental management are her areas of interest.

‘Dr. Laura’ likes to help people understand their pet’s health problems as well as share knowledge and pet care tips. She also has lots of experience in spays and neuters, and enjoys soft tissue surgery and dentistry. She believes veterinary medicine is an ideal mix of scientific challenge, helping people and working with animals.

Doctors Laura and Bob live in Woodinville, where they raised their two children who are now grown and pursuing their own interests. Other family members include recently adopted Nike, a happy and mellow geriatric golden retriever. Both doctors Bob and Laura grew up in families with dachshunds and they now have their own long-haired dachshunds, Kali and Woody, who are alternately energetic and couch potatoes, and make fun companions. Ziggy, the family cat, was found as an infant in a bush near the hospital and was bottle-fed by the Quindt’s daughter. He is an expert counter surfer, and fetches his beanie ‘Wolfie’ each evening to trade for lap time with Dr. Bob. The farm chickens, Ruby, Chiana, Dottie and Astrid are more like pets than livestock.

Dr. Laura’s personal interests include cooking, gardening, reading and movies (Sci-Fi, fantasy, adventure, thriller genres). For a while she was in a belly dance troupe and she enjoys sewing and costuming (she has been known to dress as an Elf, a Hobbit and a Klingon). Over the years she has also enjoyed snorkeling, tai chi, scuba diving, art and nature. She loves her outdoor time each week walking the dogs. She feels very lucky to have a wonderful family, a variety of interests, and especially to have found a career to share with her husband.

When asked what her earliest memory was, Dr. Veal told us that it was at the age of 3 and she was sitting on the back of a big black mare named Queenie. It wasn’t long after that when anytime someone asked what she wanted to be when she grew up she would say “a vet – the animal kind, not the Army kind”. Although horses didn’t enter her life until much later, she was the owner of many family cats and dogs, including a diabetic cat she began treating when she was 14 years old.

In junior high school, Dr. Jessica began observing in vet clinics, which evolved into assistant positions at local practices in high school, which then grew into canine orthopedic work as an undergraduate at Washington State University. In her eyes, from as early as elementary school, she felt the best way to help the animals that she so deeply cared for would be in the role of a veterinarian. Providing health care to our beloved furry companions could not compare to any other calling as a career there is nothing more rewarding.

A native Washingtonian, Dr. Veal spent her early years in eastern Washington and most of her adolescence in central Washington, specifically Yakima. After finishing veterinary school, she was eager for a change of scenery and wanted to settle in the Seattle area. Dr. Jessica happily joined the Cottage Lake Veterinary Hospital team in 2007 and couldn’t be more pleased with her fellow team members and the community!

Outside the hospital, Dr. Jessica’s animal companions have been many and varied but currently consist of a horse named Hawk and a cat named Simcha. Hawk was a rescue case acquired near the end of her veterinary school days, and despite multiple medical challenges they are able to enjoy Classical Dressage lessons and walks on nearby trails.  He occasionally lets Jessica leave the stable and spend time at home with Eric and Simcha, who keeps them entertained with contortionist poses atop her cat tree. Simcha enjoys her role as household greeter, vocalist extraordinaire, and personal alarm clock. She is so devoted to the latter duty, that come wind, rain or power outage she will personally ensure that either Eric or Jessica awakes by 4:00AM for her breakfast.

Dr. Mitchell announced at the age of 4 that she was going to be an animal doctor, her first patient involved splinting her plastic horse’s leg. Upon graduating Veterinary School at UC Davis California, she began her dream to practice Veterinary Medicine. Since graduation, she married and then moved to the Pacific Northwest with her husband Richard. She has been practicing on the Eastside for many years and loves to be working near her home in Woodinville. She has helped many species from dogs and cats to snakes, guinea pigs, rabbits and many species of birds. She has performed many surgeries and enjoys the challenges of internal medicine.

As a child, Dr. Mitchell met a shepherd in the Sierras who showed her how his dogs gathered sheep. A new passion was born! Recently that passion was realized when her husband Richard cleared a pasture and built a barn on their property in Woodinville. Dr. Mitchell is active in the herding community in the Puget Sound and participates in sheep herding trials when she can. She is currently training her 7 year old Border collie, Teine.

When Dr. Mitchell is not training dogs or practicing Veterinary Medicine she spends time hiking and camping with her husband Richard and their 3 sons. Dr. Mitchell is an avid reader and enjoys working in her yard when she has worn out her dog and her family is busy pursuing their interests.

A native of Woodinville, Dr. Colin Miller has longstanding ties to this community. He graduated from Whitman College in Walla Walla, and spent two years afterward in the Peace Corps in Nicaragua. While serving abroad he adopted and brought back to the U.S. his beloved cat Nico. He attended veterinary school at Washington State University, graduating in 2018. Dr. Miller couldn’t be happier to have come full circle back to Woodinville and his hometown veterinary practice. He is pictured here with his dog Wally.

Born in Oregon, but having spent most of her life growing up in Illinois, Dr. Edgers knew she wanted to someday return to the beautiful Pacific Northwest. She finally got the chance in college when she decided to attend Pacific Lutheran University as a dual-sport colligate athlete during her undergraduate career. Determined to stay in Washington, Dr. Edgers found a serendipitous balance between location and academic excellence at Washington State University where she graduated from the College of Veterinary Medicine in 2020.

Dr. Edgers has a love for all animals, from cats and dogs, to alpacas and goats, and every friend in between, but has a particular passion for small animal dermatology and soft tissue surgery. She also holds a special interest in honeybee veterinary medicine and is currently working on becoming a certified beekeeper.

Dr. Edgers is always looking to learn new things, be it a new hobby, a new recipe, or new advances in veterinary medicine. If she’s not using her free time working away at her most recent project, you’ll find her enjoying the great outdoors with her trusty trail buddy, a young Labrador Retriever named Nox.