Bridgett Higginbothm, RVT, owner, and Export Queen
Bridgett Higginbotham has been a licensed Veterinary Technician since 1987 and is the owner of Sirius Canine Fertility. Bridgett has been doing semen exporting and importing for the last 20 years, and is known many places as “the Export Queen”. She started Sirius in August of 2000, as a mobile semen freezing and pregnancy ultrasound business. She has moved the Sirius office location 3 times, as the business expanded and outgrew each location very quickly. She finally purchased and settled on a permanent location, which is where the office is now in Grass Valley. Today Sirius Canine Fertility has 6 employees and performs trans-cervical inseminations (TCIs), artificial inseminations (AIs), as well as semen collections, semen freezing, progesterone testing and semen exporting/importing all over the world. Sirius has become one of the largest export/import centers in the United States. Sirius Canine Fertility is also a presence at dog shows, where semen collections, evaluations and freezes are performed.
In addition to her professional activities in canine reproduction, Bridgett has been a bulldog breeder since 1990. She has also been a licensed AKC judge since 2000, and currently judges internationally as well as domestically. She has judged at her National Specialty several times.
Bridgett enjoys traveling, snow shoeing, hiking. She is an ASA certified sailor and will be spending much of her semi-retirement years sailing her catamaran all over the world.
Bridgett currently has one spoiled bulldog named JJ, an American Bulldog named Fallon and three cats.
Arabelle Wahl, Lab Technician
Growing up in a home revolving around dogs, 4-H, and FFA, Arabelle has been an animal lover from a very early age. She grew up helping her parents breed and train English Springer Spaniels for field work, along with raising and showing horses, dairy goats, and market hogs. After raising a Guide Dog for the Blind through FFA she branched out further into the dog world, working with a canine behaviorist specializing in handling and rehabilitating aggressive/ potentially dangerous dogs. She wanted to branch into the veterinary world and found her way to Sirius Canine in 2018. Arabelle has excelled in every aspect of what she has learned and is now our head technician and office manager. Arabelle is a master of the transcervical insemination technique and has taught her techniques to many others that have come after her. She has also branched out into the export department at Sirius, along with Bridgett. She handles most of the European countries in our export department. She will be studying for her CVA license in the next year, and hopes to have her certification soon after! She does her best to make all processes as smooth and straightforward as possible for our clients. She loves seeing all the different dogs and having the opportunity to be another factor in improving so many breeds. Outside of work, Arabelle enjoys exploring the outdoors with her Golden Retriever, Scorpio, and her ESS Tater Tot.
Monique Ortiz, CVA
Monique graduated from College of the Canyons in Santa Clarita with her AA in Environmental Studies. Although she has loved animals all her life, her first year in college is what really fueled her interest in the veterinary world and inspired her to then become a certified Veterinary Assistant and Canine Massage Therapist. She frequently implements skills from both, but her experience with massage in particular helps keep dogs calm and happy during procedures here at Sirius Canine. Monique loves to educate our clients and keep them involved; and is a strong factor in maintaining our 90% success rate with TCI. She loves the reward of seeing the beautiful, healthy litters we help our clients produce. When she’s not glued to a microscope, Monique lives an environmentally conscious and sustainable lifestyle on her farm with her large flock of chickens, English Bulldog Milkshake, and rescue puppy Mando. On their farm, she enjoys collecting eggs, working on their vegetable garden, and hiking with the dogs.
Amelia, Receptionist and Billing manager
Amelia joined our team in 2019, starting in reception and working her way to Billing Manager, where she has had the opportunity to combine both of her passions, customer care and animals. Amelia has many years of experience working with both small and large animals, professionally and personally. After acquiring her AA in Ranch and Farm Management, her love for animals of all kinds guided her into the veterinary world almost 10 years ago. She is certified in animal first aid & disaster response, volunteering frequently with North Valley Disaster Animal Group. She is kind and compassionate, and takes pride in her customer service skills, always doing her best for our clients, whether it be solving billing problems or scheduling. At home, she spends time with Monkey, her Chihuahua mix, her cat Gus, and her French Warmblood, Quinn, who she acquired after retiring from the jumping and 3-day eventing world.
Sarah Bridges
Sarah knew she wanted to work with animals from when she was 6 years old. Her dreams came true for her when she began working in the veterinary field at 18, and she has not strayed since, working as a veterinary assistant in Nevada County for more than 12 years before joining our team at Sirius Canine. Sarah is always thinking ahead and creating a clear plan, something she’s taken from continuing education classes studying Veterinary Triage. Sarah is calm and sympathetic, always treating every dog she sees like her own, always utilizing her education on canine body language. She is patient and thorough, always keeping our clients involved and well informed. In her spare time Sarah spends time with her son Wilder BBQing, playing around their property, and soaking up some sun on their boat and her paddleboard at the lake. Her pets, Creature, her Boston Terrier, her lab mix Luna, and her two cats The Dude and Floyd require quite a bit of attention as well.