SARANAC — The new owner of Saranac Veterinary Clinic, Amanda Lutzy, knows she has big shoes to fill.

“I’m not even going to attempt to fill them,” Lutzy said in reference to long-time owner of the Saranac Veterinary Clinic, Hannah McCormick.

“It’s funny, because one of her trademarks is that she doesn’t wear shoes. She goes around barefoot — everybody knows that about her.”

McCormick recently made the decision to step back from her full-time veterinarian duties after four decades and sell the business to Lutzy, 34, who started working for her early last year.

On June 1, the business will officially move locations from 3900 state Route 3 to 4236 state Route 3 — where the old Redford Diner was located.

Despite the change in ownership, the same staff will transition to Saranac Veterinary Clinic’s new space, including McCormick who will be working there part-time.

“I’m looking forward to still being involved, and I’m looking forward to seeing how Amanda does. I think she’ll do very well, and I want to help her in any way so that she is successful there and try to help people feel comfortable with the whole idea,” McCormick said.

“She’s an excellent veterinarian, so I feel comfortable with her competence. I’m not worried that she’s not going to take good care of my clients. She has not quite the same philosophy that I do, but she’s very caring, concerned and lowkey enough that my clients will be comfortable with her.”

Lutzy said having McCormick around will help the business transition go more smoothly.

“She’s an incredible mentor, she really helps you to kind of slow down and really listen to the clients and listen to the animals. It’s been tough, because even though I’ve been here for a year, since the pandemic, you don’t get to have the same kind of rapport with the clients, so I still haven’t gotten to meet a lot of people,” she said.

“So it’ll be nice in our new space. We’re going to let people come inside again and just get to know all of the clients a little bit better.”

Customers can still expect an affordable clinic like it was under McCormick.

“I want to try to keep the spirit and the same idea of serving the community that she has and not be so business, business about how much money we can make,” Lutzy said.

“It’s being able to help people who may not be able to afford some of the other clinics.”

The Redford Diner building they will be moving into sat vacant for almost a decade until Lutzy and her husband began coordinating the renovations.

Lutzy said it was important for her to move the clinic to this location for multiple reasons.

“We wanted to stay within a close proximity to the current clinic, so it wouldn’t be difficult for people to find the new spot. It had been vacant for quite some time, so the price was right for sure,” she said.

“And also just (me) being more of a nostalgic-type of person. I really loved the idea of a place that I had gone to as a child, getting to revamp it and make it into something new. To use a pre-existing building, instead of starting over — to give it new life, I thought it was really cool.”

As a long-time Saranac resident, her connection to McCormick began long before she started working for her.

Lutzy said McCormick saved her dog’s life when she was just 7 years old.

“My brother and I were waiting for the school bus on the first day of second grade. My dog was across the street, she ran to come back home and got hit by a car right in front of us. We were devastated,” Lutzy said.

“My dad took the dog, ran her right up to Hannah’s and she lived — she was OK. I thought she was going to be gone forever. I just remember thinking, ‘wow that’s amazing that she was able to help my dog, I want to do that someday.’ That was (my) initial spark. She’s still a superhero to me.”