Growing up in Farmingdale with her parents and two brothers, Nora Kleps had the usual assortment of household pets — cats, dogs, parakeets, turtles — “anything you could buy at Woolworth’s,” she said. She also liked riding horses, but despite being drawn to animals she followed another path before eventually returning to school to become a veterinarian. It was only after becoming fluent in French, Italian, and Farsi that she became fluent in animal medicine.