Leyla Dearden

The head veterinarian and volunteer coordinator at the local animal shelter, Hillside Pawadise.

Appearance
A black woman with light brown eyes, and short black hair that barely covers her nape usually kept out of her face by a simple large hairband. She always keeps her nails as short as possible to handle the animals and equipment better, and is seldom seen out of work clothes.

Personality
Pretty carefree, and has the polished skill to stay calm in almost any situation. She doesn't stand any kind of mistreatment towards the animals though, and her way of getting someone to shut up is to sweetly mention it's feeding time and take the shelter's two Scarlet Kingsnakes out of their cages. Most people can't tell the difference between them and the venomous Corals, so they get reasonably spooked out.

Leyla knows every single animal in the shelter by name, and can even distinguish the individuals of the most vocal species like cats and dogs by their sounds. She happily calls all the animals she treats by their full name, no matter how long or unique they are. The only exception is if there's an emergency and the name is too long.

Her specialty are felines, but she can accurately treat dogs, small rodents, ferrets, and some kinds of reptiles and birds.

As the volunteer coordinator, she educates the volunteers and assigns them their work (heavens knows the animals' living spaces need cleaning all the time). Volunteers also help in bathing and feeding the animals, and in some cases, like with the dogs, in exercising them.

Trivia

 * She doesn't have nor want children.
 * Her twin sister, Keysha, works out of town and specializes in fish and amphibians. They sometimes have video calls when they need the other's help.
 * The shelter has a very strict 'no killing unless necessary' rule. The only exceptions are heavily injured or sick animals that wouldn't have survived.