I love that these events test me on parts of game that I typically ignore in my free-play. Since I have never played a vet or really worked with pets before in Sims 4, I did a lot of testing to see what might work the best. The cool thing was that I never got bored with my test files and still had a lot of fun in my game file.
Gus McPaws (Male Human; Aspiration: Friend of the Animals — Bonus Trait: Animal Affection; Dog Lover, Cat Lover, Cheerful) and his wife Saphira McPaws (Female Human; Aspiration: Friend of the Animals — Bonus Trait: Animal Affection; Dog Lover, Neat, Cheerful) moved onto the Empty Lot in Newcrest, Comfy Cubby §1,500. Since they were only going to spend about an hour on the lot, I didn’t want to spend any extra money on anything bigger. (On a side note, I always try to have some fun with the names of my Sims in Events, so Gus is name of my friend’s cat and Saphira is the name of my own cat.)
Aspirations: Change as needed for specific tasks & shop for points periodically. Used the points for some Fun & Hygiene potions and a couple of Moodlet Solver potions.
Clubs: Saphira joined Good Timers for Rally the Troops. Gus created the Vet Club that ran continuously. Saphira was obviously a member and the rest of the spots were filled with whoever struck my fancy at the moment from the list of available
targets neighbors. The club activities were Friendly Interactions, Work Out, Play Video Games, Dance, & Clean until the clinic needed to be cleaned and then only Friendly Interactions and Clean. For the most part, the club members kept the clinic clean the whole time. The Vet Skill boost was purchased Sunday night.
Adopting Dogs: In my test files, I would try to only adopt dogs that already had a learned command or that were Smart. In the end, the best time-saving choice for me was to call for the adoption immediately and adopt all 3 dogs without even greeting them or getting to know their traits. I ended up with Spatula (Vocal, Couch Potato, Jumpy), Hilda (Troublemaker, Hunter, Aggressive), and Riley (Playful, Couch Potato, Jumpy) — none of them came with a learned command.
As soon as the dogs were adopted, Gus bought the empty lot next door (Oak Alcove §1,500) for the Vet Clinic. Added lot traits: Study Spot, Training Grounds, Convivial. I built a modest clinic with a waiting room and an exam room — no bathroom, nothing unnecessary. The exam room had the high end equipment: surgery station, exam table, and medicine crafting table. I placed & enabled several of the Time Traveler Reward Plumbob Lamps in the exam room so that the Vets were always Focused.
Before Gus opened the clinic for the first time, he crafted one calming medicine to have on hand. Then he opened for business on Sunday at 9:38AM with 100% Price Markup, Gold Package Advertising, and Standard Supply Quality. Whenever I had 2 or 3 patients waiting, I would click on the podium and Disallow New Customers. When I greeted the last waiting customer, I would click on the podium and Allow New Customers. This kept the wait time down so their rating wouldn’t decline. Carl’s Pet Sicknesses List (
https://www.carls-sims-4-guide.com/expansionpacks/pets/sick-symptoms-cures.php ) was invaluable and as soon as I could deduce an illness, I went straight to the cure, saving time on unnecessary exams.
Clinic Perks: purchased Patient Patients and Unlock Vet Supply Quality (immediately changed Supply Quality to Premium) on Sunday; purchased Reduce Pet Stress on Tuesday.
Unfortunately I couldn’t play my game file all in one sitting and I would close the clinic before quitting. This lost me a little time, but I didn’t want to risk any possible glitches by having the clinic open during a quit and restart.
Saphira’s order of priorities: training the dogs, cleaning the clinic when necessary, and then being a vet if Gus was having issues. She only had to lend a helping hand a few times; the first time was when Meryl, a cat belonging to Stewart Sears, decided that each time he got on the exam table, he would immediately get off and run away and his owner would follow him so Gus couldn’t dismiss him. Saphira treated 4 patients while Meryl was being obnoxious. Gus was finally able to treat Meryl and, miraculously, Stewart gave a 4-star rating.
Saphira would train whichever dog was close to her - there was no rhyme or reason except to try to always be training one of them. At the end of the event, Spatula knew all 8 commands, Hilda knew 7, and Riley knew 3.
