Army reservist's veterinary clinic gets helping hand while he's overseas: loan program...

Rick Parsons realized a dream in 1997 when he opened his own veterinary practice not far from where he grew up in suburban Rochester, N.Y.

But his dream nearly tamed into a nightmare when Parsons, an Army reservist, was sent to Afghanistan for 10 months and, in his absence, his one-doctor operation faced potential ruin.

His salvation was a low-interest Small Business Administration loan that provided the money to keep his Churchville Veterinary Hospital running while he was in Afghanistan from October 2002 until August 2003.

Parsons received a $72