The Other Family Doctor
A Veterinarian Explores What Animals Can Teach Us About Love, Life, and Mortality
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- $5.99
Publisher Description
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Calling all animal lovers! A heartwarming memoir about one woman's career as a vet and the unique role pets play in our lives • “Filled with compassion and wisdom, Karen Fine is a healer whose own wounds have deepened her gifts for bringing animals and their people comfort and peace.” —Sy Montgomery, bestselling author of The Soul of an Octopus
A tribute to our furry, feathery, scaley, and wet family members, All Creatures Great and Small meets Being Mortal in this compelling memoir of one woman's dream to become a veterinarian.
Karen Fine always knew that she wanted to be a vet and wasn't going to let anything stop her: not her allergy to cats, and not the fact that in the '80s veterinary medicine was still a mostly male profession. Inspired by her grandfather, a compassionate doctor who paid house calls to all his (human) patients, Dr. Fine persevered, and brought her Oupa's principles into her own practice, which emphasizes the need to understand her patients’ stories to provide the best possible care.
And in The Other Family Doctor, Dr. Fine shares all these touching, joyful, heartbreaking, and life-affirming tales that make up her career as a vet. There's:
• The feral cat who becomes a creature out of a fable when he puts his trust in a young vet to heal his injured paw
• The pot-bellied pig who grows too big to fit in the car but remains a cherished part of her family
• The surprising colony of perfectly behaved ferrets
• The beloved aging pet who gives her people the gift of accompanying them on one final family vacation
• The dog who saves his owner's life in a most unexpected way
Woven into Dr. Fine's story are, of course, also the stories of her own pets: the birds, cats, and dogs who have taught her the most valuable lessons—how caring for the animals in our lives can teach us to better care for ourselves, especially when life seems precarious.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
"Animals connect us to the environment... to our families... and to our own reactions to illness and death" writes veterinarian Fine (Narrative Medicine in Veterinary Practice) in this spirited homage to domesticated animals and their bond with humans. Fine first became interested in veterinary medicine while visiting her family in South Africa at age 11, and a safari trip paired with the influence of her physician grandfather sent her on her path. In recounting her career, she recalls the prejudice she faced for "taking away a spot from a man" as an aspiring female veterinarian and describes the bias against women for not being "physically capable of treating animals." As well, she chronicles the beginning of her private house call practice and addresses difficult subjects, including caring for a terminally ill pet, making the decision to euthanize, and coping with the grief and guilt that frequently follow. She circles back to her profession throughout, examining what qualities make a good veterinarian (notably, being willing to learn from animals and recognizing the emotional impact animals have on humans) and sharing the particulars of how she developed her combination of conventional Western and traditional Chinese medicine. Fine's keen observations will strike a chord with animal lovers, and her upbeat style keeps the pages turning.
