The Magnet

If you love animals and humorous veterinary stories and if you can relate to the struggles stemming from dysfunctional families and childhood sexual abuse, you will be touched by this inspiring journey of veterinarian, Dr. Mary McDonald.


Just as the cattle she treats suffer from “hardware disease” that scars their hearts, many of us, including McDonald, carry the scars from a traumatic past into our adult lives and careers. To our amazement, we learn that veterinarians insert magnets into cattle to collect bits of metal accidentally ingested, thus preventing damage to the animal’s heart. McDonald points the reader to a “Magnet” who collects the deadly remainders from our pasts, leading to the healing of our own hearts.


Laugh and cry as you follow Dr. McDonald through her life’s adventures from Maryland and D.C. to East Africa and Bolivia, and then back again to the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. In each place, stories of animals, their owners and their care just may help you find some self-care of your own.


Mary Ashby McDonald is a veterinarian, international aid worker, mentor, spiritual director, deacon, author, speaker, wife, and mother of two grown children. She and her husband Jack live on a historic farm in Catawba,Virginia.