No Dogs in Heaven? Scenes from the Life of a Country Veterinarian
What happens when a young vet from a small-animal practice in the big city (in this case, Chillicothe, Ohio) buys a smalltown, mixed-animal veterinary practice from its retiring owner? He quickly finds himself treating ornery bulls and drunken pigs, delivering calves by C-section, stitching up horses and shaving cats who've had buckets of paint spilled on them. He also learns that the "three requirements to practice in the country ... are to be able to drive a truck like a maniac, rope cattle in the dark, and drive a truck like a maniac." In this collection of a few dozen colloquial anecdotes about veterinary life, Sharp brings wit and warmth to his portrayals of the animals and people of Hillsboro, Ohio. He tells of the eccentric old woman who cared for the stray dogs that no one else wanted, the goat who escaped from his pen and eluded capture for weeks, and the cat that someone left in a bag at his office with a note reading: "Dear Compashient sic Vet, this Please do something with / cat-cure it or kill it! THANK YOU!" (The cat, happily, was cured.) Good-natured, a little rambling, but never long-winded, these tales are as much for the fan of smalltown living as they are for the animal lover, and Sharp himself is a winning raconteur.Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.