Cage Liners are light-hearted stories based on personal experience
during the author's fifty years as a veterinarian. Most illustrate
the relationships and behavior of pet owners, pets, receptionists,
veterinary nurses and veterinarians, when they meet, and sometimes
clash, over clinical cases. Veterinarians often line their hospital
pet-cages with newspaper, or place newspaper under a blanket,
because it is easily discarded when soiled. This suggested an
eco-title for these stories which, if necessary, can be recycled in
pet cages after reading. In the early chapters, as a city-boy
student dealing with farm animals, he was humiliated on his first
farm visit, perplexed by his feelings during farm surgery,
embarrassed trying to shear a ewe, astonished by his mentor when
testing a bull, and scared out of his boots by a charging pig. So,
he expected small animal practice to be a breeze-duh-he learned
rapidly that although veterinarians treat patients, they must deal
with owners and staff. The highlights of his internship included
helping a prostitute by curing her dog's skin problem and her offer
to barter services; having a client strip in the office (before
fainting); puzzling over the logic of 'wanting a dog spayed if
she's pregnant, but not to spay her otherwise as the owner wants
her to have puppies, ' adopting an injured pug who bonded with his
fiance (after a rocky start), and being humbled by his own pride of
knowledge. He learned that the success of treatment is often
because the client trusts his veterinarian, in the words of
Houdini, 'It's not the trick. It's the magician.' You will meet
Aunt Josephine, his help-mate in telling some stories-a conscience
figure who haunted his years of practice. Always ready to dispense
wisdom at a moment's notice, she needs no excuse to dispense
caustic advice. An author's ploy, she is a composite of several
people compressed into one character for dramatic effect (and to
save space). As the stories illustrate, to be in the presence of
someone unashamedly self-righteous shows how remarkably open minded
we are. It is much like hiring the incompetent to make one's self
appear brilliant, or looking for pictures of ugly people to make
one's self feel fabulous In many stories, time and place have been
deliberately mingled, using later situations to trigger memories of
early experiences, occasionally confusing pet and owner names-once
even a mute client with a mute cat. Delight in the company of the
Reverend Irish gentleman whose dog is "Drinking the plurality of
gallons, so she is," who later adopted an abandoned case and helped
the author counsel a young man whose dog ate his stash of pot. And
there are tragedies that reinforce humility. A week from "Manic
Monday" to "Frantic Friday" illustrates a variety of situations. As
Thomas Magnum, P.I. once said-"Sometimes it helps to look for the
obvious. Every case, no matter how simple, can lead you down a
blind alley or two." By learning from a young teenager that cats
can indeed talk, the author met her mother, Helen. They have now
shared thirty-four years together. Finally, animal names may have
been changed to protect them from embarrassment."
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!
Welcome to Loot.co.za!
Sign in / Register |Wishlists & Gift Vouchers |Help | Advanced search
