While You're Here, Doc

March 15, 2006
Tales of animal doctoring in a small coastal town in 1950s Maine fill this new addition to the ranks of veterinary memoirs. Since he charged his clients by the miles that he had to drive to deliver his services, Brown often heard the "while you're here, Doc" line as farmers would add on "just one more" patient once the veterinarian had showed up. Whether chasing a stallion through a blizzard so his torn ear could be stitched--surgery done on the floor of the general store whose plate glass window the stallion had crashed through--or checking the sore tooth of a pet monkey after a merry chase in and out of the house (not to mention all the bite wounds), Brown pretty much saw it all in his years in practice. Full of laconic farmers, hysterical owners, and more feisty animal patients than one can imagine, these stories of backwoods veterinary care are sure to be popular among James Herriot lovers.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2006, American Library Association.)