A heart­warm­ing mem­oir about one wom­an’s career as a vet and the unique role pets play in our lives. 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.

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.