Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Bug & Nellie, Book Mini-Review

Nellie and Honor Sitting in a tree…. First comes love…..

My mum has gone on a short vacation so Ms. Nellie has been staying with us. Oh my dog gods. Nellie and Honor adore each other to bits. It is hysterical. In the morning the two of them tear around my apartment, bat at each other, give kisses, etc. It is so nice to see them lovin’ each other up. Ike is beginning to think Honor might be as annoying as the white thing. Just kidding!

On to more serious fare…. I recently read Tell Me Where It Hurts: A Day of Humor, Healing and Hope in My Life as an Animal Surgeon by Dr. Nick Trout. I had heard a nice interview with him on NPR and then Dolittler reviewed the book (and liked it), so I decided to check it out.

I liked the book; I found it interesting, entertaining, and a very quick read. Dr. Trout is a surgeon at Angell Memorial Hospital in Boston and it was reassuring (as a pet owner) to read how much of his human clients emotional pain and animal clients physical pain he takes on personally. The tone of the book reminds me a lot of Marley & Me without the bad dog training. Trout collapses a lifetime of experiences into 24 hours for read-ability and it works. The underlying message in my mind is “the line.” What we will do “for” our animals varies person to person and is intensely personal. Figuring out when you’ve gone too far and sacrificed your pet’s quality of life for your own personal needs (usually emotional) is tricky.

I would classify this as a good beach read or lazy day read that does prompt thoughts about the hard decisions we will all have to make at some point, if you are willing to entertain them.

2 comments:

Shaya said...

Hey, I heard the same interview. I thought he was interesting. Guess, I'll have to check out the book. And Ike did do well last night. Feel like I haven't seen him in forever.

Jules said...

Yeah, it was great to see you - it has been a VERY long time. I was impressed with Tom and Niche was really good for you too!

And Ms. Opal is doing awesome!

I have lent the book to my MIL but you are welcome to borrow it when I get it back.