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Jump to navigationJump to searchThe Patron Saint of Lost Dogs by Nick Trout (view source)
Revision as of 15:45, 29 August 2020
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Dr Cyrus Mills only intended to return to Vermont for long enough to sell the veterinary practice which his father had left him, collect the money and get back to South Carolina where he was trying to sort out the little matter of having his licence to practice suspended. He had never got on with his father who had - somehow - managed NOT to tell his son that his mother had died until after her funeral. The first snag he encountered was quite a big one: his father had been equally forgetful about dealing with his financial affairs and the Bedside Manor practice was dying on its feet. Cyrus didn’t have the money to prop it up and it looked as though he would have to hand everything over to the Bank and walk away with nothing. The second problem was an aging ageing Golden Retriever by the name of Frieda and an owner who’s very keen to see her put to sleep.
If you have fond memories of the James Herriot books and television series then you’re likely to enjoy this book. The setting is a very snowy Vermont rather than the Yorkshire Dales and Cyrus Mills is no James Herriot but there’s a similar collection of good, bad and indifferent owners and pets which are going to twang your heart strings. Mills is forty years old and it’s not so much that he’s not in the first flush of youth, but rather than you suspect that he never had a first - or any - flush. On paper he might ‘’look’’ qualified to treat animals (well, if it wasn’t for the small matter of the suspension...) but for the past fourteen years he’s been a veterinary pathologist and he’s got very little idea about dealing with a living patient - and much less about the owners.
