The Other Family Doctor

I just finished listening to this book, which was very interesting. The author talks about the difficulties she encountered when trying to become a female veterinarian, how few vet schools exist, how sexist many vets were when she tried to find a job. She also talks about puppy mills, animal stores, suicide rates amongst vets, and declawing. And then she talks about the good and sad and difficult parts of her job, the ethical quandaries, and the personal and professional issues related to euthanasia. (As this word had temporarily escaped me, I asked GPT-4 « what’s that called when we put down our pets? » and it replied with the Japanese word, because it’s just used to my constant questions regarding that language: « this is typically called 安楽死 (あんらくし, anrakushi) in Japanese. This term literally translates to « peaceful death. »)

I really enjoyed listening to this book even if the reader was not the best narrator in the universe, and about 1/4th of the book talked about the death of one of her dogs at length. I thought that she talked about that specific event too much, but it made me think about my own relationships with my own pets, Nouchka, Calinette, Sosso, Miss Penny, and Rosie, and how traumatized for years I’ve been after Sosso’s horrifying death and Calinette’s sudden death. It made me remember how sweet and old Miss Penny had been and how much she suffered for so long, and how difficult my relationship with Rosie is, with all her issues and the fact that she’s « just a foster. » I did find that tears were not too far, at times, while listening to this book.

The book was published in 2023, and the author does briefly mentioned Covid-19, but I wish she’d talked about the pandemic and how vets were able to continue providing support and care to our pets during that horrible time. I remember being in my car, by -18 temperatures, talking on and off to the vet on my phone about Calinette, crying my eyes out, trying to talk with my sister on FaceTime, too, at the same time, and not being able to be with Calinette during the worst moment of her life. She must have felt so abandoned and scared. Fortunately, I was able to be with her during her final moments, but the whole thing must not have been easy for the vets, either. I wonder if the high suicide rate of vets increased during the pandemic, or if it helped them find ways to do their job in a less traumatic fashion.