Dr. Dave's Stallside Manner: More Adventures of a Country Vet

Steve Pitt is a Toronto-based freelance writer and an award-winning journalist. He has written many young adult and children's books, including Day of the Flying Fox: The True Story of World War II Pilot Charley Fox.

This is David Perrin’s second collection of anecdotal stories based on
his 25-year career as a veterinarian in rural British Columbia. For
anyone who thinks that life as a country vet must be a tranquil
existence, this book will be an eye-opener. All creatures great and
small seem to have it in for Dr. Dave. A cow in labor chases him up a
tree. An enraged dachshund poops all over him. One of his patients needs
a Cesarean section, which he performs at 20-below zero. He gives a horse
an enema in a snowstorm. If the animals seem difficult, the humans are
worse. He is almost shot by a rookie police constable just for stepping
out his back door in a bloodstained smock. He is stiffed by a
“grateful” customer after spending an entire evening fighting to
save his dog from an accidental poisoning.

This book is not for the squeamish or prudish reader. Dr. Dave writes
with absolute candor about every grotesque and gruesome malady it has
been his privilege to treat. Draining pus out of a cow’s hoof or
removing a 12-pound tumor from a dog’s testicle is all in a day’s
work. What keeps the reader going is a steady stream of humor,
fascinating insights, and the author’s outstanding ability to tell a
story well. Comical black-and-white illustrations by Wendy Liddle are a
perfect match for the prose. Perrin’s first book, Don’t Turn Your
Back in the Barn, sold 15,000 copies in its first year. Dr. Dave’s
Stallside Manner promises to do equally well.