I alone had a carved mahogany oar, a sawfish bill about 3 feet long, several fragile exotic butterflies, a big round glass Japanese fishing float that had washed up on the beach, and little Charlie. I bought Charlie from an Indian that had found him beneath a nest and really hungry. The kids named this little fuzzy-red ball with a head and beak too big for his body, “Charlie”.

OR THE BIRDS

Talking birds, in fact!

We’ve had some astonishing experiences with talking birds. Some we’ve treated or boarded. And after practice days, we had our own scarlet macaw, “Charlie”, who was truly a marvel at speaking his piece.
...

PEOPLE ARE FUNNY!

Looking for humor in the practice of veterinary medicine mostly means watching people.

I’m convinced animals have a great sense of humor and really like to play. Like humans, it’s most pronounced in the young, and slows a bit with age. But unlike a lot of humans, they quickly get to playing, even into old age…it’s like they’re not self conscious about it, or haven’t forgotten how to do it. But that’s another story.
...

Porcine Manure 201

No Sartorial Compatibility Here!

I think it was that same spring. it was a day time call to a hog farmer with a few sick feeder pigs. He kept them on a “feeding floor’. That is, a fenced concrete pad where he fed hogs for the market. It was well below freezing but a bright sunny day.
...

DIRTY DANCING, OR, IT COMES WITH THE TERRITORY
(Or…maybe you can find a better title?)

You can’t get very far in understanding veterinary medicine without discussing two prominent areas of mammalian physiology, ...elimination and reproduction! Let’s take on elimination first:

...

INSTANT RECOVERY!

You might know the most satisfying cases are those you can cure immediately, if not sooner.

There were some “naturals”. Cesareans were always gratifying, changing real distress into healthy new life for all concerned. And in the dairy cattle world, “hypocalcemia,” a peculiar calcium deficiency right after calving.   In that condition, a bottle of calcium gluconate intravenously to a new mother that looked like she was going to die had her up and eating...within minutes.   But here’s one of a kind!  A monkey story….a monkey instantly cured....in a way.

My wake up call that morning, “That damned German Shepherd from town got into my sheep again last night Doc, and tore some of them up a bit... .3 or 4 probably. If I brought them over in the pickup, would you have time to patch them up like we did before?"