To Kirjakko!

I got this already as a Christmas present, but Santa's helper Chania had been too busy to register the book. Now that I began reading it I also got the BCID for the book.
I didn't get very far this morning, but I can believe that rural medical practice has been quite different from TV's ER or hospitals we have perhaps seen ourselves.

We have a wee veterinary practice in a smallish commune and I'm glad to say that most our clients afford to pay us, but yet they've brought us flowers, cake, tea, coffee, gingerbread houses, wine, champagne, chocolate, gift cards for massage, wall calendars (of their dogs), CDs, books, woolly socks and mittens, a sign for our book nook and we have been invited to doggy birthdays, concert and dinner, a human wedding and a renewal of wedding woves, theatre, stand-up comedy, Fazer chocolate factory tour, a long weekend in Paris during European Winner Dog Show (including travel & hotel) and a 50th birthday party in Moulin Rouge + Paris sight-seeing tour if we pay for the trip and accomodation ourselves. Looking back I think we must have done something right customer-service -wise. Our vet once had a vet student as a locum and she got leaflets of a Jehova's wittness as a thank-you. It had been hard to hold her face and not to burst out laughing.

Pic: We got this amazing gingerbread veterinary clinic when we turned 25, in 2021.

I remember at school when everybody was horrified by the way nazis treated jewish people, but slavery and the US racial laws were barely mentioned. The hatred, discrimination and systematic killing that took place around WW2 is of course in its own league (well, Stalin had more Soviet citizens killed than Hitler killed jews, but it wasn't racial, it was political and towards the end quite random, too), but the oppression black people had to endure over a century in the US is also something we here can't quite grasp. Burning crosses in a doctor's yard after he had treated a black patient - what? You may not like some people, you may have prejudices, but what kind of a twisted, evil person burns a cross in a doctor's garden? Unfortunately similar behaviour started to raise its ugly head when Donald Trump was in power as he is a bully himself and made bullying acceptable, desirable even. It all culminated on Jan 6th 2021 on Capitol Hill, when he urged his followers to take over the Congress. Watching some interviews of his followers made me realize what is meant by White Trash.

Treating down-and-outs, the crazy, the social misfits and rejects, often out of his own pocket - I raise my hat to everyone who does that. I would so not be that person. I would never make a good nurse treating humans, they are far too complex. Treating a pet of somebody who is drunk drives me on edge - a drunk often has a one track mind, he doesn't know the pets symptoms or when they began, he can't hold the pet for examination, he doesn't understand instructions, he wants everything done and doesn't have money. He brings his drunken friends with him, which does not help ar all. Some people with mental issues are also not listening to what you say, are talking over you, are very stressed, sometimes hyperactive and making scenes. Animal neglet as well as child neglet has its roots of the responsible person not being in balance and perhaps not being able to take care of himself or herself, let alone an animal or a child. I am glad to say that we don't have many of those and if my working-days would be filled with messed-up people I probably would not last a week.
When you are young and idealistic, you think that you would want to work with animals even for free. Then you realize that you need to earn money to pay your rent, food, clothes, etc. You may still be idealistic and think that it would be great if there were charity-run veterinary clinics in Finland, like there are in Britain. People under certain income-level can take their pets there and those animals would still be treated like any other pet, without you having to think can the owner afford blood-samples or an operation. Sounds ideal, doesn't it? Well, it wasn't. I once spent a day at the Blue Cross Animal Hospital in London Victoria. Ninety per cent of the owners had difficulties understanding the instructions, which were given to them in very clear layman terms. They didn't appear to appriaciate the service given, although the nurses were very friendly and positive towards them. Their animals often had multible problems and should have been seen by the vet much earlier. Many of the owners looked like they should need some human welfare or treatment of some kind. Would I like to work in that kind of an environment and with that clientel all the time, knowing I'm doing good deeds for needy people and their pets? An honest answer? Hell, no! I would worry about those animals, are they getting the care they need at home? Did the owners understand what was said to them? The older I become, the less-well I suffer fools. There was a teacher who called yesterday about her 9-year-old goldie, who is eating well, but loosing weight. She has two out-of-hand goldies, cannot concentrate to listen to advice and appears so simple that I can't understand how she can be a teacher of anything and I would bet my last euro to that she is one of those people who have no control in a classroom. We had a long discussion, she told me that she was going to a pharmacy to get de-worming tablets (people who bring us skeletons always tell us defencevly that they've de-wormed them!) and would like to know if I could recommed some nutritional supplement which would put fat on her dog again. I suggested a check-up and blood-samples, but she would rather hear my GUESSES of what it might be. I told her quite frankly that guesses over a telephone do not do any good to the dog and I doubt that de-worming would do either. Make an appointment. She didn't, at least not with us.

Pic: Is that a homeless person? No, it's our tired vet, taking a nap.

Making more than mental notes: I've tagged Poodlesister with this book.

So far the dog who run into the x-ray (with a leg broken in three 😦) has been my favourite patient, but Ulysses, the black courier of pathological samples had the zaniest story to tell, having been in a car crash and smashing all his samples of blood, urine and an amputated leg of a white man. People tried to get him out of the car to help him, but when they got him out and he had two good legs, they were certain sure he was a mass-murderer...

Good grief! Delivering a baby in a filthy cabin where a family of groundhogs lived in a dirt burrow under the bed where the woman was giving birth - and they attacked and bit the doctor when he tried to get close.

I'm taking part to the Helmet 2024 -challenge with this book where a baby is been born (page 93).

Pic: Delivering puppies is the best part of my work!

I think it is horrendous that medical staff needs to be afraid of their unpredictable patients. Here a patient was demanding drugs, grabbing and threatening to cut a nurse with a knife. The doctor managed to get a pistol and after that the man was behaving and they treated his injuries which he had gotten in some earlier fight. I think I would have rather shot him claiming self defence than treated him. As I've said, I could not work as a human nurse.

Pic: From the "More sickleave" comedy.

The young miner boy who fell and ended up quadriplegic - no two questions about what I would have done. I have also signed the petition for allowing euthanasia for humans in Finland, too.

Finished. Loved the story of the little B&W dog who would show himself to people who were about to die.
My Doggie Dearest passed away a couple of weeks ago. She had cancer and already last summer we had a Talk. We were sitting on a bench in Lauttasaari, like we often did. I told her that she is on borrowed time and would soon travel on. She wagged her tail twice, thump thump, understood. I'm not a religious person, but I told her that she would meet again with granny Glenda, my first glen, with whom she had lived for 1,5 years. Thump, thump. I said I'd like her to team up with my previous dogs as well, dogs she hadn't met, because I'd like to be united with all of them once it'll be my turn. Thump, thump. I said I'd love her to give me a sign of some kind, to let me know all is fine and she'll be watching me. Thump, thump. We started walking again a route so familiar to us, on a path where the island is not so densly built. We both saw them, coming out from a garden - one, two, three deer! They weren't panicking, they were watching us for a long time before they moved on. I knew there were deer on the island, but I had never seen any. Call me silly, but I think they were my previous dogs, giving me a sign and telling they are watching over us.

Edit: I don't know how that one star ended up there, but it won't go away...

A tag coming your way!

Pic: Arctic spring in Porvoo - you were there, too!

This book just looks so perfect. I think my sister, who has a weakness for terriers, will want to read it too.

This was a fascinating and at times moving and funny read. Finished it on the plane home from Finland.

Going in the UK Non-fiction Bookbox - Round 7 is about to start. Offered to kirstykat (wishlist book) but no response to PMs.

Join UK Bookcrossers at the BCUK Durham Unconvention from 20-22 September 2024

I have taken this out of the non fiction bookbox. Lovely picture on the front. I've checked to make sure it's not about cruelty to animals (been caught out with that before) because I didn't sample read or look at the previous reviews. This looks OK.

Loved it and read it in one sitting. I was moved to tears with some of the tales told to the Author from Doctors spanning 1930 - 2005. Some of the tales were from her own Father who was a rural Doctor in Tennessee.