Growing up on a subsistence farm in North Carolina, Jap Allen married his childhood sweetheart, got his degree in veterinary medicine from Auburn University, served in the army, and established his practice in eastern North Carolina. When Jap started into practice in the 1950s, he worked mostly on farm animals -- on small farms and at the local stockyard. Money was scarce, and he was sometimes paid in produce. Mules were the tractors of the day,...