Love Is the Best Medicine: What Two Dogs Taught One Veterinarian about Hope, Humility, and Everyday Miracles

by Nick Trout

Book Overview

A book guaranteed to touch anyone who has ever had a beloved pet...

From instant New York Times bestseller, Dr. Nick Trout comes another touching and heartfelt story from the front lines of veterinary medicine--the story of two dogs who forever changed the way he thought about life, death, fate and love.

Helen is an older cocker spaniel found neglected and abandoned in a restaurant parking lot one rainy night. Despite...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 076793198X
• ISBN13: 9780767931984
• Release Date: January 2011
• Publisher: Crown Publishing Group (NY)
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.2" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Heal the Healer

I can not say enough wonderful things to say about this book on many different levels. My only problem...where do I start? This is a heartwarming book that is very easy to read. I was so encouraged by this book and his writing. I must have easily read this book in a weekend and it was hard to put down when I needed to. Nick Trout writes about a couple of his patients Cleo and Helen. I won't write about the details since other reviews have done a excellant job of that. Dr. Trout writes about his practice (not really in general) but really details these two cases how they connect and how it affects him in a perfessional, emotional, and spiritual manner. What I appreicate about this book is how honest Dr. Trout is with his thoughts and emotions over Cleos case. The lay public doesn't often get the opportunity to read about how the doctors and healers feel and experience when a case goes wrong, when someone dies (whether or not they were at fault or not), or what it is like to deliver bad news to another human being. I am not a vet, but I do work with women and babies as a midwife. It isn't often that we practitioners spend alot of time with each other talking about how we feel, how we are healing, the stress of a birth or surgicial case going wrong. As a practioner I will never hurt as much as a parent of a sick baby or child, or the owner of a lost pet, but I can't tell you the devastation that goes along with having to deliver the news or just being involved in a case like this. I was right there with him while he delivered the news to Cleo's owner Sandra. I was so happy for him to learn that Sandra gave him a clue on how to move past this case and heal. In health care you can't talk to much about cases gone wrong because of the legal implications (even when you didn't do anyting wrong), and there is acouple of ways to deal with it. You can densensitize yourself to when others are hurting, or you carry that burden around with you and it can eat you alive. I have been through it, and witness other really great people going through this. I guess what I am trying to say is that this book was also very healing for me. It said things I wanted to say and tell to others in healthcare. I was also very happy for Dr. Trout that he felt that he was able to channel Cleo's spirit into another well deserving case Helen. I hope this review makes sense because this message of Dr. Trout helped me. It is so hard for me to see others hurting, and to see bad things happen to others. This does happen even when the healers are doing everything right. WE don't though often get to talk about it whether it is our legal department hushing us up or there is another difficult case right down the hall that you need to go to, but by not being able to talk about it doesn't do the healer any good. Thanks Dr. Trout for talking about living through a difficult case from a healers perspecitive and how you were able to move through it.

Awesome

A must read for dog lover's!! Oh my goodness, this was the best book-Nick Trout is so clever in his writing. I never thought a non-fiction could be so humorous!! It's more than a book, it's an experience that touches your heart and makes you think. * I just finished "Tell Me Where It Hurts" which was his first book. Again, I couldn't put it down-laughed, cried, his descriptive, delicate words, so eloquent. I'm so glad that I "met" this blessed vet through his writings. He is someone I could sit down with and listen to for days!

Warm, wonderful book about a vet and what two special dogs taught him

When I started reading this, I thought, "Oh no!! Don't be a sad book that will make me cry as I read it!!" While there are definitely sad parts to this story, Love is the Best Medicine is an uplifting, heart-warming and extremely insightful and sensitive story of a vet's experience with two remarkable dogs and what he learned about himself--as well as love--through this poignant experience. Dr. Nick Trout is a veterinarian and surgeon, and has to deal with many difficult and heart-breaking cases. For every triumph, tragedy lies in wait around the corner. This is the story of two clients, a min-pin named Cleo and an elderly rescue named Helen and how one dog's fate ultimately impacted the other. Don't want to give too much away--this is a wonderful, compelling book and if you love pets (and of course you do, or you wouldn't be reading about this book!) you will enjoy this thoughtful, memorable book. Definitely one of the year's best--a marvelous tale well told.

A wonderful and thought-provoking read

"Love is the Best Medicine" is mainly a book about two dogs who are patients of Dr. Nick Trout. A young Miniature Pinscher Cleo and an old abandoned cocker spaniel Helen cross paths in an unexpected way, yet they never met. Cleo's death, through the eyes his owner Sandi, taught Dr. Trout about the selfless love between a human and their animal. It was this revelation that caused Dr. Trout to operate on Helen with such conviction and faith enabling her to live longer than expected. The book starts out by telling the story of each dog in alternating chapters - one chapter Helen, the next Cleo, the next Helen, and so on. The story is peppered with anthropomorphic descriptions (from the animals' point of view) that most "pet parents" will identify with. In the later chapters, Dr. Trout briefly mentions some of his other patients--expertly writing their stories into the book like a master weaver. The intensity of the human-animal bond is eloquently expressed in this book and the generosity of the animal lovers featured in this story will make your heart swell. Dr. Trout is a phenomenal writer. It was practically impossible to put this book down.

A Terrific Book!

Dr. Nick Trout works as a veterinary surgeon in a state-of-the-art veterinary hospital. If there are miracles in veterinary medicine--and sometimes there are!--he occasionally gets to see them. But he is not the least bit arrogant about that. He soul-searches diligently to try to determine if he is doing the right things. He also appreciates the qualities of dog and cat owners and what their relationships with their animals mean. He expresses what we know about those relationships, and clearly sees that there is much more to the relationships than we can truly understand. He has great respect for the animals and the people. There are tears in the book, but not unduly. There is joy in the book. And what he says about chocolate Labradors is very funny! I'm so glad I got this chance to read this book. I'm sure you will be, too!