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A Memoir in Eight Acts Pets
Book Reviewed by:Tender, wry, and ruminative, Ever By My Side is a tribute to the power and beauty of ordinary life and a celebration of how pets make it all the sweeter and richer.
"The lessons that these animals taught me have been subtle, startling, and inspirational, playing a small but vital part in helping to shape the person you see with the stethoscope around his neck." - Dr. Nick Trout
New York Times bestselling author Nick Trout has captivated readers by taking them behind the scenes into the heartwarming - and sometimes heartrending - world of veterinary medicine. In Ever By My Side, Nick turns the lens inward to offer a funny, moving, and intimate memoir about how the pets he has had throughout his life have shaped him into the son, husband, father, and doctor he is today. Using his relationships with those beloved animals to tell his life story, Nick shares the profound lessons he's learned about friendship, loyalty, and resilience. The result is a moving story that speaks not just to animal lovers, but to any reader who appreciates the bonds we have with our loved ones, be they animal or human, and the lengths to which we go to nurture those bonds.
Nick waxes nostalgic about his boyhood in a working-class British suburb, where a large German shepherd named Patch was the perfect companion to a scrawny, bookish boy in a neighborhood full of bullies. He writes about his relationship with his father, the man who nurtured Nick's dream of becoming a vet, even though he couldn't have imagined the career would lead his only son 3,000 miles away. He describes wooing his future wife and stepdaughter and (perhaps most difficult of all) their ornery cat. And he offers a poignant chronicle of his daughter's devastating diagnosis of cystic fibrosis and how a little yellow Labrador retriever played an important role in bringing joy to their family when they needed it most. Alongside Nick's warm reflections, the pets in these pages come alive as irresistible characters in their own right and showcase the power of animals to offer a lifetime of consolation, guidance, and abiding affection.
Tender, wry, and ruminative, Ever By My Side is a tribute to the power and beauty of ordinary life and a celebration of how pets make it all the sweeter and richer.
A Note from the Author
A few years ago, when I was writing the acknowledgments section for Tell Me Where It Hurts, I thought long and hard about how I got to this point in my life and who I needed to thank. The process made me realize how often we fail to give credit where it is due. And so, as soon as I recovered from the excitement of opening a cardboard box packed full of my first published book, I shipped a copy across the pond to England, to one of my teachers from high school, a man named Harry Smith. Harry was an exceptional mathematician, but he was really teaching "lessons in life." I was blessed to be a member of his final class before his retirement and we had not been in touch for over twenty years. I knew he had to be getting on in years, in his mid-eighties at least, and I prayed he was still alive because I felt as though I never took the time to acknowledge the part he played in shaping my formative years.
Thankfully, some weeks later, I was rewarded with a letter in tiny, neat cursive:
Dear Nicholas, of all the mail I received in the lead up to Christmas, your letter stands out in my memory, and I thank you most sincerely for it. Each time I read it I feel a sense of pride in the realization that something of note was, after all, achieved in the time I spent teaching..."
My third book, Ever By My Side, germinated from a similar desire to recognize and celebrate some of the other unsung mentors of my life, both on two legs and on four. I'm talking about family - the one I grew up in and the one I have created - and all those animals along the way that I came to think of as my own pets. Ever By My Side is my attempt to share those moments in a lifetime in which the actions of a human or an animal changed my perspective and left me with a lesson I would never forget. In sharing their legacy, I'm really saying "thank you" for all the opportunities that have shaped my life. - Nick Trout
1.
The Definition of Different
I wish I could tell you I have enjoyed the company of a dog or
a cat every day of my life, but it's simply not true. In fact, my
earliest appreciation of pets in any form did not occur until I was
four and, even then, was limited to my grandmothers' dogs.
My mother's mother possessed a white male toy poodle named
Marty. From the start, Marty made it abundantly clear that he had
no patience for small curious hands, except perhaps as chew toys.
Venture into his territory, that is, anywhere within an invisible
fifty-yard perimeter of my grandma's house, and he would come at
you, bouncing forward as if his legs were little pogo sticks, emitting
a bark that could crack bulletproof glass, before scurrying away to
safety behind grandma's ankle, only to repeat the process over and
over again until he finally ascended into her arms. From this lofty
position he could look down at me with an expression that said "If
you bother me, ...
This heartwarming memoir received wonderful ratings from BookBrowse readers: 39 out of 42 reviewers rated Ever By My Side 4 or 5 stars! Here's what they have to say:
Ever By My Side is so much more than a pet story, covering family dynamics through two generations (Carrol Ann S). His honesty in dealing with both good and difficult situations is very appealing (Karla S), and I found it to be a joyful book to read, not because every story is joyful, but because it left me feeling so grateful for the pets (and the people) I've been blessed to know in my life (Karen S). The style is light and informative without getting too technical with any of the veterinary details (WDH). His style is conversational and makes you want to listen to all he has to say (Joan P)...continued
Full Review
(590 words)
(Reviewed by First Impressions Reviewers).
Veterinary surgeon and New York Times bestselling author Dr. Nick Trout is beloved among readers and is often compared to the late English veterinary surgeon James Herriot, author of the classic memoir All Creatures Great and Small. In an interview with Boston Magazine, Dr. Trout describes his feelings about this comparison:
I grew up reading James Herriot, and was fortunate to meet the man himself when I was a kid and my parents lived in the heart of Herriot country, in the Yorkshire Dales. There will only be one James Herriot and no one else will ever come close. I can only try to bring his stories into the 21st century and, in doing so, try to point out that the humor and the pathos of Herriot's novels, the passion to heal sick ...
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