The Other Family Doctor: A Veterinarian Explores What A… (2024)

Author and home visiting veterinarian Karen Fine has done a wonderful job examining the experiences and emotions that come with her profession. This was for me, an animal lover, an emotional read as I read of her own losses of beloved animals. I also learned what a half birthday is - not sure how I missed that one. This is a wonderfully warm and sometimes sad tale of animals and people and how we affect each other. Loved it!

My thanks to the author, Karen Fine, and the publisher, Penguin Random House, for my copy of this exceptional book. #Goodreads Giveaway

3.5 stars

While I am more interested in animal case studies, this is more a memoir than a scientific book. For the most part it was very interesting, from vet school to meeting people and animals. Dr. Fine explores the curious relationships people form with animals.

There is a lot in here about the deaths of pets, so be aware of that before going in. It brought back a lot of memories of my own pets:
Archie (died at 17 of old age) – orange tabby who would knock on the front door by hurling his body against it
Albus (died at 11 by dog attack) – long-haired grey tabby who was so loving, you could see adoration in his eyes as he nuzzled you and rubbed his nose all over your face
Kryten (died at 13, euthanized with cancer) – tuxedo cat who had a big personal bubble but would follow you from room to room and cuddle with you when you got sick
Princess (still living) – calico who will bat you if you walk past her without giving her attention

*Reader’s Choice Nominee Spring 2024*

Language: Some moderately strong language
Sexual Content: None
Violence/Gore: Mild
Harm to Animals: Many animal deaths from accident, illness, natural causes, and euthanasia; injuries to animals (mostly cats and dogs but others mentioned)
Harm to Children: None
Other (Triggers): mention of South African apartheid; sexism["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>

Dr. Karen Fine shares tales from her life as a veterinarian, from the unique perspective of a vet who makes house calls. She shares stories of the love and loss she witnesses between her patients and their pets, as well as her own relationships with animals, humans, and herself.

I just loved this book. I think one of the reasons it resonated with me so much is because Karen reflects on the relationships between humans and their animals in such a respectful way. I love my cat a LOT and am often teased for being too obsessed, a helicopter mom or, as my aunt recently said, “codependent.” But I definitely felt recognized by this book. The author talks about how, despite society’s message that it’s “just a cat,” the bond between a human and a pet can be one of the most important relationships in a person’s life.

I’ll share this quote:

“Animals have an amazing ability to be who they are, in all their otherness, and at the same time to offer companionship and love to humans, adjusting to our lives in their own unique ways. They don’t care whether they are called ‘fur baby’ or not. Our pets don’t just give us unconditional love, they accept our love unconditionally, in whichever way we choose to give it.”

As one might expect in a book by a veterinarian, this work touches on the topic of euthanasia in some detail. It was a little hard to read at first because I am pretty afraid of death in general, and thinking of my cat dying makes me feel all sick and stormy inside. I have had the experience before, with a childhood cat, and it has stuck with me for a long time. But I felt like the author’s reflections on what she is doing for the animal and how they seem to react to her in the moment, without fear, helped me find more peace in the situation. I will likely be reflecting on this book again when that awful day comes. (Hopefully in many, many years.)

This book made me laugh and cry and cry some more. It was easy to read and I flew through it without getting bored. I wouldn’t change a thing, and I would highly recommend it to anyone with a love for animals.

The Other Family Doctor is a lovely memoir. Ms. Fine writes stories highlighting her experiences as a veterinarian that makes house calls. She introduces her readers to some of her patients, but the main thread of the book focuses on her relationship with one of her own pets, Rana, from puppyhood all the way to the end. This book does a particularly good job of addressing one of the hardest parts of pet ownership -- the demise of a beloved pet. It's compassionate and comforting . . .I really think Ms. Fine understands that she is treating human needs as much as the pet's health requirements.

The book is written in very straightforward language and is very accessible. Fans of James Herriott will most likely enjoy this book as well.

To be honest, I was rather hoping for a James Herriot type of book. This one has some of those good stories, but also a lot of the education and life of the author as a vet, plus some of her ideologies. I liked how compassionate and caring the author is and I learnt some interesting things such as narrative medicine and how the health conditions of a pet can reflect that of their owner’s.

The writing is good and I was engrossed for some parts of the book. I would definitely recommend it for someone who aspires to become a vet or is a new vet.

This is a very gentle, warm memoir about what it is like to be a veterinarian, particularly when it comes to caring for animals who are critically ill or have terminal illnesses. Karen Fine writes with clear passion for her work and for the pets who share her life.

I'm just probably not The Other Family Doctor's ideal reader, though—as someone raised on a small farm in rural Ireland, I often find the ways that (white) middle-class Americans treat their pets to be somewhere between bemusing and alienating. There was quite a bit of that here, which meant that there was more than one occasion when I felt like a terrible person for rolling my eyes at Fine's earnest discussion of the efficacy of acupuncture in dogs or how maybe "animal communicators" (a.k.a "pet psychics") can talk to pets. What's quackery with people is no less so with animals.

These personal reservations mean that I'd be unlikely to ever take a pet of my own to Fine, but if you're a big animal lover, and particularly if you're someone who wants a take on how to overcome grief about the loss of a beloved pet, this may be the book for you.

3.5 stars, rounded up to 4.

I grew up on James Herriot so I am happy reading any book that is about a veterinarian’s life. The book was written in a dry, narrative manner, as if the author had been asked to “tell us a little about yourself.“ There was no hook, nothing to grab me and make me feel an emotion: happy, sad, shocked, aghast. It was flat.

A very good book by a veterinarian who has had many owners bring their pets in because the animals health is declining. She describes how the pet owners deal with their pets approaching death.

She discusses how the pets (of all kinds) react to their own failing health with acceptance.

Audible version, read by the author.

This book made me laugh, cry, and then laugh and cry all over again, and it did it pretty quickly- I couldn't stop listening. It's a memoir of a house-call veterinarian (which, by the way, I did not know was a thing and wish there was one local to me).

It does an especially good job of discussing both the joys and heartbreak of having pets. The sections talking about losing pets reminded me of pets we've had in the past, and even though it made me cry, it was a good cry and not an exhausting cry. It felt like she was reminding me of an old friend who I hadn't thought of in awhile.

I highly recommend this book if you love animals, if you're still sad about animals you lost and need a little therapy session, or if you're interested in veterinary care. Fabulous memoir.

4.5 stars

Karen Fine is a veterinarian and this is a memoir that includes her grandfather (human) doctor in South Africa, vet school, her marriage, and the lives and deaths of a few of her pets, in addition to a few stories of clients, as well as connecting with (human) clients, alternate medicines, behind-the-scenes being a vet, and more.

I really liked this. This was so much more than your usual vet stories of clients and their pets, and I especially liked that about this book. Of course, her pets dying had me sobbing, but that’s not a surprise.

Such a beautiful and inviting memoir. Dr. Fine does a great job with her writing. It feels like you are listening to her tell you about her life casually over brunch. She's intriguing and sets it up so you are engaged in the conversation. There is so much to learn; so many insights. It was a rollercoaster of emotions especially as someone who has pets and can relate. It was different than many books I have read- I thoroughly enjoyed and loved it!

I am not even that much of a dog person, but I loved this. It was so sweet, and so heartbreaking and hopeful. I have a lot of family I love to really, really love their dogs, and the author was so honest and vulnerable about losing some of her pets. Really interesting info about being a vet, too. Anyone who loves animals will like this, although have a tissue on hand.

3.5 stars.

Be warned, this is not just a three hanky book, it's a whole freaking box of Kleenax book. That being said I mostly enjoyed this memoir. Fine talks about her early love of animals that shaped her desire to pursue a career as a veterinarian, as well as the influence of her grandfather (Oupa) a human doctor in South Africa and how lessons she learned from his human practice informed her own approach to animal medicine. The book is structured loosely chronologically, talking about the difficulties that Fine faced getting into vet school and succeeding, at a time when women were not encouraged or expected to pursue such a masculine field. I hate to poo-poo this section because as a woman whose faced her own fair share of discrimination, I believe it's important for other woman to speak about their experiences, but from a strictly story telling standpoint, this was rather pedestrian and could have been glossed over as it was mostly garden-variety sexism of the time. She pushed through and shrugged off and let her ultimate goal guide her and kudos to her for that!

Her view of veterinary medicine and practice covers many facets, including working in a clinic versus what she chose for herself, to become an at home vet, seeing and meeting people and their pets where they are at, and discusses the many advantages (as well as few disadvantages such as her diagnosed knee pain, "housewife's knee" from kneeling on one too many bathroom floors treating pets). She talks about advances in medicine and treatments, including the integration of TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine, i.e. herbs/supplements, acupuncture, a more holistic way of viewing the body and systems). While she shares various anecdotes from the many patients she's treated over the years, she also spends a fair amount of the book talking about her own pets, and their journeys and how they helped shape her responses to other medical situations she encounters as a vet. If I had a criticism, and I offer this lightly, it was I felt she spent a little too much time on her own pets and their conditions. As a loving animal person I get it, but I wish those sections had been tightened up because as she gets into the last stretches of the book, she starts talking about narrative medicine and her own cancer diagnosis and digging into more about veterinarian suicide, burnout and what can be done about it and those chapters felt too short, as if the book had run out of time but still wanted to talk about these things and got short shrift. There was more to explore and unpack, so I would have liked to have seen those concepts explored more thoroughly.

If you expecting a sort of modern day James Herriot, readers may find themselves disappointed as this is a memoir, not a fictionalize version of real life, and while there are plenty of heartwarming stories about animals and their people, they are not the larger than life characters ala Mrs. Pumphrey, but rather people like you and me, rich and poor, men and women who own animals for a myriad of reasons and try to do our best by them. The best take away from this book is the enduring and truly magical bond people share with their pets. Animals give so much to people, it's easy to see how those "pet crazy" people end up rearranging their lives and their finances to take care of their furry family members and how legitimate and devastating the grief felt at their passing.

As I said at the beginning of the review, this is a full box of Kleenax book, it will bring you to tears, particularly if you have owned a pet and had to make the most difficult of calls to end their life with euthanasia. Fine does not shy away from discussing this subject nor should she - life is inevitably intertwined with death, you cannot have one without the other. I would argue the harder and deeper you love, the more difficult the grief. But it's good for her to address it openly, both the difficulty and sadness surrounding it, but also the sacredness of bearing witness to an animal's peaceful passing. Honoring the rich history of a pet's intertwined life with their human. Fine rightly notes that being a veterinarian is just as much about the people as it is about the pets and she talks about the challenging intersection of how helping animals is only a small part of the practice, and how important it is to understand and work with the owner. She touches on this a bit in her musings on narrative medicine and how in better understanding the story of a pet, she can hopefully offer better care to her patients.

As a pet owner and lover, I'm deeply worried about the future of veterinary medicine. I've seen first hand since the pandemic, how fragile the profession is and I feel such compassion for the veterinarians I've worked with as well as all the staff that make the clinics and hospitals run. It feel as if all the systems are broken and we're all just limping by. I'm fortunate to have mostly young, healthy pets at the moment and I try to be considerate of the professionals I work with - respecting their time and advice and their boundaries. Its a hard profession and it's not getting easier. Fine touches on the high rates of suicide and career burnout but she misses, I think, a chance to call people to account, namely the clients. We have our own role to play in contributing to the difficulties facing vets. What can WE do, to be better pet owners and make this a profession other animals lovers will want to go into? Can we show up for our appointments, follow directions, ask pertinent questions, educate ourselves and not expect our vets to be superhuman? Can we treat all the staff we encounter with respect? Can we not complain about the high cost of care when most vets are legitimately barely getting by financially themselves? When they often put themselves in high risk situations that threaten their health and well-being? A sick animal in pain has teeth and claws and in the case of large animal medicine, the sheer muscle mass to do real damage.

I'm not sure what the answer is, but I think Fine's book can help shed light on a profession that is so important to so many people, and is in crisis now, I'd call it a worthwhile read.

Hug your furry ones tight and truly enjoy the time you spend together.

I read this book in less than a day. Have tissues you will need them.

Part of me wishes I didn't read this around the one year anniversary of losing Atticus, but that made it more special, too. Definitely way more grief-heavy than anything Herriot wrote

I came upon this book by complete chance, thanks to the Pflugerville Public Library, and I am so grateful for that. It's definitely one of the best books I've read this year! It is incredibly heartfelt and thought-provoking. If you love animals and your pets are your family, you will absolutely adore this book.

I received this book from goodreads for an honest review

I love animals and i love dr shows like dr Pol. This book made me cry. Dr fine takes you inside her life and her practice as she treats animals. She also shows a part of her life. Rana will forever be in my heart. And how much love she brought to her family. She even goes on to tell u about her cancer battle. I would recommend this book to everyone and im going to. Amazing book

With many years of pets and veterinary medicine under her belt, Karen Fine delivers an entertaining, educational, and sweet nonfiction work about what it is like to be on both sides of the stethoscope. The author gives her background of what caused her to yearn to be a veterinarian and her pathway there. Despite being one of the groundbreaking few women to go into animal medicine, she tells us how her knowledge was done in college via “old school” methods. The education seemed to somewhat harden her heart to looking at the animals in an objective way, that is until she got a pet of her own. The remainder of the book is additional memories of her practice which are special in that she would go to patients’ homes to treat them. She also includes several chapters on euthanasia, which are eye opening and very thought provoking for those of us who face seeing our aging or sick best friends in pain daily or taking it upon ourselves bravely to end a life. What a kind, giving person Dr. Fine must be. Although I add a trigger warning for the euthanasia discussions, I will say that she has wonderful memories and anecdotes to accompany each point she makes. I loved this book, and highly recommend it to anyone who loves animals of any kind. Thank you to NetGalley and Anchor Books for this free ecopy in return for an honest review.

Karen Fine's journey to becoming a veterinarian started with her deep love of animals as a child and culminated in a hard-won degree and the decision to follow her (physician) grandfather's example of a house-call practice. She has clearly gained an advantage over other vets in diagnosing and treating her clients (mostly cats and dogs, along with the odd potbellied pig and ferret) by seeing them and their owners in their home environments. Her memoir is full of anecdotes about these patients and about what she calls the "transcendent love between an animal and a person."

I enjoyed reading about Dr. Fine's international trips, including a visit to the Kruger National Park big game reserve with her South African relatives, her struggles to overcome her cat allergies, her quest to lead a calmer life through yoga, and her determination to explore new ways of diagnosing and treatment animals using acupuncture. We are also treated to personal stories about three of Dr. Fine's own pets and her marriage to Mike, who wasn't an animal person before meeting her and her fur babies.

There is perhaps more time devoted to Dr. Fine's experiences with euthanizing animals than I expected, which can be difficult to read, but her emphasis is always on giving our animals the happiest lives and the best deaths. Dr. Fine writes beautifully--I finished this book in a day.

My review is based on a complimentary pre-release copy of this book.

My heart. My whole heart. I don’t know how many times I cried reading this book.

This book was my first Goodreads giveaway book and I cannot describe the moment I read the email. Out of ALL the giveaways, this is the one I was blessed with.

I have so many words for this book yet I don’t know where to start. I should’ve taken notes while reading.

I have always been described as an animal lover. A weirdo at times due to my tendency to try to save bugs even. I have dreamt of having a rescue for so long. Many have told me I should’ve been a veterinarian. The truth is, I am terrified of even acquiring another animal. I have 1 dog, she’ll be 5 next month and my first thought when I found out i was getting her was “she’s going to die one day”. And that thought comes back to me pretty regularly. I love her so much, it hurts. I want to be the absolute best for her. I have so many shortcomings but I will spend my last dime to make sure she’s taken care of.

This book had me in pieces. Especially Rana. The pictures did me in.

This book is very eye opening into the life of a veterinarian and I sincerely thank Dr. Karen Fine for the opportunity to get a glimpse. I don’t know how she does it. It truly is a special calling and I’m so thankful that someone recognizes that us animal people aren’t crazy. Thank you.

On further reflection, I just downgraded my review.I learned little from this book and the very first anecdote was the best. The pages devoted to euthanasia were just depressing. That earned two stars.

After thinking about this book, what really angered me was her attitude towards cancer, that somehow being at one with your cancer was preferable to the usual depiction of fighting it. What short-sighted arrogance. Maybe a diagnosis with a good prognosis gives one the latitude to think that way. But for those of us who either have or love someone with a terminal prognosis, it is belittling, demeaning. Those people fight for every good day of life that they can with remarkable bravery and love for those they don’t want to leave behind.

I enjoyed the earlier parts of this book more than I did the second half. I found that all of the talk about euthanizing animals got a bit depressing having been through it several times. I think the book would have been more enjoyable if there had been some lighter stories mixed in to break things up.

DNF at 20%. I had VERY high hopes for this one, which may have been my first mistake. They were quickly dashed. I simply got tired of hearing the same story- every few pages- of how poor pitiful me was a woman and how hard it was to be a woman.

Cried my eyes out. Rana is such a good girl. Lovely memoir. Well-written.

As Karen Fine was growing up, she cherished her annual visits with her paternal grandparents in South Africa. Her grandfather was a general practitioner with a family practice who often made house calls. On one of those visits with her grandfather, he brought her to a game reserve. There, she saw elephants, giraffes, baboons, and zebras and she knew that she wanted to become a veterinarian when she grew up.

THE OTHER FAMILY DOCTOR is a memoir about Fine’s life as a veterinarian, the animals she cared for over the years, and her own animals. She is a leading expert in the emerging field of veterinary narrative medicine, and before joining Central Animal Hospital in Massachusetts, she owned and operated her own house call practice for twenty-five years.

Like her grandfather, she learned early on that some of her patients benefited from house calls … anxious cats and dogs, pets that needed to be euthanized, and the families who wished to be comfortably at home as they said their last goodbyes. The home setting allowed her to practice narrative medicine more successfully. She would have the owner sequester their pet in a safe spot while she met with them to discuss their pet’s health and history in their family. Oftentimes, in the veterinarian office, she was faced with a tight schedule of appointments back to back and didn’t have the time to devote to more casual conversations that often revealed greater keys to understanding and diagnosing her animal patients. What she initially considered a “fluff” class in veterinarian school, “The Human-Animal Bond” became her driving force as a practitioner. She took additional classes in holistic health care for animals and found that acupuncture was particularly helpful for some of her patients.

“The human-animal bond would guide every decision my clients made about my patients – and it could pierce my soul with its simplicity and strength.”

Fine shared her story about her beloved dog, Rana, who had cancer and had to be euthanized when the dog was only five years old. As the tumor in Rana’s mouth grew, she looked odd, but she still enjoyed eating and playing. When Rana’s quality of life declined, Fine and her husband made the difficult decision to euthanize her. What followed was a devastating period of grief. She found that writing an obituary for Rana helped her grieve. At the back of the book she shares rituals for grieving a lost pet, as well as resources for pet owners.

THE OTHER FAMILY DOCTOR grew out of a desire to help pet owners realize how common it is to experience a deep bond with their pet, and to explore how much we can learn from animals.
“ … we love creatures who will not outlive us. That’s why we put our hearts on the line for them, why we avoid travel to be with them, why we spend our savings to keep them healthy, why we deal with all the messes and all the hassle. Because doing so teaches us about being human. Loving animals teaches us about being alive.”

Brimful of touching, joyful, heartbreaking, and life affirming tales, THE OTHER FAMILY DOCTOR is a must-read for animal lovers and pet owners.

This is Lin Salisbury with Superior Reviews. Listen to my author interviews on the fourth Thursday of every month at 7:00 pm on WTIP Radio, 90.7 Grand Marais, MN.

Written by a vet and animal lover/owner this is a must read for anyone who loves dogs and/or has been (or still is) broken hearted by their death.. I found it very enlightening and can understand why suicide rates are high in the veterinary profession when one of the pressures involves caring for the owner as well as their pet.
Several times I was moved to tears eg one day I was on the train to work and became a bit emotional as I read about Mimi the old cat. Rana’s story was amazing and sad.
I agree 100% that animals can fill empty places in our lives that humans are unable to occupy
Even though I shed a few tears I absolutely loved this book and think writing an pet obituary is a great idea to help ease the pain.
It was very interesting to learn about narrative medicine, veterinary acupuncture and anticipatory grief.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a free digital copy of the book in return for an honest review.

Extra star for the sheer love in this book, love for animals and for people, and for the understanding that grief is by necessity a part of love and that feeling it is not a weakness or a flaw. I know it must have been difficult for her to talk about the passing of her pets, and yet it gave me immense comfort to read about her choices, her love for them, her explanations of what was done, and her feelings during and after. It's been almost 18 months since I lost a much-beloved cat, and while I cried reading about her similar losses, now I know I'm not alone.

Really enjoyed this memoir written by a veterinarian. Trigger warning for the section that covers vet school students learning how to operate on live subjects and also for the part about puppy mills. Those were both hard to get through and almost made me put the book down. But I enjoyed all of the stories about pets and their owners and the author's own journey with losing her own pets. Heartfelt and engaging. Could work as a recommend for fans of All Creatures Great and Small, for sure, or as a book club read.

This was an emotional and beautiful memoir. Dr. Fine did a wonderful job expressing and showing how truly special animals are and how much they can teach us. Lots of tears while reading her experiences, while also reflecting on the animals who have and currently deeply impact my life ❤️

I had to stay up late to finish this one because the second half was too traumatic and I wouldn’t have been able to pick it back up if I set it down. But this definitely made me even more appreciative of our vets and all of my vet friends.