Title: All Creatures Great and Small
Author: James Herriot
Why I read this book: Because I have experience working and volunteering in wildlife rehabilitation – something I’m still very passionate about – I thought it would be a good decision to read a book like this one, which would open my mind to the life of livestock or family pet veterinary.
What I learned: Mr. Herriot, a veterinarian at the beginning of the 1930s in the Yorkshire Dales in England, forms very realistic characters: from his boss Siegfried and his brother Tristan, to their secretary Miss Harbottle, to the poor farmers whose livestock James attends to. Herriot shows us how he handles difficult situations (and personalities) with incredible patience and grace. There were many poor farmers, some of whom could barely afford their veterinary bills. Herriot showed compassion and empathy for these farmers, which was very inspiring. He and the farmers were sometimes able to work out compromises and exchanges of goods to pay off the vet bills. It was most interesting – and comical – reading about the abundantly-spoiled Pekinese, Tricky Woo, and his very wealthy female owner. I was able to see the frustration Herriot encountered when Tricky Woo would become ill due to being fed food highly inappropriate for dogs and due to no exercise. Herriot teaches readers how to handle frustrating clients, like Tricky Woo’s owner, with grace and patience as well as how he delicately gave his diagnosis, prognosis, and instructions for the owner to make changes to her beloved dog’s lifestyle and diet. Tricky Woo’s owner was vocally eager to adhere to Herriot’s instruction; however, she’d revert right back to the same ways that led her pet into poor health in the first place. This is a situation I can imagine is very common when working in the veterinary world – something I didn’t encounter with wildlife rehabilitation, as there was ever an owner to communicate with.
I was able to laugh at part of the book where the characters’ personalities clashed, as these were situations that most people experience. One of note was Herriot’s boss, Siegfried, who was a challenging man to work for. Siegfried would give very specific instructions regarding all aspects of the job, to which Herriot would follow carefully and completely. Unfortunately, most of these instructions led to failure and destruction, which resulted in Siegfried denying having ever made such a suggestion. I found these moments humorous, because I too have been in similar situations. In fact, this is nearly identical to the things that I and other incarcerated ladies deal with when it comes to prison staff. In my opinion, laughter seems to sometimes be the best way of healing from these types of frustrations.
How will reading “All Creatures Great and Small” contribute to my success: James Herriot is resilient in this book. He never gives up even when situations and clients are difficult. I laughed the most when he nearly crashed the beat-up vehicle he had to drive to his client’s farms and homes. As an aspiring novelist, he has taught me a highly effective way to write comedy, sometimes in subtle ways. He has inspired me to be a better writer. I’m on a waiting list to take a veterinary class (computer class), so I believe reading about very real experiences, like Herriot’s, will be beneficial. Wildlife conservation or rehabilitation is something I would like to get back into, possibly as a career; therefore, I wanted as close to “real experience” as I could get during incarceration. Reading books written by veterinarians, rehabilitators, and conservationists is a good decision for me to become knowledgeable about the field I’ve always been interested in and
would like to get back into. A couple of the characters in Herriot’s novel have inspired me in creating characters for a fiction novel my close friend and I are in the process of brainstorming for. Herriot’s writing talent easily captures my emotions and places me right in the story. He does this so well that I can easily visualize everything, from the atmosphere, the landscape, and all of the senses of the human body.
