Williams Gift sure to inspire young vet wannabes

Mar 25, 2010

Williams Gift author and veterinarian Dr. Helen Douglas

After years of entertaining her friends with stories of her trade as a long time country veterinarian, Dr. Helen Douglas, who runs a vet clinic in Carleton Place, decided that she’d write a book based on those tales.

“I kept a journal of all of the stories and I just wrote them down but I really had no idea of how it would turn out,” she said in describing the way she approached completing her first book.

Her first book, entitled “Williams Gift - One Veterinarian’s Journey”, tells of Douglas' journey of self-discovery as a young country vet learning the ins and outs of her trade as she traveled various country and city roads from clinic to clinic. The stories have titles such as "Snakes on a Bus”, “An Elephant Comes to Visit” and “Noel's Nine Lives”. They tell of her encounters with various species in a number of different situations, all of which helped to form her both as a vet, and as a person.

The stories offer a glimpse into the realities of entering a line of work where the learning curve tends to be a very steep one, especially for a young and inexperienced vet. They are an honest portrayal of the triumphs and tribulations she encountered on the job and are sure to inspire young students considering a career in caring for creatures both great and small.

As a youngster Douglas always knew she wanted to be a vet and her first story “Starting Out” recounts her experience as a student in the summer at a mixed practice clinic in Nova Scotia where she came into contact with rugged country folk. In one of her first emergency cases, she helped to save a young dog suffering from strychnine poisoning. She also recounts certain unfortunate episodes; one memorable one where a family's pet bird suffered a heart attack in her hands while the young family members looked on.

At a recent appearance at the Nature Lover’s Bookstore in Lanark, Douglas said that when writing the book she purposefully set out to give a realistic account of the trials and tribulations of her personal journey as a vet, which sometimes those closest to her had difficulty understanding.

She was quick to point out that her vet friends commended her on showing both the ups said that most who have read the book greatly appreciate her honesty.

She tells of her adventures setting up her own first practice in Grand Pre, Nova Scotia, and later working in Lanark County.

Douglas also has the advantage of understanding who her audience is.

“My two main audiences so far have been people that love James Harriet’s books and young people who want to be vets,” she said.

Douglas also stressed that these days it is a lot easier to be a female vet than it used to be. “These days almost every vet is a woman compared to when I was young and people felt that a woman could not do the job as well as a man. There’s no longer that hurdle of confidence that women vets have to get over. And the tools of the trade are so much better these days and make the actual work much easier to do.”

Below is a reprinted selection from the “Starting Out” where the author's witnesses of a terrible accident while attending to William, a racehorse in Kentucky. It propels the reader into Helen Douglas’ past experiences as a veterinarian.

”An unexpected grief came over me, and tears started to pour down my cheeks. I stood experiencing deeply and with no inhibition the depth of William’s sacrifice. As a seasoned veterinarian, I had been witness to many tragedies and much loss in the animal world. I had long ago cultivated the ability to stay calm in emergencies, to act and not feel when I needed to most. I had dealt with many such events in a cool professional manner, serving over and over the owners and their pets with no reflection on my own feelings. Now I wept like a baby, and the cumulative pain took my breath away. A tidal wave of repressed emotion knocked me off my feet. How did I get to this place?”

The ensuing stories give a complete picture of how Douglas had indeed gotten to that place.

William’s Gift-One Veterinarian’s Journey is available at the Nature Lover’s Bookstore in Lanark and is a realistic and honest account of the trials and tribulations of a country vet and an inspiration for those considering a career as a veterinarian.