Sarah Boston was just eight years old when she started helping out at the local vet clinic. And her answer to the question, often asked of children, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” never changed. She always knew she was going to be a vet.
By the time she was 22, Sarah was indeed a doctor of veterinary medicine. She went on to become a veterinary surgeon and oncology (cancer) specialist, first practising in western Canada and later teaching at universities in Canada, New Zealand and the U.S. She is now generally recognized as a major player in her specialty.
Her professional future looked rosy. Then, three years ago, the horizon clouded when she discovered a lump in her neck. She recognized the signs of thyroid cancer immediately, but her physicians treated her as an alarmist, possibly a hypochondriac who saw cancer round every corner, because she treated animals with cancer every day.
“From the moment I first felt the mass in my neck, I knew it was thyroid carcinoma,” she writes. “Unfortunately, I was the only one who felt that way. Four physicians, with differing levels of certainty, told me I was wrong.”
In Lucky Dog, Dr. Boston recounts her experiences with the medical profession, interspersed with stories about animals she has treated over the years. A fascinating page-turner, this warm, funny and moving memoir begins with a cryptic sentence: “I wish I were a dog.”
Had she been a dog, she explains, she would have received veterinary care — in fact, she would probably have been the surgeon — and she would have been assured of immediate, effective treatment, rather than being left in the glacially slow limbo of the human medical system.
Early reviews praise Lucky Dog for its “lively storytelling and wry, self-deprecating humor” (Publishers Weekly) and call it “a remarkable book — both howlingly funny and deeply moving” (Will Schwalbe, New York Times bestselling author).
Dr. Boston, now an associate professor of surgical oncology at the University of Florida, will be at Mill Street Books in Almonte from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. on June 21 to talk about her experiences and her thoughts for her next book, and will sign copies of Lucky Dog.
For further information, contact Mary Lumsden at Mill Street Books, 52 Mill Street, Almonte. (613 256-9090)
Lucky Dog: How Being a Veterinarian Saved My Life, published by House of Anansi, has just been published in Canada and the U.S. and will shortly be available in Australia, New Zealand and Korea. House of Anansi $18.95 (trade paperback) ISBN 978-1-77089-351-1