I would personally have benefitted from diagrams to help explain some of the surgical procedures/implants Noel frequently describes throughout the book, as your average reader is an animal lover and not a vet or surgeon with intricate knowledge of dog/cat anatomy. The journey to that point has seen Noel treat thousands of animals - many of whom were thought to be beyond help - animals that have changed his life, and the lives of those around them, for the better. I am interested in how people make sense of their lives and the world around them but this was very convoluted and repetitive. He is absolutely entitled to hold those opinions of course, but for me it often felt out of place in the book given the assumed subject matter. I think Noel is probably neurodivergent and may be on the spectrum from some of his thought processes and his anxieties but the book just read like someone who had taken drugs and then talked for five hours without stopping.

However, I do find lots of these stories interspersed with self righteousness, and a sense of narcissism.Lovely book written by a man who has many worries about his own life but concentrates on making animal lives much better. I will always have the utmost respect for all the team at Fitzpatrick Referrals after saving our very first rescue who was unable to open her jaw.

I also enjoyed Fitzpatrick's discussion on One Medicine, as this is an interest of mine working in a human healthcare setting. We meet the animals that paved the way, from calving cows and corralling bullocks to talkative parrots and bionic cats and dogs.Noel should be applauded for his strong, life long desire to meld human and animal health into a single scientific endeavour. Read with my daughter who is a fan of Supervet and very much enjoyed the author’s previous book which I think was more conventionally biographical. I also got a tad annoyed with the philosophy of if you want something you just have to work hard for it and if you didn't get it it was because you didn't work hard enough. Someone kindly bought this book for me as a gift, I don't think I've ever cried so much reading a book (except maybe Ginger's death in Black Beauty), but it is a fascinating glimpse into the Supervet's world. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average.