Love Is the Best Medicine: What Two Dogs Taught One Veterinarian about Hope, Humility, and Everyday Miracles [Hardcover]

Dr. Nick Trout (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 2, 2010

A book guaranteed to touch anyone who has ever had a beloved pet… 
 
   From instant New York Times bestseller, Dr. Nick Trout comes another touching and heartfelt story from the front lines of veterinary medicine—the story of two dogs who forever changed the way he thought about life, death, fate and love.

   Helen is an older cocker spaniel found neglected and abandoned in a restaurant parking lot one rainy night.  Despite her mangy condition and terrible smell, Ben and Eileen fall in love with the pitiful creature and decide to take her in.  But just as Helen is rescued from a sad life on the streets and enveloped in a loving home with all the creature comforts an old dog could ask for, a tumor is discovered and she's given a devastating prognosis.  All Ben and Eileen want is for Helen to beat the odds and survive for one more summer so that she can have one chance to swim in the ocean on the family's annual trip to Prince Edward Island.  In short, they want a miracle.

   Meanwhile, fourteen-month-old miniature pinscher Cleo keeps breaking one leg after another which devastates her poor owner, Sandi.  While Cleo is visiting Sandi's daughter, Sonja, in Bermuda, she succumbs to yet another fracture.  Distraught that the injury happened on her watch, Sonja makes a plan to fly Cleo to Boston to get the specialist care she needs before Sandi even finds out.  Enter Dr. Trout who presides over what should be a fairly routine surgery.   What happens next forever links two families, their dogs and a beloved veterinarian and teaches them all a lesson about grace that resonates to this day. 

   Love is the Best Medicine immerses you in the true life drama of beloved pets whose lives hang in the balance.  Every page underscores the profound bond we have with the animals in our lives and the incredible responsibility Nick carries as their healer.  Certainly Dr. Trout has an impressive array of fancy equipment, training and skills at his disposable, but his most important tool (as he persuasively illustrates here) is a fundamental belief in the power of hope, humility, and grace.  

   Wry, charming, and intensely affecting, Love is the Best Medicine is a one of a kind story only the winsome Dr. Trout could deliver and is destined to become a favorite for animal lovers.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Lisa Scottoline Reviews Love is the Best Medicine

Lisa Scottoline is the New York Times bestselling author of Why My Third Husband Will Be a Dog, Lady Killer, Look Again, and Think Twice. Read her guest review of Love is the Best Medicine:

A couple of years ago, at the Spring Book and Author Luncheon in Charleston, South Carolina, I met a veterinarian, Nick Trout, who was there to talk about his first book, Tell Me Where It Hurts. We got to talking, not least because I am a dog nut (two Goldens, a Corgi and two King Charles Cavaliers), and I reckoned, no harm in trying to eek out some free veterinary advice, especially about my beloved Retriever Lucy. Lucy had passed away only a few days earlier and I was haunted by a feeling that I could have done more, that I wasn’t able to physically be with her, to hold her, connect with her and ease her into the next life in the end. Nick hardly knew me but I could tell he got it, understood what it means to have an animal in your life and how we pet owners struggle with the burden of loss when we are left behind to pick up the pieces. On the plane home I read his book, loved, loved, loved it, and ordered him to write more.

Thankfully, he has, and in Love is the Best Medicine, Nick radiates the exact same sensitivity, empathy, and understanding of loss that I felt the day I met him. The book features his trademark humor, with funny stories pulled from the examination rooms and operating suites of one of the top veterinary hospitals in the country, but at its heart is the true story of two dogs that you cannot help but fall in love with and root for--a Min Pin puppy named Cleo and a geriatric Cocker Spaniel named Helen. The stories of these two dogs symbolize for all of us pet people exactly what it means to love an animal--and it’s so fascinating to get the view from the other side of table. I don’t want to give too much away, but I’ll say this: as someone who knows a thing or two about losing a cherished animal, I found the story surprising and comforting. It reminded me once again that the universe works in mysterious, rich, and wonderful ways.

This book, too, is rich and wonderful, and you should read it. --Lisa Scottoline

(Photo © April Narby)

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Look Inside Love is the Best Medicine
Click for larger images

Cleo, 6 months old	Cleo in her favorite pink bag	Helen	Helen playing in ivy

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From Booklist

Veterinarian Trout offers up a surefire comfort read for Animal Planet fans with this intimate look at the lives of two dogs and the people who loved them. By focusing on the trials and tribulations of the older abandoned cocker spaniel Helena and the much-coddled miniature pincher puppy Cleo, he juxtaposes their lives and then brings them together in Boston at the Angell Animal Medical Center, where readers will find themselves in an animal ER. Deeply passionate about his work, he manages to write about his patients without anthropomorphizing. The focus here is not clinical, but rather embraces the connections we make with our pets and even animals we barely know. This book is unusual in how it emphasizes how Cleo and Helena came to be in their owners’ lives, making the final outcome of their illnesses that much more poignant. (Yes, get ready for a tear or two.) Easily traversing the border between science and society, Trout’s chronicle will appeal to readers from teens to grandparents. --Colleen Mondor

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Broadway; 1 edition (March 2, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0767931971
• ISBN-13: 978-0767931977
• Product Dimensions: 6.3 x 1 x 9.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (57 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #813,059 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Nick Trout graduated from veterinary school at the University of Cambridge in 1989. He is a Diplomate of the American and European Colleges of Veterinary Surgeons and is a staff surgeon at the prestigious Angell Animal Medical Center in Boston. He is the author of two books, the New York Times bestseller Tell Me Where It Hurts and Love is the Best Medicine and has been a contributing columnist for The Bark and Prevention magazines . His new book, Ever By My Side, will be published by Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, in February 2011. Nick's writing has been translated into a dozen languages and his books sell in more than thirty different countries around the world. He considers himself a runner (though his marathon days are behind him), an avid reader and a passionate advocate for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. He lives in Massachusetts with his wife, two daughters and their two dogs, Meg, their yellow Labrador, and Sophie, their Jack Russell terrier. Visit Nick Trout online at www.facebook.com/drnicktrout

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Terrific Book!, March 1, 2010

By 

K. Davis "Kathy Diamond Davis, author" (Oklahoma City, OK USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Love Is the Best Medicine: What Two Dogs Taught One Veterinarian about Hope, Humility, and Everyday Miracles (Hardcover)

(What's this?)

Dr. Nick Trout works as a veterinary surgeon in a state-of-the-art
veterinary hospital. If there are miracles in veterinary medicine--and sometimes
there are!--he occasionally gets to see them. But he is not the least bit
arrogant about that. He soul-searches diligently to try to determine if he is
doing the right things.

He also appreciates the qualities of dog and cat owners and what their
relationships with their animals mean. He expresses what we know about those
relationships, and clearly sees that there is much more to the relationships
than we can truly understand. He has great respect for the animals and the
people.

There are tears in the book, but not unduly. There is joy in the book. And
what he says about chocolate Labradors is very funny!

I'm so glad I got this chance to read this book. I'm sure you will be, too!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Devotion Never Dies, February 19, 2011

By 

Julia A. Andrews (Peoria, Illinois) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Love Is the Best Medicine: What Two Dogs Taught One Veterinarian about Hope, Humility, and Everyday Miracles (Paperback)

Dr Nick Trout, an animal surgeon who works at Angell Animal Medical Center in Boston, weaves engaging stories around two major dog characters, Cleo, a min pin and Helen, an older street savvy dog. You will fall in love with these dogs and their owners.

I never get bored with animals or their stories and much to my delight I have read Dr. Trout's other two books, Tell Me Where it Hurts: A Day of Humor, Healing and Hope in My Life as an Animal Surgeon and Ever By My Side: A Memoir in Eight [Acts] Pets with much laughter and a few tears.

Dr. Trout is not a glory hog about his talent and training. He could become over sentimental or too sterile in his daily profession. He does neither. He relates to his charges and their people with empathy, compassion and professionalism. He never waivers in the fact that his first duty is to the animal and reducing its sickness and suffering. He takes his job seriously all the while not taking himself too much so. If you are looking for James Herriot then prepare yourself, Dr. Trout shakes you up with a look at the hectic, non-stop current day vet practice in a large city, not one found in the 1930's Yorkshire Dales.

If you are an animal lover I highly recommend all three of his books.

Enjoy the read!

9 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful and thought-provoking read, March 5, 2010

By 

Kathleen San Martino (New Jersey) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Love Is the Best Medicine: What Two Dogs Taught One Veterinarian about Hope, Humility, and Everyday Miracles (Hardcover)

(What's this?)

"Love is the Best Medicine" is mainly a book about two dogs who are patients of Dr. Nick Trout. A young Miniature Pinscher Cleo and an old abandoned cocker spaniel Helen cross paths in an unexpected way, yet they never met. Cleo's death, through the eyes his owner Sandi, taught Dr. Trout about the selfless love between a human and their animal. It was this revelation that caused Dr. Trout to operate on Helen with such conviction and faith enabling her to live longer than expected.

The book starts out by telling the story of each dog in alternating chapters - one chapter Helen, the next Cleo, the next Helen, and so on. The story is peppered with anthropomorphic descriptions (from the animals' point of view) that most "pet parents" will identify with.

In the later chapters, Dr. Trout briefly mentions some of his other patients--expertly writing their stories into the book like a master weaver. The intensity of the human-animal bond is eloquently expressed in this book and the generosity of the animal lovers featured in this story will make your heart swell.

Dr. Trout is a phenomenal writer. It was practically impossible to put this book down.