More stories about Yuzu who lives at her uncle’s veterinary hospital. The opening story completes the last chapter from volume 5. Yuzu goes with her uncle and the little boy and his mother, back to the town where she thinks the dog came from. They meet people who knew the dog’s prior owner, and find out that the man had passed away. The dog was continually searching for him and missing for him, grieving. He ends up by the ocean and leaps into the water when a gust of wind blows away his precious towel (that was connected to a memory of the owner). Yuzu’s uncle goes in after him, and the dog nearly drowns. When revived, it finally responds to the affection of the little boy, and they all commiserate with how sad the dog must have been feeling, and resolve to help it move forward.
In the second story, a girl brings her small dog into the vet clinic, a toy lap breed. She needs to do obedience training with her dog, and expresses that she’d always admired the abilities of police dogs. So the vet sets her up with a trainer- one who trains dogs for police work! The owner is taken aback and thinks this is the wrong place for them, but is then surprised to learn that the police actually do use some smaller dogs to sniff things out (as they are less noticed than large, intimidating breeds). The papillon starts learning to distinguish scents and identify them for his handler. She’s practicing with her dog at the park when a boy approaches with his german shepherd and makes fun of them. But then a lady nearby reports her purse getting stolen, the shepherd is sent to apprehend and fails. The papillon successfully sniffs out the thief, and receives loads of praise. Very cute! and heartwarming.
The next story is about a pet hamster! It was very cute, but also seemed a tad far-fetched to me. Yuzu meets two slightly younger girls, twins. One is more outgoing and the quieter girl always feels overshadowed. However she is the one who has a special bond with their pet hamster, being the one who usually takes care of it. Yuzu gets to meet their hamster and is impressed that such a small animal could know its owners and respond to them so well. When the girls become concerned about their hamster’s health, the vet reacts as if this is an emergency, because hamsters (being so little) succumb to illness or injury quickly if not treated (is that so?). Yuzu rushes over to their apartment when they don’t show up promptly with the hamster. Turns out the pet had escaped when a door was left open, so they desperately go looking for it- and it seems the hamster has run into the nearby apartment of a very unfriendly man. The girls have to gather their courage to question him, and then they have to identify their hamster among many, many others- because it turns out this man is a hamster breeder! But the hamster can show he knows his owner. This whole experience galvanizes the shyer girl into speaking up and doing something to make her identity stand out at school, apart from her twin sister.
Last story took place in quite a different setting. Yuzu and her uncle go on a holiday, to visit a dairy farm where her uncle had received some of his training while in school. He meets an old classmate there, who does regular checkups on livestock in the area. Yuzu meets a girl her age who lives on the farm, the dairy owners’ daughter. She claims to despise the work and that she doesn’t want to inherit the farm, but some things Yuzu finds out about her past tell a different story- she loved it when she was little, and still has a special bond with one of the diary cows. What’s going on? Continued in the next volume. (Warning: not for the queasy reader. Yuzu witnesses firsthand how different vet practice is with farm animals when she sees the other vet do a rectal exam on a cow).
Borrowed from the public library.