Second book in the series about a young girl who lives at her uncle’s animal hospital. Four stories each involving different animals, challenges that Yuzu has to overcome, or lessons about caring for pets:
“Luke, the Guide Dog” – Yuzu meets a partially blind client and her guide dog. She is impressed with dog’s calm demeanor and responsibility. Later alarmed and appalled (as was the reader) to find that the dog acts so stoically, it is sometimes harmed by malicious people who know it won’t react vocally to pain. Then she meets a classmate whose family raises puppies destined to be guide dogs- and this particular dog is one that his family had raised. He’s not supposed to see the dog again after it goes into training, but he happens to meet this dog again and then has a lot of emotional upset. Especially when he finds out someone hurt the dog while it was working. He wants the dog back, but of course that isn’t possible. I was just as surprised as the characters to learn of animal abuse towards guide dogs.
“Komachi, the Dog Who Cried Wolf” – A family brings their dog into the clinic worried that he’s sick, but the vet can’t find anything seriously wrong with him. The family creates a lot of drama, overly emotional about their dog, who for his part acts all pleased and smug when everyone pays attention to him, so finally the vet determines that the dog is “faking sick” to get attention. The family is relieved and amused, and take their dog home. Later though, a real scare happens with a serious health concern, and when the family realizes they might actually loose their dog, it brings some of them closer together (the parents had been facing divorce).
“Chacha the Rabbit Boss” – Yuzu has to help another classmate at school take care of some rabbits as part of their rotation duties. She’s unfamiliar with rabbits and finds some of their behavior confusing- but is surprised that the classmate is even more frightened of the rabbits than she is! Their long threatening teeth! Their propensity to kick! It was kind of funny. Yuzu and her companion try to learn more about rabbits so they can understand their behavior. The other girl gets bitten by a rabbit and some adults react by stating they’re going to end the animal care role at the school (and the rabbits will -perhaps- be euthanized). Yuzu steps in to share what she’s learned, and her uncle finally examines the rabbit at the hospital, discovering that it was in pain, which prompted the biting behavior. There’s a happy ending with the other girl getting a rabbit for a pet.
“Peanut the Abandoned Cat” – Yuzu randomly meets a younger girl in a pet shop, who is begging her mom to buy her a kitten but the mother says she’s not ready for that responsibility. Yuzu feels this isn’t fair, since the little girl wants a cat so badly. The girl follows Yuzu back to the animal hospital (why the mother didn’t notice where she went or come looking for her, beyond me). She exclaims over all the cute animals, and wants to do something. Yuzu is glad for some help, but annoyed that the girl only wants to do fun things like feed the cats and play with the dogs, not unpleasant tasks like cleaning the litter box. When an abandoned, malnourished and sick kitten is brought into the clinic, the girl is at first put off by its appearance, then gradually gets more involved in its care and learns to do the difficult things. She sees how the kitten improves and falls in love with it. Later there’s an encounter between this girl and her mother, Yuzu, and another mother and child at a public animal adoption event. The other parent wants to adopt this kitten for her kid, but some of their comments make it obvious that they have a casual attitude towards animal care and wouldn’t hesitate to just ditch the kitten and get another, cuter or healthier one if problems arose. Yuzu and her uncle are outraged and verbally criticize the woman, then the other little girl from the beginning, gets to adopt the cat.
Borrowed from the public library.
Well, I found a lot of it interesting, reading how he would utilize the landscape, the weather, and his knowledge of bovine behavior to do his job, usually solo (sometimes he had assistants or other help, but often not). There’s also some musings on how the beef industry and cattle breeding changed over the decades, how mechanized equipment affected his job as a cowboy, and small details about things like what type of rope is good for what task, etc. I enjoy Ben K. Green for an easy, lively read any day- right on par there with Gerald Durrell in my book (delivery and subject matter a bit different, but my pleasure in reading them very much of the same quality). My personal copy has the cover show top left of this post, but I also like this one which I found online, and the many illustrations by that artist Lorence Bjorklund in the interior. Most of the stories in here are good long chapters, some are just a few pages.
