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Babes in Bookland
A podcast celebrating women's memoirs, one story at a time!
Babes in Bookland
Purr-fect Love // Dr. Amy Attas' "Pets and the City"
Do our pets make us better people?
My friend, Priscilla, and I think so! We chat about this idea and more as we discuss Dr. Amy Attas’ memoir "Pets and the City: True Tales of a Manhattan House Call Veterinarian."
When Dr. Amy Attas found herself unexpectedly fired from a prestigious Manhattan veterinary clinic, she did something revolutionary—she launched the city's first full-time veterinary house call practice. What began as a professional setback blossomed into a groundbreaking career that has touched the lives of over 14,000 pets and their devoted owners.
Through her memoir, Dr. Amy opens the door to the intimate world of in-home veterinary care, where examining rooms are luxury penthouses, celebrity apartments, and modest walk-ups alike. With compassion and wit, she recounts unforgettable encounters with clients ranging from Joan Rivers (who became both patient and cherished friend) to Billy Joel and even Cher, whose impromptu plane examination led to an unexpected naked consultation. Beyond the glitz, Dr. Amy masterfully captures the profound emotional landscape of caring for beloved animals in their own territories.
The heart of this memoir lies in the sacred human-animal bond that transcends social status and circumstance. Dr. Amy doesn't shy away from difficult topics, like the ethical dilemmas when owners refuse life-saving treatments, the heartbreaking decisions around end-of-life care, and the remarkable resilience of animals with disabilities. Her stories remind us that our pets see us at our most authentic selves, bearing witness to our vulnerabilities while offering unconditional love in return. Through her own journey of pet loss and renewal, she offers gentle wisdom about grief and the courage to love again.
Whether you're a devoted pet parent, considering adoption, or simply fascinated by the extraordinary connections between humans and animals, these true tales from Manhattan's pioneering house call veterinarian will transform how you understand the furry companions who make our worlds infinitely richer. Dr. Amy's remarkable journey proves that sometimes the most healing medicine comes with four paws, a wagging tail, and the ability to make any apartment feel like home.
Subscribe now to hear more thought-provoking discussions about books that explore women's diverse experiences and the courage to live authentically.
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Buy “Pets and the City” by Dr. Amy Attas
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Heather’s Custom Pets
This episode is produced, recorded, and its content edited by me.
Technical editing by Brianna Picone
Theme song by Devon Kennedy
Special thanks to my dear friend, Priscilla. And our beloved Chewy, Rocky and Dutch. We mis you every day. Thank you for sharing your beautiful love with us!
Hi, welcome to another episode of Babes in Bookland. Today I'm chatting about Pets and the City True Tales of a Manhattan House Call Veterinarian, by Dr Amy Addis, with my friend, priscilla, and her dog, winnie, is here as well. But before we get into the episode, here's another kind review. This is from Shelbs13. I just stumbled upon this podcast and it's so good. I listen to it while working out and it's just like chatting with your friends. Hey, shelbs, hope you're having a good workout right now, and everyone else, let's walk our dogs. Hi, priscilla, hey Alex and hi Winnie. If anybody hears little barks now and then and why do we do this when we talk to dogs and babies my voice just immediately changed. But if anybody hears any little whimpers or anything or little rattles, that's Winnie, and we will definitely learn more about Winnie soon. But P, what did you think of Dr Amy's book?
Speaker 2:I actually was very, very excited to hear about this new job. Mostly it was just so different and so unique. I had no idea that they actually even existed, like in-house visits for actual what's the?
Speaker 1:word Like wellness checks, Because you've had an in-house vet visit you before but it was for end-of-life care You've never heard of, just a normal veterinary house call.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that would actually do blood work and give them vaccinations in the house. I mean, once you think about it it's like sure, of course you know. But it was very, very cool that she kind of started this business on her own. It was definitely very innovative.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I was not expecting to hear some you know famous names throughout the book.
Speaker 1:Yes, Well, she does live and work in New York, so it was bound to happen. I thought this book was just really charming and I also really enjoyed hearing her stories, even the ones that frustrated me, and we will get to those. Dr Amy comes across as just so compassionate about people and so passionate about pets. She had an incredibly smart business idea and her work, ethic and reputation helped grow it into a brilliant success, and I love a good success story. Throw in a dog, I'm sold. All right, let's get into it. So Dr Amy's book was published in 2024 and this is her dedication For my husband, steve, my partner in everything.
Speaker 1:Okay, and I've never done this before, but I'm going to dedicate our podcast episode to oh no, it's already happening. I really wasn't sure I made it through so much of Dr Amy's book without crying because you had read it before me and you texted me and you were like be prepared to sob, and so I went into it and I made it almost to the end, but I'm definitely getting emotional. Now we're dedicating this episode to our beloved pets that are in heaven Chewy, dutch and Rocky. Episode to our beloved pets that are in heaven Chewy, dutch and Rocky. After my sweet dutchie passed. I definitely was in a rough place and we'll talk a little bit more about that, but I basically purchased this custom made stuffed animal off of Etsy and you know what? I will link her shop in the show notes because she did an incredible job and it did make me feel better. Scared the crap out of my husband a few times, I'm not going to lie.
Speaker 2:When you first told me what you were doing, you're like I'm going to get a stuffed Dutch and I'm like what?
Speaker 1:You thought I was taxiderming. The Dutch yes.
Speaker 2:I was a little concerned and I'm like, oh, okay, okay.
Speaker 1:No, it's just a stuffed animal, but I brought him over to Priscilla's today because I wanted my comfort dog. Okay, quick topics. Tell me about Chewy, so.
Speaker 2:Chewy is a miniature poodle mix. We actually, back in Texas, across from my parents' house, we saw a litter of puppies out in the street where they were just tied up in the lawn and it was like a brutal summer hot day and they were just kind of running at the end of their leash just in circles and it was so sad. So my sister and I would go over there and play with them. And then eventually the neighbor. So my sister and I would go over there and play with them, and then eventually the neighbor came out and was like do you want them? Like we got them for our kids and they don't really want them. We don't know what to do with them.
Speaker 2:So we're like yeah, mind you, my parents are a no pets at the house kind of parents. They're like yeah, just pick whichever one you want. And of course we picked the one that seemed the most hyper and that's how we came about Chewy. My sister named her after Chewbacca because she was just this fluffy little brown bear and we brought her home and we kept her upstairs for probably the first month, but it's a puppy. So my parents quickly found out and they're like this is your responsibility. And we're like well, no, duh Like, what are y'all going to do?
Speaker 1:And you guys were old enough to buy the pet food at this point.
Speaker 2:I think you know. Yes, yes, now that I think about it, my sister was definitely old enough. I can't actually remember.
Speaker 1:She was out of high school, wasn't she? Because you were in high school.
Speaker 2:I was. Yeah, my parents just caved those puppy eyes and so they're like fine, we'll try a day. And then, of course, you know we had them. So, yeah, chewy was special because she was there throughout, I mean for the next 14 years. So it was me through college, me moving to LA.
Speaker 1:She's been there through the most transformational time of your life, absolutely yeah, there was definitely something human-like about her which is interesting because so I've had three dogs Dutch was my dog that I got separately from my husband, rocky was his dog and then together we got Stella, and Dutch very much had that human like aspect. Stella is just a dog, like that girl, she's just a dog. She's never if she reincarnated, she's only been a dog or a bird.
Speaker 1:There is no human like aspect. But yeah, so I got Dutch. My husband and I were not together at the time. We had dated, we were taking time apart and I was living by myself and I just really wanted a dog.
Speaker 1:My friend, christine, who is a big advocate of adopting animals she was a huge rescue volunteer and really into adopting a shelter dog. She's like you have to go to shelters, I will drive you around to the shelters, we will find you a dog. And that's what she did. She and her husband drove me around to multiple shelters one Saturday and I was getting really discouraged because I just wasn't clicking with any dog and you feel bad because you know you need to take them home. But also and Christine was really great she was like don't force it, we will find your dog.
Speaker 1:And we're at the West LA shelter, which was pretty far from where I lived at the time. And I'm walking around and I see this dog and he's tan and he has one ear that sticks up and one ear that lays down and he's like a little terrier mech. He was up at the gate at the little fence looking at me and so many of the dogs are cowering in the back and you know it's not. It's a very stressful situation for a dog to be at a shelter, and so you're allowed to kind of like pick which one you want to go play with, and we just bonded. The only other time that I knew something like that besides my husband was when I tried on my wedding dress for the first time and I knew that that was my dress. I knew as soon as I met Dutch, who was named Alfie, at the shelter.
Speaker 2:That's actually kind of cute. It is really cute, right he?
Speaker 1:was kind of an Alfie. As soon as I met him I was like this is my dog, this is my dog and we went through so much together. But, yeah, dog, and we went through so much together, but, yeah, I love that little guy. I think about him all the time. Still, rocky was a very special dog as well, and I know that you also had a very strong bond with Rocky.
Speaker 2:I did. Rocky Labs are just so like, their memory is fantastic and also they just are so loyal and sweet.
Speaker 1:Okay, so we talked about the ones that we had to say goodbye to, and now we can talk about our sweet puppies that we still have.
Speaker 2:Tell me about Winnie. So, winnie, when I was ready to adopt, well, I knew for sure that I wanted to adopt a dog and I was kind of looking for you know, at this time it was COVID time, I work freelance, so getting a new dog was always just like the timing was never going to be right, because you never know and they need to travel a lot for work too, sometimes Exactly.
Speaker 2:So you just need to know you'll be home for months if you're going to get a new dog. So COVID kind of opened this perfect window for me to get a dog, and I always wanted a dog at around three, four-ish years old.
Speaker 2:You wanted them past the puppy phase. Yeah, and they're like less than like less likely to get adopted to my friend Leanna. She sent me these photos of these adorable little. It looked like a poodle mix puppies. She's like I know they're puppies, but you're obviously working from home now, maybe this will do. I reached out to this shelter and they're like all the puppies are actually adopted already, but the mom hasn't been posted. Do you want to come meet the mom?
Speaker 2:And I was like sure Winnie, she looked so scraggly and because she had just given birth, they were like in a kind of an isolated room there was like pee all over. She was literally stepping over her puppies to us and rolled over in her own pee. Like there was pee all over it, like it was just so gross. I'm like, oh my God, this dog is like no motherly instincts whatsoever. She's just like me. Give me the pets you know. So I will say I didn't have the experience you did with Dutch, where it's like I just knew, you just knew right away. When I met Winnie I was just kind of like huh, I don't really know about her. And my sister, she was the one that was like, oh my gosh, it's Winnie, she could meet any dog and it would be the one.
Speaker 1:That's true. That's so true about your sister. Yeah.
Speaker 2:So she was the one that was like, oh, it's Winnie, and I'm like I'm just going to take a day to think about it. And then the next day I was like, either way, whether I have a connection, I know I'll build one. She clearly needed to come to a home.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we'll get into that as we get further into Dr Amy's memoir. And let's dive deeper into that right now. So Dr Amy Addis started City Pets in 1992 and it is, quote Manhattan's first full-time veterinary house call practice. She writes nothing like it existed back then. So I developed the business plan. As I went along, my friend Nadia introduced this term to me building the plane as you fly it and it's my favorite phrase and I feel like it just works in so many areas of my life personally. So I feel like that's what Dr Amy was doing she was building that plane as she flew it. So this is her first dog.
Speaker 1:Growing up she had a pug named Duchess. She writes I shared everything about my life with Duchess. When I whispered my secrets into her velvet ears, she would stare back at me with deep, soulful eyes like she really understood. Later in adolescence, when I cried over some stupid boy or mean girl drama, duchess licked away my tears. She provided a place of comfort and security for me and I learned from her what a unique and special bond two species can have with each other. That's so true. Dutchie definitely was there to like lick a lot of tears for me Lost jobs, like you know, auditions not working out. It really is special this bond that we have with this completely different species. Like it's crazy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean. That's why I say they really are. It feels like a human. They don't feel like a dog because you tell them all your secrets, you tell them about your day. I don't know if everybody does actually but I do.
Speaker 1:No, I think a lot of people do. Girl the amount of dogs I see in baby strollers in TJ Maxx.
Speaker 2:I think there's a lot of codependency happening with dogs. My friend actually used to always make fun of me because anytime and he was, we turned him to. He got a poodle and my thing was, every time I came home I would see Chewy and be like how was your day, what were you up to today? And we had this whole conversation to this dog who was not actually responding to me.
Speaker 1:But in your heart you knew what she was saying.
Speaker 2:I wanted to know how her day was.
Speaker 1:Yeah, dr Amy writes about the ding, ding, ding. She felt when she read All Creatures, great and Small, by James Harriet and realized it was time for her to start acting on her dream of becoming a veterinarian. There's a problem, though, because she's only 13 at the time. So she pulls out her family's phone book and she starts calling all the local vets to inquire about working there, most hung up on her until the Forest Hills Cat Hospital, she writes. Dr Jay Luger listened to my teenage I have to be a vet pitch. He invites her to come after school and watch what happens at the hospital. And I just loved her tenacity to have a dream at such a young age like that and then wanting to start taking steps towards exploring and fulfilling that dream and having the gumption to do it at 13. I mean that was pretty badass. It was very impressive. So how old were you when you had your first job? I know your mom owned a nail shop and you kind of worked in the shop for her for a while. Right, she kind of made you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't know if I would call that a job. It's just like any immigrant family. You're just, there's no babysitter, so they take you to work and then they put you to work. So I can't even remember how old I was. I see these memes on Instagram of immigrant children and I'm like this is so us, I'll have to send it to you later. Okay, yeah, but it's like who's taking the orders? I can't imagine how old I was or what my voice sounded like, but I'm like LA Nails, how may I help you? And making appointments and putting that down. And then there's all these memes about Chinese restaurants and stuff. These restaurants and stuff. It's like this little kid behind the counter like taking your order. I'm like, yeah, that is very true. My sister, because she was older, probably had it worse.
Speaker 1:I never actually had to do anyone's nails because I had shaky hands. I remember when I would ask you and you were like I can't paint your nails.
Speaker 2:I have shaky hands.
Speaker 1:I was like it was an easy out Do you remember, your sister was the very first person who waxed my eyebrows Really.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:I wanted to get my eyebrows waxed because I had like a little hair growing in between. I was getting made fun of at school and my mom would only allow your sister to do it. Oh, my goodness, your sister had done it. You know she had been doing it for a little while. I don't think it was her first time or anything.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, my sister had to have been like 12 or even younger, painting nails at the shop already, but it's like I wouldn't call it a job because we never got paid for it. They just put us to work.
Speaker 1:Totally, and I'm sure that the statute of limitations has passed and we are able to talk about all this freely right now. So then, what was your first real?
Speaker 2:job. My first real job was when I was 15. They opened that Gander Mountain near our neighborhood. Yes, gander Mountain is an outdoor store you were. It's an outdoor store kind of like bass pro shop.
Speaker 1:I don't think it exists anymore. I've never heard of gander no, it's like a furniture. No well, now it's definitely not that. Oh, maybe it actually maybe no, I was just there.
Speaker 2:I should know. I don't think it's still there, but yeah, it was brand new store, so I was doing like stocking, labeling, all that. But that was my very, very first job and a bunch of people from high school were there too. It was very, I think. Now that I think it's like were we allowed to have? We had to have been allowed to have jobs at 15.
Speaker 1:I guess. So I'm trying to think. In Texas I know I didn't really get my first job until when I would come home from college and I was waiting tables. I kind of did like the tutoring thing in high school, so there was nothing that I had to be like legally, you know, qualified for, oh my gosh, okay.
Speaker 1:So back to Dr Amy. She's so excited about going to this cat hospital. She skips lunch to leave school early so that she makes sure that she's there really early on time and she faints during a blood draw. She gets another opportunity with another vet and she also faints, this time during an exploratory surgery. So this is turning out to be like a real issue. She writes how was I ever going to become a vet if I passed out at the sight of blood? And you could just imagine how frustrating and disappointing this must be, because if you're a vet or a doctor, anything in any sort of medical situation, you can't have an aversion to blood. There's just no way. Have you ever had any really big obstacles that you've had to get over on your dream career path?
Speaker 2:Not like that where you have to fight your own body's reaction to what you want to do. My obstacles are probably just more of fear, like laying it all out there and being terrified because there was no safety net behind that. I don't have a choice but to succeed. So part of it is a positive thing because it pushes you, but the other part is it's just the fear of failing alone. But there was no, like I wouldn't say I shouldn't say that's not an obstacle. That's probably the biggest obstacle, but I didn't have this physical thing that was keeping me from doing what I wanted to do and figuring out how to change that.
Speaker 1:But you had to put yourself through school because your parents didn't support your decision.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, that's what I mean. There was no option, there was nothing to fall back on. This was it. If I fail, I literally don't. I didn't even know what that would look like, because what would I do? I mean I guess I could go back home, but that there was just nothing else in there. For me, the biggest obstacle was doing something, going for your dreams, and not feeling like you have a safety net, like there's, yeah, like failure is just not an option.
Speaker 1:What about you? I feel really lucky that my parents. They did financially support me I mean, I still have some student loans that I'm paying off but mostly they spiritually supported me, meant emotionally supported me, because they always made me feel like I could do it and that's a really big. It's like a huge, scary, lofty dream to want to go to LA and be an actress, and I have to remind myself to give myself credit, because my career has definitely been at a place where I haven't been super happy with it since I decided to have children, and that was always a risk that I was willing to take, because another big dream of mine is being a mother and having a family. But I did have a pretty good, consistently working career for a while. I do feel like I can say I did it. I want to still be doing it, which is kind of the problem where I'm at right now.
Speaker 1:I think it's interesting how like your dreams can change and sometimes it can be really scary to let go of a dream, and for me, I personally have to try to figure out okay, am I holding onto this dream because I still really want it, or is it because I'm competitive and I've been bred to fear failure and I don't wanna be a failure. And what is all that? Or am I still? Yeah, it's like trying to figure that out. But yeah, I mean in my job, when I was starting out, you needed people to say yes to you, and I got really lucky and I got those yeses.
Speaker 1:I think that I was able to meet them halfway with talent and whatever. At least I have to tell myself that, you know. But fear can definitely be a big thing. That holds a lot of people back, and I've always just been so impressed by you and in awe of your ability to move past that and believe in yourself. Even if it doesn't feel like you're believing in yourself, you bet on yourself, always worked really hard, you've never been afraid to put in the work and I'm really proud of your success and I hope you're proud of yourself too, because you really deserve to be.
Speaker 2:It's weird to hear that because, yes, I bet on myself, but never do I feel like that fear is gone. I feel like my motto is just fake it till you make it. I still get crippling anxiety when it's like, oh, what job do I pick? Or I'm not working and it's just like you know, I just make whether it's the right reason for whatever choice I make or whether it's valid. I just tell myself that and I just have to own it. Otherwise I will be in this cycle of anxiety and so I just have to fake it until I make it. And I don't really feel like the fear is ever gone. Especially in our careers. It's freelance. You're waiting for the yes or you're waiting for the call. It's kind of hard for other people to understand that. So it's an isolating world that you live in. But it's nice to hear that because I have never felt like man. I just bet on myself and I believe in myself. And there are many times that I do not believe in myself at all.
Speaker 2:I just say, well, this is what you got and this is what you're doing. So what are you going to do about it? Freak out about it the whole time, or just move forward?
Speaker 1:Yeah, call me anytime you need to hear those words because I'll tell them to you again, okay, so back to Dr Amy. She circles back to the original vet, dr Luger, and his nurse. It's really cute. She shows up and the nurse is like I have smelling salts ready for you. So they figure it out and she's able to work there for six years.
Speaker 1:Her aversion to blood which is a real condition, that's not her just being dramatic. Fainting at the site of blood is a type of fainting called vasovagal syncope Alex, why don't you look this shit up before you do this? Also known as neurocardiogenic syncope, which occurs when your body overreacts to certain triggers, including the sight of blood, causing a sudden drop in heart rate and blood pressure. So this was a physical like she had no mental control over this. Her body really did just get triggered by the sight of blood.
Speaker 1:And this is not the only obstacle that she has to overcome on her way to becoming a vet. She writes about realizing that having large animal experience would help her get into a better vet school. So she gets connected to Dr Nat Johnson who, much to Dr Amy's delight, is a woman Dr Nat for Natalie, and Dr Nat arranges for Dr Amy to shadow her for a few weeks in the rural area of Eastern Connecticut. Only problem Dr Nat doesn't have a room for Amy to live in in her house, but she has an old horse trailer that she can stay in with no electricity or plumbing. Of course Dr Amy says yes, but ultimately she leaves early because unfortunately Dr Nat's husband turns out to be very creepy and makes Dr Amy feel very uncomfortable.
Speaker 2:Wait, how old was she?
Speaker 1:again when she's like between college and graduate school Got it, got it, okay. Yeah. So she's in her early twenties ish at this point and again I just love that she's like this is what I want to do, so this is what I have to do to do it. But then also she knew where her boundaries were. And it was really disappointing to read about Dr Knotts husband being so creepy and remember he would like tap on her door and not okay. But also.
Speaker 2:I can't imagine being so like. You knew exactly what you wanted to do for quite some time.
Speaker 2:I can't imagine being 13 for her all the way, like in 20s, so sure of yourself. She is putting all her eggs in a basket, kind of thing. That's so amazing to me. It's just wild to be so. That, to me, is more of betting on yourself because I'm sure of myself. You know what I mean. I always felt a little unsure Am I doing what's right or not? But her going and doing all those jobs is like, yeah, I mean, this is it, this is totally it for you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think it's really cool when you are able to discover your passion early on. I mean, do I wish I would have gone more Dr Amy's way where it was like clear path to success? Not saying that just wanting to be a vet means you'll be a successful vet, but yeah, she knew work really hard, get into school, and that's always been something that I struggle with in my industry, because you can work really hard, you can be the best, but it doesn't necessarily mean shit.
Speaker 1:So, course I didn't quite know that getting into it, which is probably why I was just like, yeah, it'll be easy, it'll work out, and it kind of did for a while.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. Well, it's similar to her. Her journey to get to where she is today is definitely had its ups and downs and probably many, many switchbacks.
Speaker 1:Yes, and we'll keep going and we'll talk about those, but do you have any like? How did I find myself at this? Job stories, oh my gosh.
Speaker 2:Maybe not similarly like her, but probably in a positive and negative way. There are times where I'll be on set and I'm just like I'm in this small town and there's this mountain with snow and I'm the only person at this bar. How did I get here? It's so amazing. In no way would I ever find myself here if it weren't for work, or I'm at the World Series and having a conversation that you know is a throwaway scene. There's nothing here and it's just like. What am I doing here?
Speaker 1:Or you've had certain crew members drink too much and maybe have inappropriate conversations with you and you've had two, child and mother, adult men and adult women and egos.
Speaker 2:I mean that is like a whole nother thing. But in terms of just having an out of body experience where you're just like what am I doing here right now? Like what is going on, I would say I probably had more negative moments than positive, but there are the positive ones are so big that they're worth it. But yeah, those would be my. What am I doing?
Speaker 1:Yes, dr Amy found herself asking that same question. But she is able to find another large animal farm to spend the rest of her summer on and she manages to overcome the bumps in the road at this place to including hostile fellow workers who thought she was a spy for the dairy company. She ends up going to work on a dairy farm and everybody thinks she's a spy. And then the cows stop producing as much milk because they're anxious, because the humans working around them are anxious, and remember she's barred from working with the cows. But then she ends up working with the calves instead and really like finds her niche there.
Speaker 1:But you're right, she was at A, she knew what Z looked like, but she had no idea what she was going to encounter on the way. And it just it does go to show that even if you take a more traditional route being a doctor, lawyer, whatever where it feels like okay, I know what the steps are and I know potentially what it takes to get to those steps there's still a lot of surprises on the way and you've just got to develop resilience and grit. Sometimes you're going to be put in situations where you're going to have to work a little bit harder for this thing, you know.
Speaker 2:Especially as a woman.
Speaker 1:Especially as a woman. Okay, so she goes to vet school at the University of Pennsylvania, which is not too shabby, and returns to New York to complete a one-year internship at the Animal Medical Center, one of the country's premier research and teaching hospitals. And it's so funny because it never occurred to me that there would be teaching hospitals like Grey's Anatomy, but for vets what really happens. Good for her here is. This is where she meets Steve, her ultimate husband. She's tasked with trying to help Steve's Weimaraner Valkyrie. This is his first dog since his beloved childhood pet, also Weimaraner.
Speaker 1:Valkyrie is a six-month-old puppy who appears to be suffering from an inflammatory disorder and is in a lot of pain.
Speaker 1:And Dr Amy and Steve get to chatting as Valkyrie is held at the hospital over several nights to try to figure out how to suppress her pain, and he asks her to dinner. Unfortunately, before they can make concrete plans, Valkyrie dies and, understandably, Steve is no longer in a place to entertain dating her. But Dr Amy cannot get him out of her head and four months later she decides to call him and invite him to dinner. They go, they continue to casually date until finally she's like quote I'm not interested in being one of many. If you believe we have a special connection, we owe it to ourselves to see how it plays out. Otherwise, what's the point? And again, I just love a strong, confident woman who, like, knows her value and her worth, and clearly I mean what we've learned about her thus far, like sets her up to be this type of woman. Like she sees what she wants, she goes for it, and if it doesn't work out, she's like thank you next, you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean that's, I feel, like such a huge thing to try to achieve, because I don't really feel like that's very common to know exactly what you want and then, on top of it, be able to A put it into fruition or B vocalize it the way she does. But, yeah, she knows exactly what she wants.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Good for her. Steve agrees to be exclusive, but then he tells her that he's going on this business trip to St Bart's. And she's like a business trip to St Bart's? I don't think so. You're going with another woman. And he admits, yes. She writes that he says I've always been truthful that I'm not ready for a serious relationship. When I'm ready, I know it's going to be with you, but I'm just not there yet. Dr Amy tells him that if he truly cares about her, he'll lose her number. Okay, First of all, I kept thinking good for her. Also, it does suck when it's like right person, wrong timing. It's such a hard place to be and I appreciated his honesty and you and I have had a little bit of right person, wrong timing in our own lives.
Speaker 2:So I kind of Well, I mean, was it right person, wrong timing, or is it just wrong person for me? You're back with him, so I'm hoping it's right person for you. I literally thought you know how, like everyone has, the one where it's like. Your friends will never let you live it down. I'm not going to even say his name.
Speaker 1:Why would I?
Speaker 2:say he was the right person, then you would do her. I just instantly was like thinking him. When we think of dating and hearing these stories I was like oh, my gosh.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, I'm talking about your current partner, because you guys had some growing pains and times where it was not the right time. You both had to grow so yeah, anyways, back to Dr Amy. She starts dating someone new, but her pets want nothing to do with him. She has a dog and a cat at this time. Red flag, yes. Her cat hisses every time he comes near and her dog pees the bed, the side of the bed that he's supposed to sleep on and sometimes his clothes. She passes it off as a phase, you know, kind of hoping like, oh, they'll come around to him. She should have known. She was trying to convince herself of something, I think, here. But luckily this guy eventually breaks it off with her when Dr Amy is late to a dinner after a pet emergency and he's like I can't, I just can't do this. You're a mess and I was like you, asshole.
Speaker 2:Okay, sorry. Side note, I'm like trying to Google a photo of her husband right now, because I just need to see what he looks like.
Speaker 1:Yeah, oh yeah, I think that there's definitely photos. I know she has a lot of pictures with Joan Rivers, which is really cute, but there's definitely photos of her. So her book just came out last year but Joan Rivers passed away and I think he's. If you Google a Dr Amy Addis, steve, you'll be able to find. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Carry on sorry.
Speaker 1:And, as we've already talked before, animals are such good gauges of character. Okay, so guess who comes back around and wants more. Dr Amy Steve, he kind of looks like Colin Firth, he kind of does. Oh, that's cute, they're cute they're super cute okay.
Speaker 1:So Steve calls her and asks her to come away with him to Maine for the weekend. And she does. And then he's like, let's go to the opera when we go back to New York. And she does and she's like, okay, one more chance. One more chance which you and I have been there, like I said, she writes from that night on the opera. Steve and I have been there. Like I said, she writes from that night on the opera. Steve and I have never been apart. We got engaged soon after and married several years later. He fell as deeply in love with my pets as he had been with his. We sleep holding hands decades later. Animals brought us together and cemented our connection for many good years and many pets to come.
Speaker 1:After she graduates from this residency, she joins a vet, park East, where she works the overnight shift. One of the head vets and the owner of the practice. Dr B, was super into being the vet to the stars and is super disrespectful to a billionaire's housekeeper. So Dr Amy becomes that family's requested vet. She knows she has to tread carefully with her boss because apparently Dr B has fired people before for quote stealing clients to open their practices, but at the time. Dr Amy has no intention of doing any of that. She just she loves her job. She writes.
Speaker 1:It was a good practice. Most of the Park East clients were wealthy so they could afford expensive diagnostics, procedures and treatments that might've been too costly for others. It was a privilege to be able to use my education to make a care plan and then carry it out with no financial restrictions. Many of my colleagues at other hospitals did not have that luxury. Okay, so now let's talk about Winnie and the financial cost, the surprising financial cost that you accrued pretty quickly after you rescued her. Yeah, and I know that we both talked about how you felt like you and her were brought together because not many people would have been able to pay for what you ended up paying for to save her life.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it was like the perfect timing too, because work was coming in and it was just. It wasn't really a question, I was just very frustrated. So when I got Winnie, the story was that she had just had puppies and one of her breasts, or her boob gland, had like a little lump in it.
Speaker 1:I mean her breast around where her nipple was.
Speaker 2:Yeah, one of her nipples had this like little bump in it and it was probably the size of a blueberry. Okay, so not a tiny bump. Then, yeah, not a tiny bump. And so we asked the people at the pet adoption place and they're just like, oh, it could be a clogged milk gland or whatever. She just had babies.
Speaker 1:As someone who breastfed.
Speaker 2:Yes, that happens sometimes, yeah, so it's like wait for it to reduce, yada, yada, yada. Literally a month later it never reduced and within a day it shot up to a golf ball and it was hard, and it was just overnight too. It didn't gradually get bigger, it went from a blueberry to a golf ball and I just freaked out. It was on a Sunday so we were like, okay, well, we can't even go to a vet, like we have to go to the ER and brought her in and they took it, like took a little biopsy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they like stuck a needle in it.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So they they surgically removed it. So first thing is we take her in. I've had her for a month and she needs surgery to get this removed. She gets this. We pay for the ER, get a surgery and they're going to test it to see if it's cancerous. And so the whole time I'm just like please don't let it be breast cancer, please don't let it be breast cancer, and it's going to be a huge thing.
Speaker 2:We finally get the results and it's not breast cancer, but it is cancer. It's hemangiosarcoma. It was basically a very invasive blood vessel cancer. So they were like she has three to six months to live, like this is the fact that it metastasized, it's already spread, like it's a very, very quick, spreading, aggressive cancer. So at that point we're like what do we do? And they recommended chemo. So she did six treatments of chemo. This little girl, yes, you did. She did six treatments of chemo and then afterwards we just ran tests and they were like we're not seeing any bit of it and so we opted out of doing the pill chemo afterwards, just because basically no one understands cancer. So chemo is killing everything in the body, like whether it's good, bad, whatever. So they're like let's hold off on the pills and see how she does and if she, within six months, is the window where we will retest her after all of this chemo, and if she's clear, then that she's kind of in the clear period until it comes back, which they guaranteed me it will come back, which is kind of weird. But yeah, I got her in 2020 of October. We found the cancer in November and we're at like 2025.
Speaker 2:Now, I mean, they literally said she's got six months to live, but that was not an expense I was expecting at all. I was very, very upset because I felt like, did they take her to the doctor and know this and not tell me? But they reassured me that, like we had no idea, like this did not come up. They thought that it was from pregnancy, like anything that they found before in her ultrasound. Oh, so when she was originally brought in, they thought the previous owners had mentioned like she's got something in her stomach, like it might be an illness or whatever. So then whenever they ran tests, they're like she's pregnant, she's not sick. So I think that they just kind of chalked it all up to her being pregnant. But the shelter was actually very kind and was like we'll give you back the adoption fees, and I think it's like, obviously that's all they can provide, but I was like that's nice of them, you know.
Speaker 1:If you don't mind sharing. How much did she cost?
Speaker 2:Oh, I mean, I think the first surgery was probably around three grand, yeah, and then each chemo session was $1,500, just the chemo session on, including, like the visits, I think ultimately everything was almost like $15,000 within the first six months of getting her, that's a lot of money.
Speaker 2:I know, and it was so interesting because, had it been, say, two years later, it would be such a strain on me and be like can I genuinely afford this? Yeah, and I would just. Obviously, once you have a dog at least for me, it's like once you bring them home. I could never imagine bringing her back, especially if she was sick like that. But it was just the perfect timing where I didn't feel stressed about money and I was like this is just what we have to do. It's obviously outrageous and I'm like are we seriously dropping this much for a dog?
Speaker 1:that I've had. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:But we definitely. I mean, she's here now. It's all worth it. They said when it comes back she'll have. They anticipated it coming back within the year and when it does come back it'll be within three months because she's already done the chemo and everything.
Speaker 1:But we're five years deep. Look at you, girl, she's in remission. There you go, honey, you in remission, mama. It is really sad to me, though, when people have to make that decision because you do pause I mean, if it were your own child, right? There's, of course, like you just do it, there is a value that we place on human life that we don't place on animals' lives, and I don't know if it's because animals' lives just already are shorter, or whatever it is for people personally, but I'm glad that you were in a financial place to be able to do that, and I mean, I have friends who have dropped tens of thousands of dollars on heart surgeries for their dogs. And you know what, when you love someone that much if you can you do it is just always like my heart breaks for people who do love their animals that much, and like they just can't.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they just can't Like. It is expensive and pet insurance doesn't help with anything like that.
Speaker 2:Well, the sad part is that it was because we only had her for a month. This was the first time I'm even taking her anywhere. Yeah, so at that point it's pre-existing condition, right, right, which is so funny to kind of think that way.
Speaker 1:And there's no Obamacare for pets, so unfortunately now you're just screwed. No, all right, baby. Oh well, we are so glad that Winnie is still here with us. We love her very much. Okay, so back to Dr Amy.
Speaker 1:A twist of fate brings her and Joan Rivers together, and if you don't know who Joan Rivers is, I can't explain this woman. You just have to Google her yourself and listen to some of her standup and her videos. But she's an icon and Joan's dog, spike, needs immediate attention. And Joan is very impressed with how Dr Amy handles the situation. And now she only wants to see Dr Amy.
Speaker 1:Dr B is not too happy about this and berates Dr Amy for her lack of people skills. It was very weird. It made no sense. Dr Amy writes never underestimate your boss's wounded ego. So from that day forward, dr Amy keeps her head down.
Speaker 1:And after three more years, dr B approaches her to be partner. But when she reviews the paperwork, she discovers the phrase restrictive covenant, which is a non-compete agreement. The document stated that if she left Park East for any reason, she could no longer practice veterinary medicine in New York City for a year. So she doesn't sign, she doesn't become partner, and then, a year later, dr B wants to take her out to dinner to her favorite restaurant. She discuss a bonus for her quote really good year. But before they go to the reservation he asks her to meet him in his office and instead of taking her to dinner he says quote Dr Amy, I don't think you have the kind of personality I want to go forward with the next decade. You need to take all your personal belongings and leave now and don't come back to this practice again. I mean, I don't know if it like actually went down like that, because this man just sounds horrible. Who does that? Set up a dinner and then instead pull this bait and switch.
Speaker 2:But I was like I wonder if he is like that to anyone or if it's particularly a woman.
Speaker 1:Well, he had been known for firing people before, for basically like becoming certain people's favorite vets, but like calling it something else. You know, this guy's just an egomaniac. Dr Amy writes my reputation was all I had and it seemed to me that he'd fired me. He fired me abruptly, precisely to damage it. I agree, it feels like, yeah, it feels like that. So then she kind of falls into making house calls. A client calls her, wanting her and only her to put down her beloved cat, and the vet tech that Amy had become friends with, george, calls her too and asks how he can help. And so she's like, okay, well, this person called me, can you come with me so we can do an at-home euthanization. And then word just kind of gets out.
Speaker 1:Dr Amy writes I realized that I might be able to just keep doing house calls and not have to work at a clinic or hospital or for anyone else ever again. I could be in charge of my destiny. A prospect that was far more exciting than going into massive debt to buy someone else's practice. So her later husband, boyfriend still at the time, steve is the only one who believes in her and this idea. People told her it's a novelty, people will get tired of it, yada, yada, yada. But Dr Amy decides to push forward. It's kind of one of those things where she's not sure what else to do and the house calls keep coming in consistently enough to where she's like maybe something is here, and then Joan Rivers stops up and is this guardian angel and tells everyone about it. She puts an ad in the newspaper and she writes that Joan Rivers called everyone she knew and told them about my new practice. She single-handedly drummed up word of mouth buzz and became not only one of my most loyal clients but also a dear friend.
Speaker 1:So we talked about how Dr Amy bet on herself and that can be really scary to do and it just I love when these stories work out, you know Okay. So now we're going to get into her adventures and misadventures. Being a Manhattan house called veterinarian and again the company uh, her vet is called city pets. So she's taking care of about 14,000 pets since opening city pets, she writes. Because of what I'd been exposed to, I've learned a lot about human nature. For example, what people show the world is not necessarily who they are. I'm also privy to the intimacies and true nature of my clients' lives. The things people leave out when they know we're coming porn, intimate letters, bank statements, stacks of cash, jewelry and toys never ceases to amaze me. And she does have the story of the time where she and her vet tech walk in and the guy is watching porn with his pants down.
Speaker 2:I was shocked to hear how do you? I don't know. I mean, you know what they're in their home, so what can you say? Can't judge them.
Speaker 1:But shit you got an appointment. You know what? New York is just a different beast too, I feel maybe.
Speaker 1:Dr Amy writes I care for the animals that belong to people and, by extension, I care for the people as well. I love both aspects of my work. How we treat our pets often reveals the strengths and weaknesses in our relationships, and simply, our pets make us better people. I think that's true. Let's see what Dr Amy reveals, all right. So she starts City Pets and quickly realizes she has a lot to learn. It's really sweet. Her parents jump in to help, they write client cards and they hand out flyers. She writes I felt like I was doing that training that competitive dogs go through.
Speaker 1:I had to develop the ability, the agility, to jump higher, speed up, slow down and suddenly change direction to keep moving forward. One way that she makes life easier for herself is by hiring a driver to get her to her appointments faster, and it's her driver who has to rush her to the doctor once when she gets bit by a cat. She's ultimately told to check into the hospital and that she will need a 24-7 antibiotic drip for three weeks. Either that or she might lose her hand. Okay, and I wanted to make sure that we include this part, and I'm about to have a few PSAs that are about to be popping up, because I had no idea that a cat bite could be that dangerous.
Speaker 2:No idea, either, no idea.
Speaker 1:You and I do not have cats, even though my dad has had many cats now in the past five or seven years, but I still didn't know this. So, guys, after a quick Google I discovered that the reason cat bites are dangerous is because they actually create really deep puncture wounds due to their extremely sharp teeth and they can push bacteria like Pasturella multicaida multicaida that they carry in their mouth really deep into joints and tissue, causing serious infections. And a Mayo Clinic study found that one in three patients with cat bites to the hand required hospitalization and two thirds of those hospitalized needed surgery. So if you get bit by a cat, do not F around, go to a Dr ASAP.
Speaker 1:Okay, so a few more PSAs that Dr Amy covers in her book Do not give grapes to dogs and do not give them medicine intended for humans. She writes about a client who was a doctor trying to save money by giving her cat Tylenol to help with inflammation After seeing that Dr Amy had given her other cat medicine for something completely different. And also, dr Amy is a vet. So do not make assumptions, people. Dr Amy writes. I can't tell you how many people think they can treat their pet by reaching into their own medicine cabinet and administering a human medicine. I've seen terrible outcomes when clients give their pets heart medication, blood pressure drugs or ibuprofen. A pill that is helpful for a person might end a dog's life.
Speaker 2:I'm sorry, but that's just somewhat common sense to me.
Speaker 1:Well, now I feel like, with Google being readily available, so she started City Pets in 92, right, okay, fine, like, okay, maybe. But yes, there are no excuses anymore. I completely agree with you. Here's another thing that maybe you didn't know Lilies are very poisonous to cats. If you have a cat and you like the flower Lily, cat Lily sorry, you can't have it in your house anymore.
Speaker 2:Pick an orchid or something else please Damn, I didn't know that.
Speaker 1:Well, you read her book. You didn't remember when the cat kept like the owner didn't know how the cat kept getting sick. And then she like realized, and then she saw the lilies and she was like you can't have lilies in your house.
Speaker 2:Those are just such random things, though, like when my sister bought her place and wanted to have more plants in the backyard, she had to Google everything Like is it okay for dogs Because she's a?
Speaker 1:responsible pet owner and that's what you have to do, just like with a human, like when you have a little baby. We know we have to baby proof our homes. There are certain things that, like you, can't give kids and, yes, it feels like common sense, but if you've never walked down this path before, just educate yourself.
Speaker 2:I think that that's what it is. It's just uneducated. People just make a lot of really think much too. It's like oh, grapes, it's just food. Dogs eat food all the time. They're not really thinking much of it, yeah.
Speaker 1:And then you know chocolate. Obviously, chocolate, I think, is a little bit more commonplace knowledge, but no chocolate, no grapes. Honestly, stick with dog food. I know that you have a very prepped meal plan for Winnie. You've Googled it, you've educated yourself, and Dr Amy writes this it is up to humans pet caregivers really to know what is safe and what is not, because our pets are completely dependent on us to do the right thing for them. So we have to be responsible pet owners.
Speaker 1:When you make the choice to bring this little creature into your life, you now owe it to them. You must educate yourself on how to best care for them, and that includes listening to your vet about what is best for them, which we will get to a little bit more later. Okay, your vet about what is best for them, which we will get to a little bit more later. Okay, back to Dr Amy, getting off my soapbox for now. Dr Amy had to put a pause on her new practice during this hand situation, which is very frustrating and disappointing because it's pretty new at this time, and even after three weeks, when she's deemed well enough to get back to it, she still has lingering pain in her hand, so she can't do surgeries, then, when she finally is able to do surgeries again, I actually have not have you.
Speaker 1:I have not had anything. I've definitely had anxiety, but nothing that I think would amount to a panic attack. But she describes it really well in her book. All of a sudden, tunnel vision. She starts having trouble breathing and she's literally elbow deep in a dog right now and she talks about trying to call in a peer and he's like I'm not going to scrub in, I'm just going to talk you through this and together we will get you through this. So she's able to finish the surgery, but she decides that it's her last, because the risk of another panic attack while caring for someone's pet is not worth it to her, especially when she knows great surgeons that she can refer her clients to. She writes I hit a big mental obstacle during that surgery and I didn't try to get over it, go through it or duck under it, I just turned around. One of the greatest agility skills you can master is self-awareness knowing when to stop, assess and even change direction from a path to one that is better for you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it honestly is. It's not even thinking about herself. It's just what's better for the animal. If you truly want to do the best job, then leave it in other capable hands. Yeah.
Speaker 1:This woman does not have an ego, which is just lovely. Okay, so we meet a lot of really interesting people and their pets through the course of her memoir. There's Ellen and her service dog, butter, or as Ellen calls him her best friend, confidant, 24-hour caretaker and most wonderful dog there ever was her life. Ellen could sometimes have uncontrollable jerking and most wonderful dog there ever was her life. Ellen could sometimes have uncontrollable jerking and Butter would ensure that she wouldn't fall out of her chair, her wheelchair or her bed at night by laying his body on hers. Dr Amy writes sweet Butter was Ellen's everyday companion, her caregiver, her emotional right hand, her assistant, a close and constant witness to the relentless progression of her disease, her solace, her soul, and she in turn was his purpose.
Speaker 1:As humans, we talk a lot about the importance of having a life purpose and ask what's my why? Science shows the emotional benefits of knowing your purpose are magnified if it serves others. I think for many people this can be true that you know your sense of purpose is amplified if it is in serving others. It's not always true. Some people's sense of purpose is not necessarily in serving others. It's creating art, which maybe is about connecting to others or anything like that. But I know for me personally I do feel a stronger sense of purpose when I'm in service. I know we volunteered a lot together throughout our life and I know volunteering is really important to you. Why do you think that is?
Speaker 2:I mean, I would definitely agree with Amy. It does give me a purpose, in a sense, that I feel like growing up, I always had to look for my community because my home life wasn't always that great, like I didn't have a great relationship with my parents and obviously my sister and I are very close, but I was always seeking a close-knit group and I firmly, firmly believe that when you volunteer at a young age, it just sticks with you and I think through school, like through middle school, we would do volunteering there and that's kind of where it all started. I just learned what this feeling was of helping someone and learning more about your community, where sometimes you live in a bubble and I'm like woe is me. And I'm like, okay, well, this is, I have so much to give, instead of the perspective of like I need so many things or so so much.
Speaker 2:But really, yeah, I think that that was like the start of the exposure of volunteering and it definitely felt like I had a purpose and when you have a purpose, I feel like you learn to be more grateful too, and so that just kind of stuck. I definitely need to volunteer more often now, but I feel like throughout our lives. We have always done things in moving to a new city, like when I moved to Austin. That's why I really tried to volunteer a lot to get a sense of community and be a part of something when we moved to LA and we did the bingo nights at senior living or the Reading to the kids bingo nights at senior living or the Reading to the kids Aviva.
Speaker 2:House Center, aviva House. Yeah, house Center I always did struggle with like Phoebe from Friends, where it's like no good deed is actually selfless, and I always felt that guilt because it gave me a sense of purpose or it brought something to my life. And I will say, man, volunteering at Aviva was tough, you know what. Though, let it bring something to your life and I will say man, volunteering at Aviva was tough.
Speaker 1:You know what, though? Let it bring something to your life. Is that really so bad?
Speaker 2:I don't know. I don't know why it has to. There's just a guilt to it. For some reason there's just like you're trying so hard to give and do something selfless. But you're right. I mean just, it's great Look, when you do good things and everybody can feel good about it, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and we will link a great website. If you're looking for a way to volunteer in your community, there's so many great resources, but I think volunteerorg is just like the straight up easiest place. You can search by the type of age group that you wanna volunteer. If you wanna be in a large community, if you wanna do something more like stock a food pantry, where maybe you're an introvert but you still want to find a way to give back or be a part of something, there are many opportunities for you and we will link that in the show notes. Okay, so another interesting person that Dr Amy is a veterinarian for is Billy Joel, and I thought that was so cool because I love Billy Joel, do you?
Speaker 2:like Billy Joel. Oh yeah, what's your favorite Billy Joel song? Vienna hands down. Yeah, that's such a good one.
Speaker 1:Yeah, what's yours. I love New York. State of Mind. Dr Amy becomes friends with Katie Lee, billy's then girlfriend, later wife, now ex-wife. But through Katie Lee Dr Amy learns about the Wildlife Conservation Society, which works to fundraise for the wildlife health program, and she writes approximately 96 elephants are murdered each day because of ancient and incorrect claims of tusks medicinal value as well as for their carved beauty. That's 35,000 elephants a year. Elephants will become extinct without radical intervention and I did double check this just to make sure that that statistic is still true, and it said closer to 100 now, so it's like gone up. Potentially. I'm going to link the website to the wildlife Conservation Society the Wildlife Conservation Society in our show notes as well, if you'd like to get involved there. Billy Joel actually made this public service announcement film to support the campaign. It's called 96 Elephants. I'll link that too, and it was kind of a big deal because he's a piano player, right and traditionally piano keys are made out of ivory.
Speaker 2:I had no idea about any of that before I read this book about Billy Joel and just all the things that they were doing for wildlife.
Speaker 1:There's a lot of snuck in advocacy throughout her book. The PSA is about pets and this information about the Wildlife Conservation Society. So I thought that was really cool. She only tells her story and about the human experience and pets. She sneaks in some other great stuff too. Okay, so Billy Joel and Joan Rivers are the only well-known people she encounters, because she does a house call. Plane call for Cher.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's right, which was like amazing.
Speaker 1:I'm a huge Cher fan. I cannot wait to read her memoir. I'm waiting for part two. I think I want to do them both together. So Cher's dog has a strange rash and she's coming into New York and they arrange for Dr Amy to meet her on her plane. Turns out that it's just mange, but then which is contagious to animals. So then, apparently, cher de-robes and in her naked amazing glory, is like, oh, is this the rash that's all over me? And Dr Amy's, like I don't think so, like not quite. And they decide that it's just heat rash, because it was really hot in Rome where Cher had just come from.
Speaker 2:What an incredible story. I know. I know those are probably one of those moments where it's like how did I get here? That's a good, how did I get here? I?
Speaker 1:guess if you want to see Cher's naked body. But yeah, I mean, why not? I need it. Cher Good, she writes this really poignant chapter about animals with disabilities. She writes, I think humans fear on to write about how a few of the human clients in her experiences put their own feelings and fears onto their dog's projection. The woman who didn't understand that her dog would be much happier as a deaf dog with her ear canal removed, because without it removed the dog is in constant pain and she can't hear anyways because of the growths. The woman cries and asks if her dog will be depressed because she's deaf. Dr Amy is able to use her own dog at the time a pug named Bumper, one of the many pugs that she will rescue, who is blind to show this client that dogs adapt and live very happy lives without being able to hear or see or even have all their legs.
Speaker 1:My granny had a three-legged dog. We called her Tripod and she was the feistiest little, yappiest little mutt. And this part really made me reflect because, one, the way that we project our fears and our things onto other people and loved ones in our lives. And two, how much fear and loss ties into discussions about disabilities, when truly so much of this comes from an outside perspective and there's a misplaced value that is happening. If you've missed the episode about Heather Lanier's Raising a Rare Girl, be sure to check it out. Dr Amy writes we should take a lesson from blind, deaf and amputee animals to let go of a sense of loss, to live with the life we've got and to roll on the grass, savor every treat, with or without the slobber. I did love how she kind of ends every chapter with this tie-in to being an animal and being a human and how they do overlap sometimes or they should overlap more, okay.
Speaker 1:So remember earlier when I said that if you choose to have a pet, part of being a responsible pet owner is listening to the vet. Dr Amy writes a few instances where owners didn't heed her warnings and their pets ended up dying. She writes that her biggest regret is not having more courage in her convictions to push back and possibly lose them as clients. One example is when she has two human clients who she warns to keep the doors to their high rise terrace closed because their cats will literally jump off the terrace and die and they're like no, they're fine, they like it. And then, of course, she gets the phone call that one of the cats has fallen to their death and that shit pissed me off.
Speaker 1:It pissed me off too. There were quite a few stories in here. Dr Amy treads very carefully, but I'm so glad that she wrote about these people and put them on blast, because that's not okay.
Speaker 2:Just close the fucking window Like what's the big deal?
Speaker 1:Exactly Like if you love your pets, you need to keep them safe. Then there's a story about the pet hoarders, the people who had up to eight dogs at one point. And then they get a child and they call Dr Amy and they're like oh, we're getting rid of all of our dogs, can you help us? Dr Amy's like no, it's fine. Like I'll help you figure that out. And they're like no, we don't want them anymore, we're going to put them down if you don't help us. So fucked up. That is seriously so fucked up. Dr Amy writes it is unconscionable that anyone would threaten to put down healthy animals to make their lives more convenient. If someone accumulates animals to fill their home and heart, that person has a moral obligation, an un applicable contract to care for those innocent creatures for their entire lives. I'll say it again for their entire lives. This is what it means to be a good parent for a child or for a fur baby.
Speaker 2:This is what it means to be human. Preach, dr Amy. Yeah, seriously. Also, though, how do you go from eight to being like get rid of all of them?
Speaker 1:I know. And also, if you want to have kids, maybe think about that before you bring home dog four, five six, seven, eight.
Speaker 2:The shocking thing isn't that they wanted to get rid of the dogs. The shocking thing is they were willing to kill them. That's so true.
Speaker 1:And look, it is really hard to bring babies home when there's dogs. You have to focus on the little newborn human that, like, needs your attention all the time. I get that, and there were times where our dogs ended up being a little bit more outside dogs for a while, because, especially when the kids were at that like tail swinging height for the labs, I mean that stuff like that tail can whack you and you know it's not the best. But the fact that, yeah, not only could these people get rid of their pets without even attempting to have the child too, that was also. It was so weird to me.
Speaker 1:But then you're right, just be able to be like well, fine, we'll kill them We'll say goodbye, yeah, just be able to be like well, fine, we'll say goodbye, yeah, we'll kill them. Dr Amy did end up helping them rehome their pets, because what other choice did they give Dr Amy? She also writes about Richard and Roberta who refused to neuter their English Mastiff puppy, taft, because the man, richard, was obsessed with the dog having balls. I love how much Dr Amy puts this man on blast. I know Dr Amy's like. You really should do this because A it's just good practice now to neuter dogs and if you don't, this breed has the different prostate diseases like run in this breed's medical history. Sure enough, when Taft was six he started having medical problems and he gets diagnosed with prostate cancer and that would have been completely avoided probably had he been neutered. He doesn't respond well to the treatment and he dies About 10 months later. The couple gets another mastiff, wilson, and again the husband is like you will neuter him over my dead body. Dr Hamey writes To me it appeared to be about him and his ego.
Speaker 1:Richard was a large, dominant man and his dog was going to have impressive testicles to affirm both his and Richard's status as alpha males. The wife tells Dr Amy that she really wants to. But she knows it'll piss off her husband. So Dr Amy suggests this new product nudicles, scrotal implants, fake balls basically false balls, and the husband will never know. But Wilson's risk of prostate disease is significantly lowered.
Speaker 1:I thought this was hilarious. Why did somebody invent false balls to put back into a scrotum after you remove the testicles? Maybe it was a wife who had lost her dog to prostate cancer because the husband's ego? Who knows? Dr Amy writes it was a difficult decision for me because I believe in clear communication and transparency, but in Wilson's case the ends justified the means and Roberta, his rightful owner, wanted to do everything possible to keep him healthy. With the memory of Taff's illness still in the forefront of her mind, richard's objections seem to be about his own ego and his sense of his dog's manly appearance and likely his own. But since I hadn't altered any of that, it seemed like a win-win Again. I just love Dr.
Speaker 2:Amy Sass, I know, go Roberta too, though Just make the call and be like you know what we're doing.
Speaker 1:This True. So, on a lighter note, she mentions being Candace Bushnell's vet, and Candace Bushnell is the writer of Sex and the City. And now Dr Amy has written Pets and the City and there's this whole chapter about the weird things that pets do when their humans are trying to have sex. One couple tells Dr Amy, every time we have sex, tyson, their dog, goes crazy, barking and jumping on the bed. It's very distracting and he actually ends up biting the husband one afternoon. So they call Dr Amy to see why Tyson was quote such an annoying little sex blocker. They come to the conclusion that Tyson is very protective of the wife and thinks she's in danger, so he's just trying to stop it. They try putting him in another room, but that doesn't work. He just scratches the floor and the door.
Speaker 1:So they have to take him over to the neighbors whenever they want to get it on. Oh my goodness, no more spontaneous sex because of Tyson. Then there was Diva, who ate the lady's undergarments, oscar, who accidentally got into the Viagra, and the couple didn't know exactly how many he ate. That was a funny story, and so Dr Amy has to listen to the 80-year-old husband and wife try to recall how many times they'd had sex since the prescription was last fulfilled, and the answer was 14.
Speaker 2:14 times in 21 days. They seemed like such a cute couple.
Speaker 1:They really did. They really did and Oscar ended up being okay. So at some of these encounters Dr Amy doesn't just help the animals ended up being okay. So at some of these encounters Dr Amy doesn't just help the animals, she helps the people too. She writes the work I do doesn't begin and end with the animals. When I see suffering, my impulse is to heal. I go to my clients' homes to treat their cats and dogs. But I have treated the humans as well. Sometimes my clients become my patients.
Speaker 1:There's Mrs Blum, who was an elderly woman with an elderly dog. And when Dr Amy had to deliver the bad news to Mrs Blum that her beloved Maggie had died, she actually calls a local priest, who was also Dr Amy's client, to go with her, which I thought was such a sweet touch. And then Dr Amy learns that Mrs Blum won't get out of bed. She writes it seemed true that Mrs Blum had been keeping herself alive just to take care of Maggie, and now that Maggie was gone, what did that mean for Mrs Blum? To me, it meant that she needed another dog right away.
Speaker 1:I know many people need to grieve for one pet before they get another, but Mrs Blum didn't have time to wait. She needed a new focus, a new purpose, a new love. Immediately Dr Amy gets to work and she connects Mrs Blum with an eight-year-old poodle and it was exactly what Mrs Blum needed, and sometimes it's Amy who ends up getting help. She writes about one time taking her dog bumper to an acupuncturist for an ailment that he had, and then he ends up doing some acupuncture on her and helps her migraines go away, which is really amazing, and I've always been really curious about acupuncture. Have you ever done it?
Speaker 2:No, I'm terrified of needles.
Speaker 1:Otherwise I would.
Speaker 2:But yeah, it's worked wonders for my mom. Okay, good to know. I'll let you know if I ever do it. Okay, but side note isn't that cool. Like I didn't really think they would do that for dogs and I follow this like animal chiropractor. Oh, yes, they do this for animals. Like it's so cool.
Speaker 1:That is really interesting. So now, moving on to a heavier topic saying goodbye. Dr Amy writes about the really difficult decision to say goodbye to your beloved pet and how some people take issue with people going to, in their opinion, extremes to lengthen their pet's life. She writes. Others might say you're just prolonging the inevitable, and they would be right. But prolonging the inevitable is what I do every day. I give vaccines to animals so they don't get sick and give them treatments to help them live longer, healthier lives. In essence, my day job is prolonging the inevitable. But they do all eventually die, and most likely long before we do.
Speaker 1:We know that as pet owners, the joy of a new pet comes with the knowledge of future sadness and to me, willing acceptance of that knowledge in exchange for the love is proof of the extraordinary bond we have with our animals. She continues the years of love and companionship are worth it. So she writes a few stories about helping clients decide when is the right time to say goodbye to their pets and I know that this was a really difficult decision for you with Chewy, so talk to me a little bit about that.
Speaker 2:So Chewy had kidney failure and it was just so aggressive so quickly. She clearly looked very, very frail. I was on a job traveling at the time. When I got back seeing her, she wouldn't eat. She could barely walk. Her back was always arched. She was clearly in a lot of pain. My sister did what Dr Amy talked about. What is it? The intravenous liquids? Yeah, so my sister and I would do that every morning. My sister would handle the needle.
Speaker 1:Obviously I would just hold it. Dr Amy talks about doing this for a man who was not ready to say goodbye to his dog, because he had recently lost his wife and their dog was kind of the last tie to her, and so she did. She had to teach him how to do it and he got another six months with his dog.
Speaker 2:Well, that was kind of the same with Chewy. I mean, chewy was our dog. She was the first family dog where my parents loved her, everyone just loved her and was a part of everyone's life, versus previous dogs, was just strictly like one of our dogs. And I don't know it's so weird because I can't say it's like this for everyone, but I will say for myself and for those who are very deeply connected with their dogs, I always say like when you know, you just know. And in that moment there was just whether it was us or her, like there was just still a lot of fight for us. So we changed her diet, we did you know, and her levels shot back miraculously within a month, I would say. And our vet was just like I don't know what you're doing, these are unheard of numbers for where she was. So, whatever you're doing, just keep doing it. And that lasted. Probably. It lasted through Christmas, it lasted through the holidays and then after that she started to decline again.
Speaker 2:Sure, it's inevitable, but a few weeks, a few months, whatever it takes to feel right, like putting a dog down is a really, really tough decision because they can't communicate. So you, as their parent or owner, are assuming this is what they want and when you're that in touch with your dog, like that's all you want is to give them what they want. But how can you ever really know? Like they'll never tell, they can't tell you. It's scary. It's scary making that call To this day, one of the worst days of my entire life. It was so, so emotional and I was very much like Mrs Blum, was like I never want to go through this pain again. I can't handle this again and I don't think I can love another dog the way that I love Chewy. This is it for me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and then of course you did with Winnie. Saying goodbye to Dutch was definitely a different experience than you had with Chewy, because there was a bit of back and forth. He had had an episode and then he seemed to get better and then his doctor kind of told me that he was like a ticking time bomb. He had an enlarged heart, he had heart issues, but he got so back to normal that I was able to forget that and I feel like I or maybe I just wanted it to not be true and I remember calling you about it, crying, and you were like, okay, just know, chewy did something like this and I had three months. I had three months with her.
Speaker 1:And I remember getting so angry with you because at that point I think when we were talking, he had been, he like he had gotten back to being Dutch and he could almost run, like he was walking. Fine, he would still run, kind of funny. But I was so mad at you for not for like trying to warn me, because I didn't want it to be the end, you know, and I didn't want you to like put that out there. But I'm so grateful that you did, because after that happened I brought him in with me and like he slept with me again every night, and I just really feel like he wanted to tell me, like he wanted to warn me, like I'm about to go and I want to spend good time with you before I do.
Speaker 2:You're such a good dog that I feel so cheated I do I feel cheated out of time with him.
Speaker 1:And then, a year later, my husband had to say goodbye to Rocky. It was so hard for my husband to make that decision so hard Cause, just like you, he would look into his eyes and he would be like do you want to go? Are you in pain? It just was finally time, but I don't know it was so hard. I'm both thankful that the decision was made for me, because the vet was like you can't take him home. If you take him home, he will suffocate. You need to say goodbye. That's the kindest thing you could do for him, because I don't know if I would have had the strength to let it go before it got to a point. And they do always say a week early is better than one day too late when it comes to saying goodbye to your beloved pets. And I just feel really like I saw the turmoil my husband went through and I knew what you went through and I do feel really fortunate that it was out of my hands. I feel like that was the last gift that Dutch gave me.
Speaker 2:It's like you don't have to make that choice, you don't have to make this decision.
Speaker 1:I'll make it for both of us, and yes, I'm hugging my Dutch stuffy very tight right now.
Speaker 2:Animals' lives are just way too short and I don't really feel like we ever get over it either. No, it's why it's one of the you. Just it's kind of like any loss the hole never gets filled. You just adapt and learn how to live and function with this loss truly.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I read something once that the hole that's created by loss never gets filled, like you said, but like your life gets bigger. So like your heart grows bigger, so it feels like it's smaller even though it's not. Oh, I like that. Yeah, I like that too.
Speaker 1:Dr Amy also writes about having to say goodbye to her beloved dog, bumper, who was the blind pug, if anybody needs a reminder. And about a year later she realizes that she really misses having a dog in her life. Her husband, steve, isn't quite so sure. He's not ready. They see a dog, they don't bond with him. And then the craziest thing happens she gets a call about a four-month-old blind pug in need of a home and she brings this pug home and she and Steve fall in love. She writes we never stopped missing Bumper. But something amazing happened when Leonardo came into our lives. When we thought about Bumper now, we were able to focus on our wonderful memories instead of our grief. Leonardo, our precious, rescued, also blind, puppy, was already mending our hearts. We knew Bumper had sent him and it was on that sentence that I lost lost it when I was reading the book. I that I lost, lost it when I was reading the book.
Speaker 1:I had made it so far, and this is seriously like the last chapter of the book and like one of the last paragraphs. And then when she just wrote about Bumper sending them this other love, I was like, oh, because that's how I feel like it will happen when we do feel ready. And I told my husband I was like I do miss having a little dog.
Speaker 1:We have Stella and she's great and she definitely tries to sit on our laps, but it's not quite the same Like I miss having a little lap dog, a little cuddle bug, yeah, and so we've sort of alluded to it. But I know that you didn't feel like ready to get Winnie. It just timing because of COVID, you knew you had the time to dedicate to a new dog and so how many years had it been since you had said goodbye to Chewy?
Speaker 2:Two years I years had it been since you had said goodbye to Chewy. Two years. I didn't get Winnie until two years after Chewy passed. I think initially it wasn't like I don't want another dog, it was more of like I just never want to feel this feeling again, like this is. It cuts so deep and I honestly I mean you know, I mean I think we cried about losing our dogs probably for a year throughout, like it took. I would just randomly bust out crying, I could be at work, it could be the most random time and I would still cry about Chewy for probably a year after she passed.
Speaker 2:And it was always my sister Bless her. She's just such an animal lover and she's just like, oh, you can't live without a dog. You know that Eventually you're going to get one. I'm like I want one. I always want a dog. I just can't handle it. I can't handle thinking about the day that I'm going to have to lose this dog, which is again kind of my MO, thinking too far into the future and having anxiety of the future, definitely living a fear-based life as opposed to yeah.
Speaker 2:So when COVID hit, it was A perfect timing and it was just like so many pets needing help. It was just a lot going on and, sure enough again, it's like you can't really ever explain it. That's why I really like the hole in your heart never gets covered. You just make more room for it, and that's exactly what happened with Winnie. I never really thought that I could love another dog the way that I loved Chewy and, it's true, I just love Winnie just as much in such a different way.
Speaker 2:There are times, definitely, that I compare her to Chewy and I'm like this dog, I swear, is so anxious and getting an older dog. You don't train them the way that. And I don't know her history, I don't know what she's gone through and we joke all the time that we make this sap story and give her all these excuses. But watch, she's lived like a very privileged life and we don't know it Faking it with us to get her way. But I love her so much and there are definitely days that I look at her and I start tearing up. I'm like man, I would be lucky if she even gets her full life with her cancer, you know. But we're just grateful we have any time at all at this point with her whole cancer scare, and I don't know, though, if I I'm sure that when I lose her it's going to be the same thought of like.
Speaker 2:I don't know if I can ever do this again, but I don't know. Just life without a pet seems kind of empty. I'm just so used to having a dog, and especially living by myself A lot of times while my boyfriend's gone. It's like I could not pee by myself without Winnie. It's like a false sense of security. Would she do anything? No, no this girl.
Speaker 2:Not nothing. It's kind of scary when she barks at nothing, so it's not really helping me, but it's a false sense of security. It's like she's here, we're going to be okay.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, they're just worth it. No matter how long you get them, they're worth it and you just take it one day at a time. Love them as best you can. Dr Amy kind of wraps up the book. She really encourages her readers to rescue their pets. She puts some fears to rest, writing that most animals are in a shelter due to quote housing issues, finances, owner's death or illness and sometimes, but rarely, a poor pet connection. That it's not. It's not really the pet's behavior. So don't be afraid to look into shelters and rescue, like you did with Winnie and like I did with Dutchie, and I will leave us with this.
Speaker 1:Dr Amy writes I have devoted my professional life to healing animals with complete awe and appreciation for how our animals heal us. They make our hearts full just by being near them. We feed and house them and easily give them our love, and they give us everything in return. What else do we owe our pets for their loyalty? The companionship? Hardly anything at all in comparison. Annual checkups and vaccines, medicine and supportive care when they're sick and when it's time, a humane passing, it's a great bargain. By doing these things, we fulfill our side of the unspoken agreement to love and care for them and to be loved and cared for by them for as long as we get to be together, and in so doing we make our homes, which are their entire worlds, the best place they could possibly be for both of us. Ah, that's it. That is Pets in the City. True Tales, a manhattan house call veterinarian by dr amy addis. Any closing thoughts?
Speaker 2:p hearing all the stories and having winnie here too, it's just. I think it goes back to like how can people not like dogs? They just give you everything, and if you're just open to, receive.
Speaker 1:they make our lives better and we are better for them. Thank you all for listening. I just want to say one more time that we love dutch and we love rocky and we are better for them. Thank you all for listening. I just want to say one more time that we love Dutch and we love Rocky, and we love Stella and we love Winnie and we love Chewy. And if you have your pet with you right now, squeeze them extra tight, sending you guys love. If you're still grieving over the loss, we understand it. I'm going to go cuddle Winnie now. Thank you, p. I love you. Love you too. Bye, bye. Thanks for listening to Babes in Bookland. To access the full version of this episode, you can subscribe on Apple Podcasts or support us on Patreon. Visit babesinbooklandcom for more information. Bye.
