Your baby hurt her paw last night, and that hurts your heart.
Every time she limps, you want to scoop her up and take her wherever she wants to go. If she cries, well, it’s awful and you can’t take it. You’ve called your veterinarian, but you can’t be seen until next week, so what do you do? You hope, as in “Pets and the City” by Dr. Amy Attas, that there’s another option.
From the time she was 10 years old, Amy Attas wanted to be a veterinarian. As a young teen, she tried to act on that idea by “shadowing” a couple of New York veterinarians, but she couldn’t stop fainting.
“How was I ever going to become a vet if I passed out at the sight of blood?” she asked.
She eventually got over it and, after working with a one-woman large-animal service that turned unsafe, and after graduating from veterinary school, Attas landed a job at a large practice in Manhattan. There, she worked and learned.
In part, she learned that she wasn’t suited to work at large clinics. At one point, Attas was fired, possibly because she accidentally stole one of the practice’s owner’s “VIP” clients.
But then something wonderful happened: some of those former clients heard that she was out of a job and called her to care for their pets anyhow. She immediately recognized an opportunity, found a former colleague who’d help her with the tools and medicines she needed as a “house call” vet. She hired a small staff, asked for referrals, and City Pets was born.
In her average workday, Attas cares for the pets of everyday Manhattanites and dogs and cats belonging to lots and lots of celebrities. She counted Joan Rivers as “a dear friend.” Billy Joel was a client, as were Cher, Steve Martin, Erica Jong, Candace Bushnell, stay-at-home workers, several famous restaurant owners, and at least one sports figure.
She saved a lot of beloved pets’ lives. And she lost a few…
Spend any amount of time with a few pet owners, and you know what the Number One topic will be. Adding author Dr. Amy Attas to the conversation makes things even better.
Stories about pets: you want ’em, you got ’em inside “Pets and the City,” and each is told in a way that makes you just want more. Attas does a great job of pulling readers into the scene, whether it’s a restaurant front-of-house, a penthouse or a hoard-house, in tales that are surprising and sometimes wonderfully (but not gratuitously) gossipy. You’ll love the tales about pets and pets of the rich and famous, but you’ll also enjoy the way that Attas presents both sides of the visit: with equal tact and delight, astonishment and humor, sometimes frustration, always gratitude.
“Pets and the City” is the kind of book that pet owners will devour and want to share because it seems written just for you. It’s a book you shouldn’t wait to get your paws on.
“Pets and the City: True Tales of a Manhattan House Call Veterinarian” by Dr. Amy Attas
c.2024, G.P. Putnam
$29.00
320 pages
