Noelnadesan's Blog

A few weeks ago, I received a call from Noel, and he asked if I could speak about one of his books “Veterinary Vignettes”.

 I said “Yes”, without thinking, too much about it .

However, thank you Noel for inviting me to speak today. I am delighted to be here and to be given this opportunity to speak to all off you about Noel’s book titled “Veterinary Vignettes”

Dr Noel Nadeson, a very experienced Veterinary surgeon, worked as a veterinarian overseas and in Australia for several decades.  I have known Noel for more than 10 years. I worked with him for a few years, and he was my boss. Some of these stories I have heard before they were) published in this book,

All of us have memories, experiences, or lessons learnt from our daily activities or interactions.

But only a few individuals have the passion, desire and talents to share these stories with others, actually converting them to a paper or a publication.

Noel is one of them. Thank you, Noel, for your efforts to share these stories with all of us and also for presenting them to the future generations.

I am not an expert in reviewing books. Therefore, I am not going to give you a detailed review of this book with my poor literature skills. It is unfair to do so.

I enjoyed reading this book, and that is more or less similar to a child tasting a food. A child’s opinion is genuine, but he or she only considers the taste and palatability,  but not the nutritional value.

The same with me. I assess a book according to two criteria.

1. If I can read the book effortlessly
2. After reading the book if I can visualize the story in my head .

I’m very happy to say that I can tick both my criteria as “Yes” for Noel’s book – Veterinary Vignette

When I was reading the book, I could see how Noel used the language beautifully, in a simple manner, yet detailing the incident or the experience without compromising the core value of the stories.

Some of the stories are related to complex diseases or conditions of pets, but Noel has presented them using simple language so that everybody can understand.

 Being a veterinarian, we  have to deal with an animal who does not have a say for himself , or herself and a pet owner who can be very realistic , very emotional or selfish and arrogant .

So, these interactions can make us happy, sad, angry or even mentally depressed.

Also, the stories in this book – Veterinary Vignettes represents different geographic, socio economic or cultural origins.

The name of this book – “Veterinary Vignettes”- someone can think the book consists of funny stories about suburban cats, dogs and owners , but  these stories go deeper than that.

There are some hilarious stories, and I think that Noel’s favorite one is the first story of the book.

Some memories in this book like a lady giving up smoking for her pet’s health, and Rope in a dog , shows us how important a pet can be in someone’s life.

On the other hand, stories about  a Peacock in a temple , A Lawnmower sheep,   and  an inbred dog reflect the suffering  of animals due to selfish human behavior.

In conclusion, I think this book Veterinary Vignettes is a great effort from Noel to express the inner workings of a veterinarian’s life with  reflection  on the behavior of pets and their owners.

It is a great book. Well done Noel and Congratulations. I hope you will continue to write and share your experiences with us in the future.