The Last Chance Dog: And Other True Stories of Holistic Animal Healing

by Donna Kelleher

Book Overview

Yogi, a scrappy Jack Russell terrier, has a pain in the neck and hasn't walked for weeks.
Nikita is a fifteen-year-old seal point Himalayan cat who has lost all interest in eating.
And then there's Angel, a curious cockatoo whose bacterial infections defy every antibiotic known to science.
Meet just a few of the remarkable, real-life characters in The Last Chance Dog, a collection of heartwarming, entertaining, and instructive...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0743223020
• ISBN13: 9780743223027
• Release Date: February 2004
• Publisher: Scribner Book Company
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.5" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

For ALL animals!

If you are an animal lover, and are interested in miraculous stories of animal healing with alternative medicine -- YOU MUST OWN THIS BOOK! This is the best book on alternative healing I have seen. It is written in story form, very enjoyable to read and will have you crying with joy through the entire book at all of the animals' lives who were saved because this vet thought outside the box, and never gave up on an animal. I have taken this book to my holistic vet and we are helping a very sick cat of ours with the information we gleaned from it. He is getting better and would probably have had to be put to sleep if not for my having read this book. Thank you, Dr. Kelleher for your wisdom and compassion!

Engagingly narrated in a down-to-earth fashion

Written and compiled by holistic veterinarian Donna Kelleher, The Last Chance Dog And Other True Stories Of Holistic Animal Healing is a heartwarming anthology of stories about treating animals ranging from dogs and cats, to horses, turtles, birds, and more, through the application of alternative medicine. Engagingly narrated in a down-to-earth fashion, The Last Chance Dog is an engaging, entertaining, informative, and very highly recommended read for animal lovers everywhere.

One of the Best Books I've Read

I read a LOT of animal-related books, and this is one of the very best. It is so well-written and engaging, that you can hardly put it down (although I had to often, just to process all the new information that Dr. Kelleher gave in each and every chapter). I have learned so much about holistic vet care from this book and really appreciate her knowledge and the way she shares it with us. Each chapter gives a beautiful, moving story about a particular animal and the health problems he or she has been going through, as well as the fears and frustrations that the animals' humans are experiencing. Probably most of us who have ever lived with animals have gone through those most difficult times, and I especially appreciated the love expressed by both Dr. Kelleher and the animals' caretakers in each instance. I am now determined to find a holistic vet for my cats and am excited about starting them on the homemade cat diet that Dr. Kelleher gives us in the book (and, yes, there's a dog one too!). This is a must-have book for everyone who lives with an animal, and the stories are wonderful to read for all animal lovers.

Last Chance Dog-Bird-Cat-Horse-Lizard-Snake-Tortoise?

Okay, once I got past the 50's-textbook-cover design (which does an inadequate job of expressing the vitality of the book and its author), I discovered a dynamic, articulate animal advocate; a very knowledgeable veterinarian (both conventional and holistic, explaining acupuncture and the Chinese medicinal theory behind it, chiropractic, herbal & homeopathic solutions, and other alternative approaches); and a delightful storyteller. Her enthusiasm and personality fairly jump off the pages; her stories are well written and heartwarming/heartbreaking (18 chapters, 18 bouts of tears), and her advice is absolutely essential. The only challenge is keeping track of it all - I have tattered sticky-note bookmarks spewing from the book edges. She uses an interesting and effective structural rhythm: case stories followed by explorations of the medical issues and alternative medicine solutions each story brings up.Dr. Kelleher is impassioned and opinionated (without ever judging or making me feel inadequate because, for example, I can't get my cats to eat home-cooked food), compassionate (her love of animals is glaringly apparent), brutally honest (revealing her heartbreaking frustration and despair at some cases), thoughtful and interesting (her embrace of holistic medicine is both well-reasoned while also quite intuitive as she tells the tale of her medical-intellectual-emotional-spiritual journey), and, at times, funny, like when she crawls around in a dirty crawlspace looking for her escaped tortoise muttering, "I am the worst tortoise mom in the whole world." By this point in the book, you can see her doing this and chuckling while a tear escapes the corner of your eye.A great read: entertaining, heartwarming, informative, and ultimately hopeful. Any person owned by a pet will love (and benefit from) this book, even more so if your animal companion has medical challenges.

Murphy Brown

I just got my book yesterday afternoon and couldn't put it down. It is eloquently written with warmth and love towards our very best friends. I highly recommend this to anyone who truly wants to explore the horizons of alternative medicine to a successful healing of your pet. Includes recipes for Natural Foods and simple safe remedies for common conditions your pet may suffer. A complete and caring look into both the physical and psychological needs of both pet and human. Definitely come away with a wonderful feeling that someone truly understands the beauty of a life with pets, never giving up on them and they never give up on us.