Tell Me Where It Hurts Quotes

“It may be a cat, a bird, a ferret, or a guinea pig, but the chances are high that when someone close to you dies, a pet will be there to pick up the slack. Pets devour the loneliness. They give us purpose, responsibility, a reason for getting up in the morning, and a reason to look to the future. They ground us, help us escape the grief, make us laugh, and take full advantage of our weakness by exploiting our furniture, our beds, and our refrigerator. We wouldn't have it any other way. Pets are our seat belts on the emotional roller coaster of life--they can be trusted, they keep us safe, and they sure do smooth out the ride.”
― Nick Trout, Tell Me Where It Hurts: A Day of Humor, Healing, and Hope in My Life as an Animal Surgeon

“. . . mistakes are inevitable, but what is not, and what will set us apart, is our ability to learn from them”
― Nick Trout, Tell Me Where It Hurts: A Day of Humor, Healing, and Hope in My Life as an Animal Surgeon

“Pets are our seat belts on the emotional roller coaster of life--they can be trusted, they keep us safe, and they sure do smooth out the ride.”
― Nick Trout, Tell Me Where It Hurts: A Day of Humor, Healing, and Hope in My Life as an Animal Surgeon

“Please, if necessary, blame my British indoctrination or blame my affiliation to the MSPCA (the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals refuses to perform ear cropping, tail docking, debarking, or cat declawing), but I have a problem with slicing off a hefty chunk of healthy skin and associated cartilage and then submitting an animal to weeks of ridiculous taping and splinting as you strive to achieve the desirable degree of erectness.”
― Nick Trout, Tell Me Where It Hurts: A Day of Humor, Healing, and Hope in My Life as an Animal Surgeon

“And as for those high school students who tell me they would rather be a cat than an MD because they prefer to deal with animals and not to deal with people, I let them know they have it all wrong. Veterinarians get to work with animals. We get to work for people.”
― Nick Trout, Tell Me Where It Hurts: A Day of Humor, Healing, and Hope in My Life as an Animal Surgeon

“When the cure for insecurity and meaningful conversation is to slap a cell phone against your ear, hide within your iPod, or tap out a cryptic instant message, is it any wonder that we find comfort and solace in hairy, furry, and scaly companions?”
― Nick Trout, Tell Me Where It Hurts: A Day of Humor, Healing, and Hope in My Life as an Animal Surgeon

“Unpredictability is one of the many perks of the job.”
― Nick Trout, Tell Me Where It Hurts: A Day of Humor, Healing, and Hope in My Life as an Animal Surgeon

“Britain is replete with Dobermans, schnauzers, boxers, Boston terriers, and Great Danes proudly swishing and twitching long tails and full ears. And Britain is not alone, in fact; most of Europe, Labrador, Newfoundland, New Zealand, and Australia have outlawed ear cropping.”
― Nick Trout, Tell Me Where It Hurts: A Day of Humor, Healing, and Hope in My Life as an Animal Surgeon

“that I am employed in a service industry, where overt neglect and torture will not be tolerated, but where most everything else falls into an ethereal catchall that can be open to interpretation.”
― Nick Trout, Tell Me Where It Hurts: A Day of Humor, Healing, and Hope in My Life as an Animal Surgeon

“With time and introspection I think it’s better to strike a healthy balance, bracing for failure and disappointment, distilling the positives and lessons learned and the irresistible possibility of victory the next time.”
― Nick Trout, Tell Me Where It Hurts: A Day of Humor, Healing, and Hope in My Life as an Animal Surgeon

“I wish faith were all it took to make her better. I never ask myself how I cope with fear and failure and loss and pain.”
― Nick Trout, Tell Me Where It Hurts: A Day of Humor, Healing, and Hope in My Life as an Animal Surgeon

“right then I saw it, the thing she had been hiding, the thing she had feared yet probably suspected all along, that she had been dealt the exact same, awful deck, not once, but twice, with a beloved daughter and now a beloved dog, and in that instant I knew I was in serious trouble,”
― Nick Trout, Tell Me Where It Hurts: A Day of Humor, Healing, and Hope in My Life as an Animal Surgeon

“In our world of flawed, failed, doomed, and dangerous relationships, here is a chance to find true love. Here is a chance to find love without the risk.”
― Nick Trout, Tell Me Where It Hurts: A Day of Humor, Healing, and Hope in My Life as an Animal Surgeon

“all the while thinking that Belle would have been perfectly fine as a middle name if the client were called, oh, I don’t know, Jasmine Nightingale or Clarissa Rosebud, but for a man named Steven Aaron, it seemed fraught with problems.”
― Nick Trout, Tell Me Where It Hurts: A Day of Humor, Healing, and Hope in My Life as an Animal Surgeon

“and make me proud and grateful to be doing what I do.”
― Nick Trout, Tell Me Where It Hurts: A Day of Humor, Healing, and Hope in My Life as an Animal Surgeon

“owners can be forced to answer an unthinkable question: How much is my pet worth to me?”
― Nick Trout, Tell Me Where It Hurts: A Day of Humor, Healing, and Hope in My Life as an Animal Surgeon

“It was not the magic of the surgeon: it was the magic of surgery. It was not simply the dramatic nature of Norman’s recovery; it was the struggle, the fear, the danger, and the perseverance that made it possible.”
― Nick Trout, Tell Me Where It Hurts: A Day of Humor, Healing, and Hope in My Life as an Animal Surgeon

“I never get to step back and take the contented nothingness that exists between people and animals. Most of my interactions that place during emotional peaks and troughs: tearful hellos and good-byes, the sudden impact of stiches and incisions, bandages and casts, drains and catheters, trauma and cancer, three legs and not four. I miss everything in between, everything that counts, all the wonderful convivial silence, the accumulative fundamental background noise that motivates and drives these extremes.”
― Nick Trout, Tell Me Where It Hurts: A Day of Humor, Healing, and Hope in My Life as an Animal Surgeon

“Seeing her in this state reminds me that there is something improbable and desperately sad about caring for a sick pet. Perhaps it is the flagrant juxtaposition of human health-care techniques with a domesticated animal trying to flout the evolutionary rules of fight, flight, or surrender to the pain and wait for death.”
― Nick Trout, Tell Me Where It Hurts: A Day of Humor, Healing, and Hope in My Life as an Animal Surgeon

“Woody's life was leaking away but I was the one who stepped forward and pulled the plug. Was my timing right? Could he have had another day at home, another week? Could he have gone for one more turn around the park, had one last supper? We'll never know and to handle the reality of euthanasia I learned to be comfortable with the ambiguity and magnitude of when to take a life. All I know for sure is at that irredeemable moment when I drive the plunger home, I will be there for the person trading the overpowering presence of love and companionship with their pet for the cold, empty ache of loss.”
― Nick Trout, Tell Me Where It Hurts: A Day of Humor, Healing, and Hope in My Life as an Animal Surgeon

“We pour our heart and soul into the animals in our lives, insisting that they are our children, that we love them no less than if they shared our DNA, and we do this with a certainty that for all this joy, we are guaranteed to lose them, to bury them, and somehow, to face life without them once again.”
― Nick Trout, Tell Me Where It Hurts: A Day of Humor, Healing, and Hope in My Life as an Animal Surgeon

“Pets devour the loneliness. They give us purpose, responsibility, a reason for getting up in the morning, and a reason to look to the future. They ground us, help us escape the grief, make us laugh, and take full advantage of our weakness by exploiting our furniture, our beds, and our refrigerator. We wouldn’t have it any other way. Pets are our seat belts on the emotional roller coaster of life—they can be trusted, they keep us safe, and they sure do smooth out the ride.”
― Nick Trout, Tell Me Where It Hurts: A Day of Humor, Healing, and Hope in My Life as an Animal Surgeon

“pets offer a relationship guaranteed free from lies, deception, and infidelity, where silence feels comfortable, where words come easily and unforced, where demands and a need for tolerance are nominal (unless that special someone tries to claim the couch for themself or insists on sharing a bout of flatulence). Imagine a marriage, with only minimal effort on your part, guaranteed not only to be successful but to endure. No prenuptial agreement. No worries about divorce. In our world of flawed, failed, doomed, and dangerous relationships, here is a chance to find true love. Here is a chance to find love without the risk.”
― Nick Trout, Tell Me Where It Hurts: A Day of Humor, Healing, and Hope in My Life as an Animal Surgeon

“Well, two seemingly interchangeable words, symptoms and signs, provide much of the answer. A symptom is any sensation or change in bodily function that is experienced by a patient and is associated with a particular disease. By definition a symptom is communicated directly to a doctor. A sign is something that suggests the presence or existence of a fact, condition, or quality. A sign is a clinical finding we touch, hear, see, smell, and occasionally, inadvertently, taste. This distinction may not sound like much, but it is everything.”
― Nick Trout, Tell Me Where It Hurts: A Day of Humor, Healing, and Hope in My Life as an Animal Surgeon

“To smutne, aczkolwiek niezbyt zaskakujące, że w cyberprzestrzeni kwitnie negatywizm. Kiedy jakiś specyfik zawodzi, chcemy przestrzec przed nim innych. Dla ogromnej milczącej większości sukces medyczny bądź chirurgiczny stanowi jednak niewielką zachętę do tego, by usiąść przy komputerze i zdać relację z pomyślnie zakończonego leczenia. Czasem Internet sprawia wrażenie religii dla agnostyków, którzy potrzebują wsparcia w trudnych chwilach.”
― Nick Trout, Tell Me Where It Hurts: A Day of Humor, Healing, and Hope in My Life as an Animal Surgeon

“It's just part of me feels like I owe it to the animal to be strong, to be supportive in their place now that they are gone.”
― Nick Trout, Tell Me Where It Hurts: A Day of Humor, Healing, and Hope in My Life as an Animal Surgeon

“Sometimes nature can take its course and shove it. Our commitment to protecting our cat or dog is life-long and sadly, sometimes, that includes protection from discomfort and pain, even if, in the vet's opinion, this means euthanasia.”
― Nick Trout, Tell Me Where It Hurts: A Day of Humor, Healing, and Hope in My Life as an Animal Surgeon