GOING WILD: Adventures of a Zoo Vet

Further engaging out-of-the-way tales from the author of Zoo Vet (1977) and Is There a Doctor in the Zoo? (1978). Whatever the circumstance, Taylor is nothing if not devoted. Capturing zebras in Africa, he takes time to remove a blind baby zebra's cataracts; for an Israeli zoo, he conjures up an acceptable Passover animal diet; on home ground, he joins the hunt for a vicious Puma--which turns out to be a malnourished Great Dane. As Curator of the Flamingo Park Zoo in England (for one-and-a-half years), he's forced to do such silly things as propping up a very dead octopus for display to a very demanding crowd of paying visitors. But he also finds satisfaction in being able to successfully place a bionic baboon (a University lab ""guinea pig"") with a colony of zoo baboons. A visit to a German zoo one pitch black night brings Taylor face to face with a very hungry, very angry tiger; and he leaves a little bit of himself behind. But there's more to this than just shenanigans, for Taylor is constantly challenged to discover treatments for exotic animals. Several attempts to perform surgery on ailing giraffes meet with failure for lack of experience anesthetizing them; but Taylor's persistence leads to a successful operation--and an appropriately cheery end to the book. Warm and lively, and a lot of fun.