Author(s): Nick Trout

FICTION

Dr. Cyrus Mills reluctantly returns home to rural Eden Falls, Vermont under dire personal circumstances to revive The Bedside Manor for Sick Animals, the failing veterinary practice of his recently deceased and long estranged father. Under the wing of his new mentor, Doc Lewis, Cyrus - who was previously a reclusive pathologist, far more comfortable with cold clinical facts than living, breathing animals (not to mention their quirky, demanding owners) - begins to learn what it takes to win the hearts of his pet patients and their owners. Cyrus has a simple plan: restore and sell his deceased father's practice as quickly as possible and then leave the hometown that haunts him with difficult memories. Then his first patient, a down-on-her-luck Golden Retriever named Frieda Fuzzypaws, wags her way through the door, and suddenly life gets complicated. With the help of a Black Labrador gifted in the art of swallowing underwear, a terrier whose days are numbered, a Persian cat determined to expose her owner's lover as a gold digger, and the allure of a feisty, gorgeous waitress from the local diner, Cyrus gets caught up in a new community and its endearing and eccentric residents, both human and animal. He grudgingly realises that he may have misjudged his father and the rift that tore them apart, and if that's the case, coming to terms with the past will be the only way he can face an uncertain future. And perhaps it's not just his patients that need healing.