Viva el vet! - David Grant

It's 1973 and the three-day week turns everyday life at the RSPCA Animal Hospital at Harmsworth upside down. When a Colombian friend suggests a spell in South America might prove instructive, David jumps at the chance. However, the lessons he learns in Medellin, Colombia's second city, are not those he expects: how to deal with the mafia, avert being mugged and avoid guerilla raids. But perhaps the most important lesson for a young vet having to pay his own way is how to make himself indispensible to the rich clients whose pets lead better lives than the starving street children of Medellin. When David saves the life of a local drugs baron's dog shot as the result of gang warfare, his future seems secure, but his refusal to carry out unnecessary treatment on pampered pooches - ear cropping and tail docking - leads to a cash crisis. Meanwhile, back at the practice, David faces a stallion lacking in libido, the senior partner's wife with an unhealthy interest in a dangerous drug dealer, and a Boxer with nothing wrong with him, but a lonely owner who feeds him caviar for breakfast!