Noel Fitzpatrick Becoming the Supervet Listening to the animals

In my work as a veterinary surgeon, I try to get people to listen to the animals - and listen to each other. 

I believe if everyone tried to shine a little light, then the world might be a better place - for us, and for the animals.

Growing up on the family farm in Ballyfin, Ireland, Noel's childhood was spent tending to the cattle and sheep, the hay and silage, the tractors and land, his beloved sheep dog pirate by his side. It was this bond with pirate, and a fateful night spent desperately trying to save two newborn lambs, that inspired Noel to enter the world of veterinary science. 

Noel recounts this often surprising journey that sees him leaving behind a farm animal practice in rural Ireland to set up Fitzpatrick Referrals in Surrey, one of the most advanced small animal specialist centres in the world.

We meet the animals that paved the way, from calving cows and corralling bullocks to talkative parrots and bionic cats and dogs and of course his beloved Keira, the scruffy Border Terrer who has been by Noel's side as he's dealt with the unbelievable highs and crushing lows of his extraordinary career.

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It always seems to take me longer to read a memoir or autobiography/biography than fiction. I don't know the reason for this it just seems to be the way.  It usually coincides with the fact that I am very busy in the day job and exhausted by the time I go to bed which means I only get to read a couple of pages before I realise that I have read the same paragraph three times and therefore its time for lights out.  It may well be due to the fact that when I read a fiction novel the chapters are shorter than within a memoir.

For the past few weeks I have been snuggling up at night with the lovely Noel Fitzpatrick. For years I have been watching this lovely man with his Irish brogue on our screens treating all creatures great & small. In his memoir Noel Fitzpatrick describes life growing up on the farm with his siblings and his daddy and his beloved mammy Rita.   It was on a cold night that he went out to assist a ewe he found in a ditch who was in active labour. Fortunately he managed to save the ewe but sadly he could not save the lambs.  It was this defining moment in his life that he decided that he wanted to become a vet.  He was not the most academic and struggled throughout his primary school years both academically whilst also suffering at the hands of the school  bullies. He also realised that in order to achieve his dream he would have to study hard.  From this moment on he had a very strict routine of waking early to help his daddy with the farm, spend time studying and  all before school and whilst his friends were out enjoying themselves after school, Noel was back home hitting the books with no time for romance.   Noel Fitzpatrick has talked about being bullied at school within his TV series and has even helped some of the children and young people that have come to his practice. He talks more extensively about his own experiences of bullying and shares the stories of those who have come to his practice in telling the stories they have told him. Most will tell him that the dog or cat that he is about to carryout surgery on is their best friend and the only one  that understands them.  Noel Fitzpatrick knows this story first hand in the relationship he describes between himself and his beloved dog Pirate.

Now my name has appeared in an Amanda Prowse novel as a love interest of Theo. It has been used by Green Rabbit Designs for one of her lovely Christmas Bunnies back in 2014 and now it has even featured in Noel Fitzpatrick's memoir.  Now wouldn't it be lovely if I had been the love his life the one that got away, the one his mammy says he should of married. Sadly not,  this chapter is about Mitzi the white German shepherd but thought it was very amusing that my name should appear yet again.

Whether you are a fan of Noel Fitzpatrick or not in reading his memoir it will give you a better understanding of the man, his vision and how he has built up Noel Fitzpatrick referrals literally from the ground up.

Mx