Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
An esteemed veterinary oncologist battles her own cancer diagnosis while fighting to save her four-legged patients diagnosed with the same disease in this moving and uplifting memoir.
For more than a dozen years, esteemed veterinary oncologist Dr. Renee Alsarraf treated cancer in canine patients. Then, in her mid-forties, she received a cancer diagnosis of her own. Suddenly, the disease she had been fighting her entire career threatened her own life.
But Renee wasn't alone--she had her dogs to show her the way. In this stunningly beautiful memoir, Renee shows us why canines are the perfect guides to help us navigate traumatic and difficult experiences. Dogs, she reveals, are unbelievably hopeful, wonderfully stoic, and unwaveringly cheerful even under treatment that would make most of us humans nauseous, angry, and sad. These wonderful animals are terrific reminders of the power of the human spirit, and what is available within ourselves.
Each chapter of Sit, Stay, Heal opens with the story of a remarkable dog. We meet Cosmo, the Labrador, diagnosed with cancer just before his tenth family vacation to the beach; Daisy the King Charles, an emotional support dog diagnosed during a difficult time for her owners; Bogart the bloodhound, a police dog who wasn't ready to retire from the force; and Dr. Renee's own Boston Terrier, Newton, whose lymph nodes begin to expand at only five years old.
Full of life lessons and healing metaphors, perfect dogs and their imperfect humans, Sit, Stay, Heal is a captivating story of illness and survival, and a moving celebration of all that dogs have to teach us about life and how to live.
Synopsis
"Written with grace and emotional honesty, Sit, Stay, Heal will live with you long after the last page."-- John Grogan, bestselling author of Marley & Me
For more than two decades, esteemed veterinary oncologist Dr. Renee Alsarraf treated cancer in her beloved canine patients. Then, at age fifty-one, she was diagnosed with cancer herself.
Sit, Stay, Heal: What Dogs Can Teach Us About Living Well is Dr. Renee's unforgettable testament to the extraordinary healing nature of dogs. Every day in her veterinary practice, she bears witness to the undeniable bond between pets and their people. However, while we are busy teaching them to "sit" and "stay," they have their own, more profound, lessons to impart. In Sit, Stay, Heal, we meet Cosmo, the golden retriever who arrives at Renee's office just before his fourteenth family vacation to the beach; Daisy, the cocker spaniel, an emotional support dog for a special needs child; and Franny, the bloodhound, a police dog who wasn't ready to retire from the force. Then there's Dr. Renee's own dog Newtie, who falls ill when she needs him most.
Our dogs are wise in ways humans are not. For Dr. Renee, it was her patients--those furry, four-legged, slobbering animals--who seemed to uniquely understand her difficult journey and who showed her the true power of positivity and unconditional love. Full of life lessons and healing metaphors, perfect dogs and their imperfect humans, Sit, Stay, Heal is a captivating, heartwarming story for dog lovers far and wide.