Andrez, thanks for the sympathy and good wishes; and maybe instead of "what a shame" we should think of this as an inclusive thread, that is, inclusive within the policy change about BS/below-line threads at Mudcat. Only members can post on threads below the line; all members are welcome to post on this one, including the group of members whose clusters of posts bring to mind a short story by James Herriot.

Yes, you know where this is going, because you remember that this author (a pen name, as some readers know) was a veterinarian, God be good to him. Or is that, Dog be good to him? Anyway, I first saw this short story in the collection of James Herriott stories about dogs, "James Herriot's Dog Stories."

"A Triumph of Surgery" is the story in which an eccentric, wealthy widow must be parted from her boon companion, a Pekingese. They have to be separated because she is slowly killing the dog by overfeeding him. The only thing for it, is to bring the Pekingese to the veterinary surgery for fourteen days and keep the widow at her home away from the dog. The story title comes from the widow's exclamation when, two weeks later, she is reunited with her thoroughly healthy dog.

There was no surgery, of course. Nor is food forcibly withheld from the Pekingese. He is free to help himself to the food given, at their feeding time, to the other dogs. But at first he is so out of it that he cannot even move, so the vet keeps him well hydrated, giving him plenty of water; since the dog is listless, the other dogs (residents, some of them) give him one sniffing over and leave him in peace.

When the Pekingese actually feels well enough to take an interest in solid food -- this takes a few days and nights on liquids -- then the vet checks him over, making sure the dog is healthy enough in every other respect, and lets him out into the fenced areas of the converted property where the vets have their surgery, and where the other dogs get fresh air and exercise. A week or so of that is all it takes to bring the dog back to life.

"A mass of dogs, hurtling round and round the lawn..."
"....he began to whimper when he heard the dogs in the yard. When I opened the door, [he] trotted out and was immediately engulfed by Joe the Greyhound and his friends. After rolling him over and thoroughly inspecting him, the dogs moved off down the garden. [He] followed them....
"From then on, his progress was rapid. He had no medicinal treatment of any kind, but all day he ran about with the dogs, joining in their friendly scrimmages. He discovered the joys of being bowled over, trampled on, and squashed every few minutes. He became an accepted member of the gang, an unlikely, silky little object among the shaggy crew, fighting like a tiger for his share at meal times, and hunting rats in the old hen house at night. He had never had such a time in his life."

pp. 20 - 22, copyrights in the 1970s. New York, St. Martin's Paperbacks (the anthology)